When Westporter Carly Ridloff launched The Exchange Project five years ago, “it was a small event with 20 women,” she tells Westport Lifestyle. The concept, back then, was that women would bring clothes that they no longer wore to “swaps,” exchanging them with other stylish attendees to refresh their wardrobes sustainably. Carly, whose background is as a learning specialist in special education, has always loved fashion and style. She had a lightbulb moment when she got a $4 check from The RealReal after selling some of her items. “I was like ‘I can do better than this,’” she says. “That was really what created this. The Exchange Project is highly curated fashion, while also making an impact on keeping clothes in circulation and diverting from landfills.”
Those early swap events, held in backyards in Westport during the shadow of the pandemic, have grown into something more than Carly could ever have imagined. “Everything we have done has been in response to what people need,” she explains. “We started off doing the swap events, and then people wanted to know if we could sell things for them. So we built a consignment platform. And they wanted to drop things off before the events. So we added ongoing drops, which led to all of our distribution channels.” These days, The Exchange Project (aka TEP) is three-pronged: there is luxury consignment, which can be shopped online (theexchangeproject.com) or by appointment at their showroom; retail events, now called ReTEP events, centered around stylish clothes that may not have a luxury resale value, which function similarly to the OG swap events—drop off your unwanted items, the TEP team will edit the pieces, and for every one they take, you get a credit to bring something new home; and donation. “We work with the women at the Malta House [a facility in Norwalk that provides housing and support to pregnant and parenting mothers] to make sure they not only have clothes, but items to give as gifts,” explains Carly. “So we are never giving you a bag back. We have distribution channels for everything you give us.” Above all, Carly’s goal is to keep clothes that still have life in them living—and out of landfills. “We've changed the relationship people have with their closets. Now instead of seeing clutter they can see value."
The team has grown to five, and there are TEP events all up and down the East Coast. “The biggest thing I’ve learned is that the clothes are the conduit, and the connections and community are really what’s happening,” says Carly. That’s probably because TEP events are fun. “Our collaborations right now are more robust than ever, and often have nothing to do with clothes. It’s like-minded people who want to bring people together.” The data backs it up: Carly says 90 percent of their sales happen at in-person events. “People want to try things on. They want to be styled. They want that connection,” she says. The showroom appointments, too, have that shopping-with-your-girlfriends feeling: the intake form where shoppers give their sizing also asks about upcoming events and vacations to help the TEP team style complete looks that really suit each customer’s life. "In a world of endless inventory and algorithm-driven shopping, we've become trusted editors,” Carly says. “My favorite thing, still, is going through bags of clothes. It’s like: what treasures did we get today?” What has set The Exchange Project apart is that level of curation that can only come from human taste, not an algorithm trying to emulate style. “We are actually the look for less, because we’re not compromising quality,” says Carly.
If the last five years have been explosive, there’s more to come. “There’s so much room for growth,” Carly says. “We’ve built the infrastructure, and now we want to be able to serve more people.” (They already ship nationwide.) As for what’s next, “we want people to be able to track everything that’s happening in our movement,” Carly says. “To see how many donations they’ve made. To see how many items you diverted from a landfill.” It’s all part of the greater TEP mission to make style more sustainable. “There are so many items of clothing on this planet,” says Carly. “We are just working on keeping them in circulation and getting them to where they need to go. The bigger vision is creating an ecosystem where every item has a next chapter, and where shopping becomes more intentional, more curated, and ultimately more joyful.”
Want to join the movement? The next reTEP event, celebrating their 5 year anniversary, will be in Westport where it all started on September 17th. Tickets, $TK. at theexchangeproject.com/collections/events . To shop or consign with The Exchange Project, visit theexchangeproject.com
"The Exchange Project is highly curated fashion, keeping clothes in circulation and diverting from landfills.”