Green The Red Carpet Focuses on Fast Fun, Tipsy Swapping

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• More than 50 swappers combed through what started out as a well-organized array of clothing
• H&M, with tags still attached.
• Pretty sundress
• Hawks by Geren Ford
• Skull legwarmers, anyone?
• The crew organizing before the fun began
• Another brand new H&M dress

We'd caught a lot of good buzz about previous events from Swap.com and the Swapaholics, so we checked out their Green the Red Carpet Sip 'n' Swap event on Saturday. The way the events work is that swapper showed up at an appointed time, dropped off a bag or two of quality merchandise, paid $25 and were invited to come back later, once the "store" was all set up. The event staff furnished bags to prohibit hoarding and ensure fair swapping -- i.e. no one was allowed to come back with an XXL Hefty Bag. Us media folks got in an hour early to survey the scene and watch the staff organize and arrange a few mountains worth of swapping clothes. We didn't see any Marc Jacobs or Diane Von Furstenberg (but we did see a fake Prada bag), but we did see a lot of J. Crew, Urban Outfitters, To the Max! (aka BCBG-lite), and a big selection of H&M, much of it with price tags still attached. And a pretty crazy array of accessories -- a few hats, random jewelry, and one pair of brand new, still in the packaging, tights with skulls printed on them. And assorted shoes.

When the doors opened, it was kind of like the running of the bulls (but with more UGG boots): the swappers rushed in and scooped up the goods. There were a few who just indiscriminately bagged?well, we don't know what they were looking for, but they sure seemed to be having a good time looking. The event had a champagne sponsor; what could be more fun than tipsy swapping? We only stayed for the first 15 minutes, but there was absolutely no danger of anyone going away empty-handed. This is supposedly the first of a few swapping events they'll organize in the area; stay tuned to learn when are where to find the others.
· Swap.com [Official Site]