Clothes, shoes, bags, jewellery… Prosecco? Thursday 28 February saw the spectacular Fashion Reboot event come to Nottingham's Rough Trade. The concept? Pretty simple: shoppers can purchase from the wardrobes of bloggers, Instagrammers, journalists and all-round style superstars and bag their garms for bargain prices. Imagine eBay, but in real life….
The event was organised by three Nottingham-based bloggers and friends - Tori (@torimurphytextiles), Sarah (@my_fashionforecast) and Sarah (@hopeforlittlehearts) – who contacted Ciara Elliott, Fashion Reboot’s co-founder, and asked to host Fashion Reboot in the city that Robin Hood built. Held upstairs at Rough Trade, it was a bit like a car boot sale, but purely for fashion… and also without the cars.
Nottingham is a fantastic place for shopping; we’ve got so many brilliant established brands and a wealth of great independent stores, and it would be fair to say that this was reflected in the quality of clothes on offer at Fashion Reboot. Designer labels were a-plenty, including a Mulberry bag I spotted going for just £39, with high-end high street pieces from Whistles, COS, & Other Stories also being popular items, including a few sartorial appearances from Nottingham legend, Paul Smith. Mixed with your usual high street fodder, such as Zara, New Look, Topshop etc., there was a really good mix for all the shoppers.
And there were hundreds of shoppers. For what was a fairly small event space (which is perhaps my only criticism of the evening), everyone jostled for bargains, rummaging through rails and trying items on there and then.
My mate Olivia Newton bagged (no pun intended) herself two pairs of trousers from New Look – both with the tags still attached – a vintage navy velvet blazer, one pair of vintage cowboy boots (deadringers for the current Ganni pair doing the rounds on The Gram) and a jumper from Whistles should have been £99. Impressive haul.
She says: “It was great; like having all your favourite bloggers and Instagrammers gathered together with all their best loved pieces. You can chat and drink Prosecco while you pick out cool vintage and preloved finds. In a way, it’s a bit like a jumble sale but with bloggers, so maybe a bit more expensive.
“Although saying that, I only spent £40 and I got tonnes of good stuff, so I did quite well!”
Ellie Pereira agreed. She said: “It’s such an amazing concept and an amazing evening with like-minded people. I can’t wait for the next one.”
For those who missed out, Fashion Reboot will return to Nottingham on Thursday 16 May, with £5 a ticket for general admission and £30 a stall for those wanting to sell their fashion wares.
I was one of the stallholders and, I must admit, I was a bit nervous pre-event. Just like a seven-year-old fretting about their birthday party, I wondered would anyone actually turn up? (They did – it was a sold out event). Would anyone like my clothes and want to buy them? (Yes, they did – I made a few sales and earnt back the £30 stallholder fee I’d paid out). Would anyone laugh in my face and say “OMG LOOK AT THESE HIDEOUS THINGS”? (Yes, they d- no, they really didn’t. At least not within earshot.)
Many stalls were absolutely beautiful and wonderfully curated: some owners had brought along light boards, plants, rugs, golden tables and hand-written price tags to entice people over, almost like mini-boutiques. Others (erm, me) had brought along a rickety clothes rail from the LeftLion office that had to hold up the entire night; a perhaps somewhat passive aggressive gesture but one that was vital for structural support. Oops.
A fellow stallholder and Nottingham blogger, Jenn Cordell (@cordelia_hearts), also loved it: “It was an evening with fabulous women, great chat, lots of laughs and even more leopard print! It’s such a brilliant way of giving your wardrobe a new lease of life and I loved that Oxfam were there so I was able to donate some items and do my bit for charity. Of course it was great to be able to make some money from the event, but that turned out to just be a bonus!”
Along with Oxfam, who not only sold items but also collected unsold items donated at the end of the evening, stylists from DNA hairdressers, make-up artists from Bobbi Brown, Fan Club Clothing and Keishi Jewellery all had stalls, with shoppers able to interact and buy from them too. In fact, I may have re-invested some of my earnings into a pair of gorgeous new Keishi earrings.
In the last issue of LeftLion, we spoke about the need for us as consumers to think mindfully about our fashion choices and events such as Fashion Reboot no doubt help to spread the word for sustainability – our LeftLion clothes swap also had a fantastic turnout when we held it last month. Far from being embarrassed to wear second-hand clothing or grossed-out that another human being had owned it before, Fashion Rebooters were proudly showing off their new items the next day all over Instagram, excited by what they had found. This is the new modern and here is the new fashion mantra: we don’t need convincing that one person’s “trash” can indeed be another person’s “treasure”.
You can follow Anna’s fashion tales at @Perfect12Fashion on Instagram.
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