On Sunday, the Peel Gallery and Photo Lab in downtown Carrboro hosted one of their recurring clothing swaps. At this event, attendees were invited to bring their secondhand clothing items, used or new, and swap them free of charge for pieces within Peel’s existing selection. The items ranged from embroidered jean jackets to skirts, and all clothing pieces leftover after the swap were donated to Carrboro’s CommunityWorx, a local thrift store and nonprofit for families.
Peel, which has been a creative hub in Carrboro since 2021, has always kept the values of community and sustainability at the forefront of their vision, according to Lindsay Metivier, the owner of Peel. The gallery frequently hosts workshops that are open for the public to attend, focused on teaching different ways to make artwork using sustainable and recycled materials.
Metivier said that clothing swap events are sometimes paired with embroidery or mending workshops that teach people how to take clothing items and further alter them to fit their personal needs and style. Sunday's event did not include these workshops, but Metivier still encouraged visitors to upcycle the pieces that they found.
“Maybe if you find something here that's not your size, but you can turn it into something that's either an article of clothing you can wear or pick a canvas for a painting you're about to make," she said.
Lydia Lopez, one of the shoppers who attended Sunday's swap, brought two big bags of clothing to donate, in the midst of her clothing purge. At the swap, she picked out hand-dyed cotton tops, which she was especially excited to discover.
Lopez said that she embraces clothing swaps as a sustainable and community-driven alternative to traditional shopping. Having gone to various clothing swaps for over a decade, she said that she is drawn to events like these because they allow individuals to pinpoint new and unique pieces while also making good use of secondhand clothing.
“There's so much stuff in the world right now," Lopez said. “I mean, we could live off of what we have just in the world right now, probably for, I don't know, hundreds of years, right? If we were really good about mending what we have, taking care of what we have, passing on and sharing what we have, I really don't think new clothes even need to be made at this point.”
Allie McMurtry, who has been working with the Peel Gallery as an intern since January, describes Peel as a "welcoming artistic bubble." She has gotten to learn in-depth about the inner workings of the gallery, and helped with display setup for the clothing swap event as well as a large variety of Peel’s other events.
She said that the real value in events like these come from allowing clothing items to be truly enjoyed by someone else, offering a more direct and personalized way to bring life back to older or used clothing pieces.
