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Random Threads of Kindness – Giving Clothes For Free In Exchange For Good Deeds
Andrea Diodati started to give away her clothes for free on Instagram – in exchange for pledges of random acts of kindness, big or small.
“Sometimes I sit with an idea for years waiting for just the right time to release it into the world. With Random Threads of Kindness, I let the idea gestate for two years. I asked my friends, am I crazy if I give away my clothes for random acts of kindness? I asked my healer/therapist, am I a masochist if I give away my possessions to inspire kind acts? Fast forward to the present day where I find myself at the intersection of a creative renewal, a divorce, and spiritual deepening while learning about the global waste problem; aka just the right time. As a friend says: “It’s an eccentric way to light your shit on fire". And it’s so much more than that!
As a fashion professor, I want to educate about the crazy problem of overproduction and the flood of 2nd hand garments that are clogging up landfills, destroying oversea economies and polluting waterways.
Only 30% of what we donate to thrift stores actually sells! The other 70% may end in our local landfill or get shipped around the world before eventually ending up in landfill/incineration.
So how can we create more meaningful exchanges of garments? How do we fall in love with our clothes, treasuring the memories of its past owners while making new ones?
As a human, one of the great joys of my life is to give and receive kindness, especially when it’s unexpected. It’s so exciting to surprise people with how loved they are! One kind act could radically change the course of someone’s thoughts, feelings, actions. All of us humans are going through some sort of challenges. We’re all climbing our personal Mount Everest. A random act of kindness can help you climb that mountain with joy in your heart.
As a fashion designer, I just want to wear what I make, which currently is a series of rectangles that I can drape and fasten together in a million different ways each morning. My rectangles allow me to travel light as I navigate this new phase of my life where I’m moving towards a more nomadic lifestyle. So if I don’t want to wear anything besides my rectangles, how do I responsibly give away the clothes that I’ve spent the last 20 years curating and collecting?”
Here are some garments that have found new homes through Andrea’s project.
“Bought these on the evening of my grandma, Bub’s funeral. My uncle needed something fancy for the next day, so we went to the department store Simon’s at Square One. Wandering the fluorescent drenched floors in a haze, I didn’t know where to put myself. I saw these jeans on the sale rack for $20 CAD, a pop of life. The print is by Canadian indie designer @hayleyelsaesser. Usually I am hesitant to buy something new especially jeans for $20, but I didn’t think twice. Worn occasionally over the years, I’ve never been a jeans person. Why wear jeans when I can wear a dress?”
Exchanged for a “pledge to facilitate two clothing swaps/giveaways.”
“I wore this vintage beauty to my first biz meeting with Anthropologie in Philly when I was 24. They were picking up my line and I was trying to look as polished and profesh as my recent art grad self could be. Late for the train I took off my rainbow platforms to run for the train. I cleaned my black feet in the bathroom and prayed I didnt catch a disease.”
Exchanged for a pledge to ”buy some healthy snacks and treats to help fill up the local community fridge.”
”I wore this dress on my first day working for Anna Sui. It was actually a Saturday (resort market was around the corner), so I stopped at the Union Square farmer’s market to pick her up some flowers. Because how do you say thank you for hiring me to your design hero on your first day of work?! As I purchased tulips the same color as my dress, Bill Cunningham wielded his camera capturing the moment. I never saw the picture; it didn’t end up in the Style section, but I love that somewhere that fateful day was recorded.”
Exchanged for a pledge to “donate a fully functioning (albeit not so used) bike to a student sustainability club.”
“I eBayed these BMX pants and wore them rollerblading during the pandemic! Never made it on a bike.”
Exchanged for a pledge to “give a free animal communication/healing session to a rescue horse.”
“I wore this Anna Sui sample to my last runway with her. The show was epic, a season dedicated to 60s counter craft culture. It was everything I could have hoped for as a young designer. To close the show, Gigi wore my fringed pastel velvet burnout jacket and lost her shoe on the runway. Hilariously, Gigi loosing her shoe is a great marketing strategy and her image trended across media outlets. Despite all this, I remember sitting in the audience watching my designs go by and feeling a hollowness, was this really worth it? As my head spun from exhaustion and my belly swirled with nausea, I was ready for a change…”
Exchanged for a pledge to ”continue cooking for neighbors and others using excess amounts of produce and unneeded desserts from work.”
”Bought this moto jacket in grade 9, after going to sleep over drama camp and meeting fellow creatives. My first time meeting weirdos like me! That September, I rocked my jacket over my Catholic school uniform with a Betty Boop retro lunch box. Sadly, my new style was not appreciated by the conformist, conservative school; this one jacket caused so much bullying, tears and even spit. It’s one of my earliest learnings on fashion’s power to invoke action –positive or negative. In my senior year, I accidentally ran over the backpacks of the bullying boys while backing out of the parking lot. No one was hurt and it still makes me chuckle.”
Exchanged for a pledge to “cover the cost of an art class for someone who might not be able to participate otherwise due to the cost.”
“Have you seen me wear black? It’s a rare sighting. This sweet silk set came into my life as I navigated the death of a former self. I was tired of freelancing and the question, why? kept popping up. Why am I designing? What worth does this dress have in the millions of gazzillions of garments made every year? Is it worth it’s resources? The answer was never yes. Ever the cliché, I started to wear black. Around this time I started attending @barbarabrennanschool, a four year school created by a NASA physicist and clairvoyant. It expanded my reality and led me to a deep appreciation of the unseen, a deep contact with God/Goddess/All That Is/Love/Life/However Whoever You Want To Call It.”
Exchanged for a pledge to: “helping set up & give away tea for my friend’s event, a death cafe salon info gathering.”
”Wore this visiting the Grand Canyon for the first time on my 30th bday. Since then, the Grand Canyon has become a very meaningful place for me, a place of deep healing, transformation, and beautiful meditations.”
Exchanged for a pledge to: ”Pack an extra lunch for work this week and give it to a coworker so they do not have to go out and buy lunch!”
Follow Andrea and Random Threads on Kindness on Instagram @andrea_diodati
pink printed pants