Creative Clothes Recycling Event Comes to NZ

Press Release:
Swap-O-Rama-Rama

Creative Clothes Recycling Event Comes to NZ

For Immediate Release: 30 November 2009

The first New Zealand Swap-O-Rama-Rama creative clothes recycling event comes to Lyttelton on February 20 as part of the Lyttelton Summer Festival.

This international event was started in New York as a way to save old clothes from the landfill with creativity and community spirit. Swap-O-Rama-Rama is more than a clothing swap. It is a six-hour event where participants have an opportunity to alter, modify or embellish their swap finds.

A donation and a bag of clothes are required for entry. The clothes are then sorted into big piles and participants dive in. Sewing and screen printing stations as well as DIY workshops help “swappers” to modify and embellish their finds. A catwalk is available for those keen to strut their results. Food, coffee, roving entertainment will make Swap-O-Rama-Rama a full day event.

Swap-O-Rama-Rama was developed by New York artist Wendy Tremayne in 2004. It grew from a private, home event to a large-scale public event and then spread across the globe – from Jerusalem to Istanbul to Perth.

When Lyttelton resident Kris Herbert heard about Swap-O-Rama-Rama, she thought it would be a great event for her community.

“I put the idea out to Project Lyttelton and they came back straight away with an enthusiastic invitation to add Swap-O-Rama-Rama to the Summer Festival agenda,” Herbert says. “I love the creative edge that this event has. I hope people will leave with an armful of clothes and a year’s worth of inspiration.

“The world is awash with chucked-out, Chinese-made clothes and it just takes a bit of sideways thinking to break out of that cycle. I hope people will get a taste for the satisfaction of recycling and doing-it-yourself.”

The Lyttelton Swap-O-Rama-Rama is a fundraiser for Project Lyttelton, a grass-roots community organisation which strives to build a sustainable, connected community in the Lyttelton Harbour Basin. Project Lyttelton’s initiatives include the Community Gardens, Timebank and Farmer’s Market. The group also puts on two major festivals each year.

“I think Swap-O-Rama-Rama will become a regular favourite on the Lyttelton Festival calendar,” Herbert says.

Links:
NZ Website: http://www.swaporamarama.webnode.com
International website: http://www.swaporamarama.org/
Project Lyttelton website: http://www.lyttelton.net.nz

ENDS

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