Recently my girlfriend had the idea of having a party that would allow us all to make more room in our closets while enjoying cocktails and conversation with good friends. The concept of la troc party, as they call it in French, is for everyone to bring any unwanted clothes, purses, jewelry, or shoes with the goal of exchanging them for new (at least new to you) things. We decided that whatever items were left we would donate to charity. After picking a place to meet (the person with the largest apartment-more room for impromptu changing rooms), we set a date and time as well as who would bring what food and alcohol-wise.

Everyone arrived with boxes full of their no-longer-desired goodies; some even brought rolling suitcases. We started the night off fairly calm, snacking on home-made treats and sipping sangria. After an hour or so the impatience finally got to us and we could no longer wait to dig in. Before long, shirts were coming off and clothes were flying everywhere! If someone had seen us from the window they probably would have thought it was some type of nudist soirée. Everyone found something they liked. Even I, quite the picky shopper, came home with something – a nice grey wool Gerard Darel blazer. Pas mal.

I’ve heard it’s recommended to do a number system where each person picks a # and takes their turn choosing one item at a time. Luckily for us there wasn’t any conflict but hey, girls can get pretty wild over clothes!