Edinburgh's First Pop-Up Fashion "SWAP" Shop!

Edinburgh, UK, April 21, 2015 (Newswire.com) - The Pop-Up shops' focus on buying, selling, and trading fashionable and affordable clothing is a concept that sets the store apart from other second hand re-salers.  Exchanging your fashion offers a refreshing new way to sustainably source new additions to your tired wardrobe!  It's a great opportunity to reverse addictive consumption habits, instead encouraging "swoppers" to come home with lots of “new to you” clothes that, in their second-hand nature, allow all of one's shopping finds guilt-free. 

Since Misty Mountain Swop hand selects only the best, the store feels more like a boutique than a musty junk shop.  At the buy counter, they select the most desirable items to be resold in the store. This guarantees that shoppers will arrive to always find an ever changing inventory of current trends, basics, vintage, and designer labels.  

This fashion exchange concept is proud to be environmentally friendly.   It's a great way to clear out the wardrobe of any items you have tired of and no longer wear, and fill up on new season trends without breaking the bank or the carbon budget!  “That's a great feeling, because I know that whenever I buy new now, I am burdened with the knowledge of all the social and environmental baggage that any one piece of new clothes comes with. We can try to ignore all of the unethical footprint that our purchases sometimes are hiding, behind that pretty facade...but as the horror stories garner more and more coverage in the news, it becomes difficult to plead ignorance anymore” says Alyssa, the 29 year old Canadian owner and creator of Misty Mountain Swop, now living in Edinburgh.

"I am inspired by companies that make the environment their priority, and I've learned a lot from ethical industry-leaders such as Patagonia, who actively promote how we should all aspire to build responsible companies if we plan on going down the business route.  CEO Rose Marcario wants us all to ask ourselves 'How can we regenerate and restore as opposed to just use up?'  That's why I love the concept for Misty Mountain Swop, which is based on the U.S. Clothing exchanges that I used to shop at all the time. They give us another shopping alternative, so that we don't always have to default straight to the high street when we need something quick and easy."

The concept of clothing exchanges performing “buy-sell-trades” in-store, and on-the-spot, is common in America and slowly spreading into other parts of the world. Companies like Buffalo Exchange and Plato's Closet across America, Beacon's Closet in NY, and SWOP emerging in Australia, have enjoyed long-term growing success over the years, proving that there is a place in the world and a definite desire for stores of this kind.

"When I moved to Edinburgh, I really felt the city was missing out on having a store like this.  I know people care about the environment here, they just need more options to make shopping ethically feel more like fun than a chore!" 

Alyssa started in vintage in 2009 when she opened a vintage shop in NY.  Since then, she realised that second hand fashion is piling up by the plenty with shoppers' insatiable buying habits causing wasted fashion to build up each year at an increasingly fast rate.  "These items are not necessarily undesirable, the current owner just grew tired of it at some point, and wanted something that felt more fresh to in wardrobe.  So there is so much second hand out there that can be beautiful for new owners, especially when it's hand-picked with care, and chosen for it's charm, story, style and timelessness.  It's kind of the vintage of our future, so that's exciting too...to think how many times it can be passed on from generation to generation, enjoying a full and fruitful life cycle!"

“My vision for the future of our planet, is that it will become the 'norm' to not just judge someones style based on how it looks, but also on the story that goes much deeper behind where it came from, and the footprint it has left behind” says Alyssa of Misty Mountain Swop.  “Giorgio Armani once made the inspiring observation that 'The best way to make a contribution in fashion is to promote the idea that a fundamental interest in preserving the environment is itself fashionable.'  I think that's spot on!  I want to live my life by this ethos, and I hope in the future this is just the general standard for everyone when they go shopping for those new additions to their wardrobe.”

There needs to be an entire re-working of the fashion retail industry, especially with the high streets' talent for inspiring constant desire and lust in it's consumers for more and more of whatever the latest trend may be.  Unfortunately, the incredibly fast-paced fashion blogging culture doesn't really help this situation, in it's skill to deliver to-the-moment scoop (daily) of the changing fashion trends.  That's why certain bloggers are turning their focus onto sustainable-only brands – and refuse to feature anything else.  One inspiring example is international model turned ethical fashion advocate Nerida Lennon, who states on her refreshing, ethically-focused website: “The clothing I was modeling to the eye and touch was incredibly beautiful, but I learnt there was a story behind the fashion industry that is not as beautiful; a story about abusing human rights and degrading our natural environment.” ​

Nerida also supports the idea of trying new business models and introducing new ways of acquiring our fashion, including swapping and exchanging clothes with one another. She states “In a future where natural resources will become increasingly scarce and costly, using platforms to share and exchange clothes will become increasingly popular...Fast-fashion isn’t going away anytime soon but perhaps ‘fast-use’ can be more sustainable if we re-imagine the business model." (Guardian, 2015)

With regards to the public taking to this new idea, Alyssa of Misty Mountain Swop says "The last pop-up we did in March got an amazing response – people found the idea very refreshing. I hope it grows so that our stock can be plentiful enough to satiate the fashion desires for people like me, who love clothes!  I am really excited to do our Pop-Up in May, and watch the idea grow!"
 

Misty Mountain Swop” is a place for recycling your fashion and accessories. May 4th is the launch date of their second Pop-Up “SWOP” shop hosted @ Gayfield Creative Spaces (11 Gayfield Sq just off Leith Walk). They will be Buying/Swopping all your Wearable/Clean/Undamaged Vintage & On Trend Modern Wears.

Date/Time
Date(s) - Mon 04 May 2015 - Sun 10 May 2015
Mon - Sun 10:00 am - 6:30 pm, Thursday open 10am - 8pm