When someone invites you to a party with the words “Naked Ladies” in the subject line and the venue is the home of someone named Cher, you automatically RSVP “yes,” right?
I got such an e-mail from my friend Josie recently. Five seconds into the e-mail, I realized that, while it wouldn’t be as gossip-worthy as I’d thought, this so-called Naked Ladies party was a very cool, very eco- and budget-friendly idea. The concept is this: All the invitees clean out their closets and come to the party to swap unwanted, gently worn clothes with like-minded ladies who are all eager to do a little shopping — without spending a dime.
Here’s how it went down:
Josie, I and our lovely friend Lisa, threw a few bags of our old clothes into Josie’s car and carpooled to Cher’s apartment. We walked up to the adorable little Mapleton Hill house and dodged the wheel of a mountain bike, which was blocking a good third of the doorway, to get inside (can’t get more Boulder than that; love it).
Inside, clothes covered every available surface. The method to this madness was promptly explained to us: Tops and accessories were spread out in the living room, while bottoms were in a room off the kitchen. The kitchen itself was full of the delicious food that everyone had brought — freshly baked gluten-free bread, a simmering pot of squash soup, spinach-and-cheese fritters — and plenty of wine.
I began adding my clothes to the piles when a pale, leggy figure enter my peripheral vision — dressed only in her skivvies. “May as well make this as efficient as possible,” she said, trying on a hip little floral dress that ended up being a crowd favorite.
Once we all had a chance to peruse and try things on — with widely varying levels of modesty — each person drew a number from a hat. Number one (which just happened to be our lucky pal Josie) got first pick from the most-coveted items. She chose an adorable gray cardigan that had silver threads woven into it — one of the items that had everyone asking, “Why would anyone get rid of that?”
I managed to patiently endure the wait through numbers 2-16 and then quickly nabbed my (miraculously still-unclaimed) favorite item, this cute and comfy cotton fleece zip jacket:
After everyone’s number had been called, it was free-for-all time. We all started grabbing what we wanted out of the remaining items, being courteous if other ladies were eying the same thing. I got a swimsuit that I’d almost purchased this summer (can you say “meant to be”?), a super-soft basic white long-sleeve Gap tee, a beautiful merino wool scarf (with the tag still on!) and a sweet, pointelle-knit cami.
Once the shopping frenzy died down, we basically drank wine, nibbled food and admired each others’ treasures.
Maybe the most rewarding part of the evening? Anything that wasn’t claimed was bagged up to be donated. And it turned out to be a enormous pile of really nice clothes. Hooray!
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