The phrase “style money can’t buy” is often used in reference to an established sense of what’s in combined with the confidence to start new trends. But for Sweden’s ShareWear, the phrase takes on a more literal meaning. Instead of contributing to the millions of textiles thrown away each year, ShareWear calls for consumers to give their “ex-clothes the chance to fall in love with someone new.”
ShareWear is part of Sweden’s “Democreativity” initiative, which aims to explore the potential of creativity by providing a platform for the public to share new ideas and different perspectives. The ShareWear initiative hopes to inspire a sustainable way to be fashionable.
“It’s a ready-to-share collection with Swedish fashion pieces that you can borrow - but only if you share it forward,” reads the initiative’s web page.
To kick off the campaign, ShareWear put a number of Sweden’s most prominent fashion brands on offer, such as Filippa K, Hope, House of Dagmar, NIKOLAJ d'ETOILES, Uniforms for the Dedicated, Weekday and Whyred. The initiative further encouraged the public to put their own items up for grabs.
The common collection of garments cannot be purchased with money. The platform makes clothing shareable and available to borrow through social media. To borrow an item a consumer would need to be the first to tag themselves in the Instagram photo of the item posted by the current user. Once borrowed, the new user shares the item forward by posting a picture under the #sharewear hashtag. A user keeps the item for up to one week before it should be forwarded to the next user.
“The aim of ShareWear is to raise awareness around the fact people throw away their old clothes even though it could be recycled, reused or repurposed since this is something that has a negative impact on the environment,” reads the site. “By encouraging people to spread photos of the ShareWear collection on Instagram, we hope more people will notice and support the ShareWear initiative.”
The initiative does not provide a shipping service so all garments need to be retrieved from their current user by arranging a meetup or personal courier service. A catalogue of items and when they will be available can also be found on ShareWear’s website.
