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32 The business
Stéphanie, by her own admission, has way too many clothes.
“It’s such a shame to throw them away if I’ve only worn them
once or twice. It’s a ridiculous waste of money.” Swishing
was born in London out of a love of retail shopping combined
with a desire to reduce consumption. Participants
bring old clothes to swap with each other. Stéphanie believes
its popularity has a lot to do with our addiction to “disposable
clothes”. “Fashion is constantly changing,” she says.
“People want to wear something new every single day, and
only wear it a couple of times. We get involved in swishing to
Delphine Thizy
“Consumer activist”, agricovert group-buying collective, brussels
Agricovert is one of a growing number of Belgian cooperatives
that links consumers with local farmers. It’s based on
the principal of collective buying power.“The idea is to get
rid of the intermediaries, and to remind people that there
is a human being behind the food you eat,” says Delphine,
who initiated an Agricovert group in The Hub in Brussels.
The platform gives the consumer a say in what’s produced
and how the cooperative is run. “Agricovert is trying to get
the customer to be more than just a customer – consumer
Stéphanie Verloove (pictured on the left)
Participant, Swishing.be, Ghent
find some original clothes, but it’s also to do with the crisis.
We don’t want to buy expensive pieces we’ll only wear once
or twice.” The organisers of swishing.be emphasise the sustainability
and ethical aspect of their events, but Stéphanie’s
not convinced. “Some do it for ethical reasons, but I’m not
sure everybody thinks like that. For me, it’s more about
finding something original.” She sees no threat to traditional
clothes retailers, as some trend watchers have prophesised.
“I’m not sure every woman has the time or the patience to go
through piles and piles of old clothes!”
activists as they’re called.” There’s also a big ecological and
sustainable aspect. “It makes more sense to eat something
that is locally grown and organic. It saves energy, because
you don’t need to heat a greenhouse to grow tomatoes in the
winter.” There’s an increasing amount of similar platforms
springing up all over Belgium and Europe. “At some point
people will realise it’s ridiculous to pay so much for organic
products, and with the price of petrol, it doesn’t make sense
to fly organic apples all the way from Chile.”