Our Story
Abby and Delphi at their prom in 2014.
Delphi and Abby went to secondary school together, and we eventually ended up studying our postgraduate degrees at the University of Oxford together, where we met Connie, who was also studying her postgrad, in 2022.
Delphi, Abby and Connie at a party
Delphi dying Abby's hair.
Photo by @maemarvinphotography
After meeting at a party, where we gushed over each others clothes, hair, and glitter, we quickly discovered that the three of us were kindred spirits. In the following months we had many hair dye parties where we ended up talking about queerness, fashion, and pawing through our wardrobes together. We all had beautiful items, with lots of life left, and after several exchanges of "I love that!" "You can have it!" we decided to organise a proper swap event.
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Connie got in touch with our friends at The Star, and they very kindly allowed us use their back room for free; that was that. Cowley Community Closet couldn't have started without their generosity and we are so grateful to them.
Graphic design by @delphicampbell
The three of us were at a point in life where we were seeking queer spaces and community.
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When we started dreaming about the kind of space we wanted to make, we knew that our events had to reflect our values, putting inclusivity, community care, anti-capitalism and sustainabilty at the core of what we do.
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We wanted to save as many clothes as we can from landfill, so we started doing repairs, reworks and making new items from preloved and damaged garments to put back into the swap.
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When Delphi moved back to Cardiff it was an easy decision for us to open a swap there, so we split our stock in half and reached out to Umbrella.​
The first Cardiff swap at Umbrella. Photo by @maemarvinphotography.
Emily teaching a self-defence class at The Star.
Photo by @collins.photograbby
Umbrella agreed to be our second home and we soon started running swaps at both locations every month!
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As we grew we started doing pop-up events and working with other organisations like Mom Was Right, and Smalls For All.
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Our community came through for us, bringing jewellery stands, hundreds of secondhand clothes hangers, and all the other random bits of gear we needed for the swap.
Shortly after we opened our second location, one of our regular swappers asked us if we would be interested in hosting a self-defence class with Emily, and we immediately accepted, starting our free monthly class in 2023.
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Sensei Emily put us in touch with our other instructor, Rich, and soon we had queer friendly self-defence classes running in both Oxford and Cardiff.
Sustainability is at the core of our swap, and we wanted to help our community keep their clothes for longer. With that in mind, we connected with local organisations Low Carbon East Oxford, and the Cardiff Sewing Social, so they could bring their expertise in mending, saving and upcycling old clothes to our swaps.
Sustainability is at the core of our swap, and we wanted to help our community keep their clothes for longer. With that in mind, we connected with local organisations Low Carbon East Oxford, and the Cardiff Sewing Social, so they could bring their expertise in mending, saving and upcycling old clothes, to our swap.
Eventually we found ourselves needing more space and storage, to keep the swap comfortable for everyone, and our Cowley swap relocated to Common Ground.
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Since our first swap in 2022, our community has flourished beyond our wildest imagination; we've been invited onto radio, interviewed for Secondhand September, and swapped hundreds of items with hundreds of people. We are so grateful for the community, without whom the swap wouldn't be possible.
That's the story for now, but we have big plans for the future...
