Finding fashion for free

Aug 21 2008 by Emma Johnson

Now Princess Anne has put the Royal seal of approval on recycling, Emma Johnson goes in search of a designer Swap Party

IT’S not often a wedding guest manages to upstage the bride with her outfit. But Princess Anne managed to do just that in her Maureen Baker wrap dress, at the recent Royal wedding of Lady Rose.

But it wasn’t so much the style of the dress causing a stir.

No, the real reason all eyes were on Princess Anne was the fact she first aired the outfit at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, way back in 1985.

The yellow and white floral print dress was even topped off with the same matching John Boyd hat it had been almost three decades ago.

Far from being a fashion faux pas, in these credit crunched times, the decision to dig out the dress has led to the Princess Royal’s emergence as an unlikely style leader.

Because, after years of us happily forking out in excess of a month’s pay on the latest "It bag", and working overtime to afford a new pair of designer shoes, now when it comes to revamping your wardrobe the keywords are re-use and recycle.

"I love that Princess Anne has worn this look again," says celebrity fashion stylist Rachel Fanconi.

"The print and colour are very on-trend for this season, but you sense that this is not her prime motivation for the look.

"The most fashionable thing about it is the expression of the new austerity."

I had my own renaissance moment recently when my mother found a black and white forties style dress in her loft which I had bought and loved some 15 years ago, but long since forgotten about.

Thanks to a nice dry atmosphere, an airtight suitcase and my mother’s pressing skills, the dress has once more become a staple of my summer wardrobe.

Verification that it was still fashionable came when I spotted a near- exact replica of my teenage number in Oasis’s spring/summer 08 collection.

And, if your own closet is not hiding a forgotten but still fabulous frock, there is always the chance that someone else’s is.

Which is why so many followers of fashion, especially those who revel in vintage finds, are now taking to clothing swap parties to re- vamp their look, left. TRAID’s (Textile Recycling for Aid and Internat- ional Development ) Visa Swap party figures speak for themselves.

The annual event, held in London last month and fronted by sometime shopaholic actress Lindsay Lohan, attracted almost 800 keen visitors ready to root through the thousands of items of clothing and accessories.

"With almost 13,000 items brought into the Visa Swap, it was great to see people updating their wardrobes in an ethical way through swapping," Visa’s Simon Kleine says.

Organised clothes swap events are gaining momentum all over the country, and there are even websites where you can barter for clothes that you covet in exchange for your cast-offs, lsuch as www.whatsmineisyours.com and www.bigwardrobe.com

But DIY informal swapping parties are also proving popular.