tucked away in the basement of a brick building on george washington university’s mount vernon campus, lives the loop, a free clothing exchange that opened this semester.  

the loop, run by sustainable gw, is open weekly on fridays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in academic building room 122. the exchange includes clothing, shoes, and accessories donated by gw community members, and free to the community. sofia tjia, an intern at sustainable gw, said the loop’s goal is to make sure students on campus have access to clothes they need and to teach students to be more mindful about their consumption habits.  

tjia said the loop started as a “random room” but was turned into a store by another intern who thrifted furniture and other decorations to create a space. besides the clothes, the addition of comfortable couches and trendy music playing in the background makes the clothing exchange a hang-out space.

“we wanted it to be a fun place people can get the clothes they need,” tjia said. 

accessing the loop

the loop is located on gw’s mount vernon campus, a 15-minute shuttle ride away from the main foggy bottom campus. tjia said she has spoken with customers who live on the foggy bottom campus who make the journey over to mount vernon simply for the loop. 

“it’s so cute people plan to go to the vern just to come to the loop,” tjia said. “it’s really heartwarming.”

tjia said the loop’s grand opening day held on aug. 30 was “very busy,” but what keeps the “momentum” of community members coming back to the loop is making it clear the clothes available change “very often” since they get new donations every week. 

in the two weeks leading up to halloween, tjia said the loop also created specific racks with customers so community members could get affordable and sustainable costumes.

limiting over-consumption

even though everything at the loop is free, customers are not required to exchange clothes but tjia said they “encourage” an exchange. tjia said she tells community members to be “mindful” about overconsuming even second-hand clothes. 

“the hype of everything being free at the loop can sometimes overshadow the fact we still do not want you to overconsume,” tjia said. 

she also said the loop is trying to draft a “policy” that discourages the over-consumption of clothes. she said the main goal of the loop is for community members to find clothes that make them happy and that they will bring back to their wardrobe and wear consistently. 

keeping clothes out of the landfill

since the opening of the loop, tjia said she has helped divert almost 2,000 items from landfills.

according to gw’s office of sustainability, they receive more than 25,000 pounds worth of clothing donations per year. before the loop, these went only to their community partners. 

these community partners include bread for the city, which provides clothing and other services to low-income residents in the district, and love and light, which helps veteran and military families in woodstock, va., among others. 

engagement associate at the office for sustainability juliana carvalho manages the loop along with other programs related to engagement and outreach on gw’s campus. 

according to carvalho, she helped create the loop thanks to several students who had the idea of creating a permanent thrift store rather than occasional pop-ups, and receiving a “surplus” of donations through bins located around gw’s campus. 

she said the loop receives clothes their community partners do not want, such as bulk sorority shirts. carvalho said the more “interesting” items they have received are a canvas tote bag with approximately 55 plushies sewn onto it, which was adopted by a patron in the first few minutes after the loop’s grand opening, and tall platform neon gym shoes which are still looking for a home. 

affordable clothing

besides the sustainability aspect, she said the loop is also addressing the needs of the gw community by providing affordable clothes students might need.

“there are certain kinds of clothing that college students might be looking for that are particularly expensive, like business casual clothing, for example, clothing for their internships and summer jobs,” carvalho said. 

she said the loop makes sure students in need are also aware of other resources available for them on campus, such as the store, which is a student-run food pantry providing resources for students experiencing food insecurity. 

“the students who come to the store know that the loop exists,” carvalho said. “we’re just cross-promoting the resources.” 

besides being open every friday, carvalho said they open the loop at different times to specific student groups who would benefit from having extra time to look around for clothes they need. 

“we really wanted to create an experience where students would feel excited about coming in and getting their clothes,” carvalho said.