Clothing & Fabric Swap
A monthly clothing exchange for all genders, all bodies, and all ages. This month we're partnering with the Textile Museum of Canada!
Date and time
Location
Textile Museum of Canada
55 Centre Avenue Toronto, ON M5G 2H5 CanadaRefund Policy
About this event
The Good Swap is a monthly clothing exchange for all genders, all bodies, and all ages. Love clothes and the planet? Then you'll love this event...
This month we're partnering with the Textile Museum of Canada! We'll be swapping from 12:30-2:30pm on the mezzanine level of the Museum. Be sure to stick around from for the TMC's mending station program from 1-4pm.
Entry to the swap is free with admission to the Museum and/or a TCM membership. Not a member, don't want to visit the Museum, and just want to swap? That's cool - you simply can register on Eventbrite and donate!
Located in downtown Toronto, the Textile Museum of Canada is the only museum in Canada dedicated to exploring the human experience through textiles. Visit the Museum's two new exhibitions: Beyond the Vanishing Maya: Voices of a Land in Resistance and Eye of the Earth: Samuel Nnorom. Admission tickets for current exhibitions can be purchased online, or at the reception desk (ground floor).
Shop sustainable, affordable, and community-minded by purchasing your making supplies from our Textile Reuse Program! Since 2021, the Museum's Reuse Program has diverted over 14000lbs of textile waste from landfill. Visit us on the 2nd floor Learning Hub to find fabric, yarn, notions, and patterns for your next project!
Eye of the Earth Mending Station
Eye of the Earth includes a dedicated Mending Station, an integral feature of the exhibition that invites visitors to reflect on the environmental and human costs of the global textile trade. Highlighting the impact of discarded textiles exported from Europe and North America to Nigeria and other African countries, the station offers a hands-on opportunity to disrupt the lifecycle of textile waste through mending. Visitors are encouraged to bring garments in need of repair, where menders will use techniques like visible mending with African wax print fabric, celebrating the beauty of repair while preserving the stories embedded in each garment. The station is activated every Saturday by artists and volunteer menders from 1-4pm for the duration of the exhibition.The station also serves as a space for reflection, asking critical questions: What happens when we don’t repair? Whose lives and environments are impacted by discarded textiles? By participating, visitors join a collective effort to confront the throwaway culture and imagine more sustainable futures.
Net proceeds for this event will be donated to the Textile Museum of Canada.
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HOW IT WORKS
1. Drop
Stop at the welcome area with up to 10 items or 2 regular sized grocery bags of preloved clothing, footwear, jewelry, and accessories OR fabric in good condition (a.k.a laundered and folded, no rips, stains, used undies or socks).
2. Swap
Find some thing(s) you love and try it/them on in the event space or washrooms.
3. Keep
Take what you want home with you. We ask that you to limit the amount you take home to a similar amount to what you brought. Remember: it's not about how much you get, it's about how much you'll wear it!
4. Share
Tag @the.good.swap to share your finds with the world. Sign up for our mailing list to find out when the next swap is!
Check out our FAQ page!
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OUR MISSION
Eliminate textile waste in Toronto and champion ethical and sustainable fashion practices globally by encouraging participation in the conscious fashion movement through swap events, advocacy, and education.
Our mission differs from service organizations such as clothing banks which provide access to free or low-cost clothing for those in need of it. This list of clothing banks in Toronto may be useful if you are looking for these services.
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WHY SWAP?
By swapping instead of shopping (or dumping your clothes at a thrift store), you’re participating in the circular economy, keeping clothing out of landfills, saving money, updating your wardrobe, avoiding unethical fast fashion and resource depletion, and sharing with a community of likeminded people… and sharing feels good.
All the sweet haul dopamine, none of the ethical dilemma!
Learn more about the fashion industry and how to care for clothing you truly no longer need on our Resources page.
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COMMUNITY GUIDELINES
- Be nice to each other. Respect physical boundaries.
- Ten items or less. Please be respectful of our ten item limit!
- Check your items: no holes, no stains, missing parts, clean, and ready to be loved by someone new.
- Wash your items in scent-free soap and fold them before attending.
- Respect physical boundaries.
- Don’t hoard. Try things on as you go so others can check them out if you decide not to keep them.
- Don’t hover. Please keep the drop-off table clear and let volunteers place the items before looking through them.
- Don’t use the swap as a dumping ground. The end-of-life care of your textiles is your responsibility. You bought it, you bury it.*
- Don’t take to sell. Please take items that you or someone you personally know will wear.
- Don’t do stuff that makes us have to write any more community guidelines.
*Don't actually bury it. 85% of textile waste ends up in landfills each year.
Fine print: *We don’t take responsibility for garments donated and swapped and accept no liability for any claim or loss resulting from any transaction taking place at the event.*
Swap at your own risk: The swap is a high traffic event, and the opportunity for germs and pests to spread is elevated. We ask that swappers always wash their clothing in scent-free soap before a swap and only attend if they are in good health, but please be advised that we cannot guarantee the conditions of items at - or outcomes of - the swap. Take precautions: wear a face mask, use hand sanitizer, and wash your items when you get home!
Check out our FAQ page for more info.
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VENUE & ACCESSIBILITY
The Textile Museum of Canada is fully accessible for mobility devices via an elevator. Learn more about the TMC's accessibility.
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LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TTGS takes place on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. Tkaronto (Toronto) is covered by Treaty 13 signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Williams Treaties signed with multiple Mississaugas and Chippewa bands.
We are grateful to make use of this space and hope to learn from, and integrate, Indigenous knowledge and values into these events.
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MORE QUESTIONS?
Check out our FAQ page!
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Frequently asked questions
Apparel! Ask yourself, “Would someone else want to wear this?”. If it’s clean and in good condition, the answer is probably yes! Just don’t bring items that are worn out, stained, or worse-for-wear. If you need help with the end-of-life of your apparel, please review our Resources page!
Oh gosh, please don't do that. People have lovingly added their items into the sharing economy and you'd be taking it right out. Let's keep the swap spirit alive!
If you can sell your own stuff, do it! Make that cash! BUT instead of dumping the gently used items you didn't sell at a thrift store bring them to the swap! You can read our Resources page to find out what actually happens to the clothing you donate to thrift stores (hint: it’s not great)!
Will someone else definitely want it? Then, yes, definitely! Will someone else POSSIBLY want it? Then no, probably not. Will no one else ever want it? Then, nope!
Honestly? We straight up do.not.know. That’s the magic of a swap - it’s all determined by the swappers! Invite friends of all shapes, sizes, gender expressions, and identities and we're sure to have an inclusive swap.
Hah. Nope, if you just want to donate your items that’s cool! If you can’t drop them off at the swap, let us know and we’ll can coordinate an early drop off time for you. Shoot an email to hello@goodswap.ca or DM us at @t.o.thegoodswap!
We want your clothes to go to a loving home with someone who really wants them, instead of a landfill. If items aren’t swapped or reclaimed, they will be kept for another swap or donated responsibly.