Overview:
-The ReVamp has diverted over 18,000 pounds of textile waste from landfills.
-Founder Amanda Sweet tells Planet Detroit the group formed as part of her own healing journey.
-The ReVamp returns Sept. 13 at Detroit Shipping Company.
On Saturday afternoon in Detroit’s Rivertown district, eco-fashionista, emcee, and party hostess Amanda Sweet glides onto the stage at Big Pink, wearing an ethereal pair of white feather wings.
Sweet and her band of volunteers host clothing swaps throughout Detroit, turning spaces into vibrant parties where guests trade unwanted clothes and accessories in support of a charitable cause.
“Welcome to The ReVamp, y’all! After depositing your donations, kindly give at the door, $20 or more, and fill your bag next door,” Sweet said as she’s met with cheers.
Sweet is the founder and “Creative Fairy Godmother” of The ReVamp, a clothing swap collective on a mission to make an impact on the world through sustainable community events. It’s mutual aid in the form of networking.
“It’s really about offering the community a creative space to socialize and meet each other,” Sweet said.
The ReVamp returns noon to 5 p.m. Sept. 13 at Detroit Shipping Company.
The ReVamp experience
Wearing sparkling gold eyeshadow and cosplay elf ears, Sweet holds a wireless mic in one hand while cradling a pile of clothes in the other. She greets the bustling and seemingly endless line of newcomers as they squeeze through the door.
Attendees pay a small donation, then contribute the contents of their bag full of clothes to enter the party.
The swap takes place on Big Pink’s main dance floor, a spacious room set under a Quonset-style aircraft hangar. Guests buzz to the beat of the music, and go through row after row of tables piled high with colorful garments, quickly refilling their bags.
Around the dance floor, The ReVamp’s nonprofit partners and beneficiaries, such as Haven Homes, Planned Parenthood, and United Community Family Services, populate booths. There’s a booth with a sewing machine run by Detroit’s beloved trash-to-treasure gem, Arts & Scraps, for thrifters to “revamp” their finds right there at the event.
Sweet’s commitment to help others is part of The ReVamp’s design. This is where her Creative Fairy Godmother powers really flex.
“The ReVamp is not just a swap party, it’s a movement!” Sweet said over the mic.
ReVamp diverts over 18,000 pounds of textile waste
There’s a lot to feel good about at Sweet’s swap parties. As of January 2025, The ReVamp, according to the group’s calculations, has diverted over 18,000 pounds of textile waste from landfills, donating clothing to shelters and other nonprofit organizations.
Textiles can take decades to decompose, during which they release harmful greenhouse gases like methane and leach toxic dyes and chemicals into the soil and water.
The ReVamp was born as a social experiment. It didn’t cost anything in the beginning; the ticket price was an optional donation and provided guests with a bag full of good-as-new threads. Since forming in 2018, The ReVamp has relied heavily on volunteer and community efforts for the success of each event.
“I started thrifting because I didn’t have enough money to buy new sneakers and things like that. And that’s kind of how I got into it. I’ve always been a thrifter. My mom has always been, like, ‘Salvation Army first,’ OK, [I come from] a family of four,” Sweet said.
As a lifelong thrifter and connoisseur of expressive couture, Sweet’s style always turned heads, so when she had to put The ReVamp on hold during the early days of COVID-19, she decided to start modeling.
She is the first contestant from the U.S. to be named Miss Voluptuous: Plus Size International, in 2022.
Ultimately, the world of modeling and pageantry was not the right fit for Sweet, she said. She longed to focus more on her own eco-chic and inclusive community-building project, The ReVamp.
“We were calling it The Pop-Up Swap,” she recalls. “It was cute, simple. And then (ReVamp digital marketing director) Mariah Sierra was like, ‘We need to come up with a more permanent name.’ And we were all just talking, and we were saying things like Swap Wise, and then The ReVamp popped out.”
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‘I was trying to learn who I was’
The ReVamp is part of Sweet’s own transformation and emergence as the Creative Fairy Godmother. Her passion project welcomes people of all ethnicities, sizes, genders, and backgrounds.
Raised by her Filipina mother and Jewish father, Sweet said she has always defied stereotypes and norms. As a teenager, she said she often felt like she “didn’t belong,” especially after her family’s move to West Bloomfield when she was 11. She remembers struggling with body image and self-confidence throughout middle and high school.
“I got sent home from school all the time for being a distraction to the teachers. And I knew it was about my body, because I had teachers telling me, ‘This is your responsibility … if you show up looking like this, you’re going to receive the consequences.’ What do you say?” Sweet pauses to shake her head.
“You say that to a 12-year-old child that just so happens to have breasts? So that was the kind of experience that I had, (where I was being taught) my body was a problem.”
In many ways, The ReVamp is a celebration of Sweet’s healing journey, as well as a reflection of her evolution through the years, she told Planet Detroit.
“I never set out to be a sustainable activist. That was not what I was setting out to figure out. I was trying to learn who I was,” she said. “I was just a very broken, scared, hateful person to myself for so long. And through building The ReVamp, I have to challenge this narrative of not being good enough and not being the right person.”
Every time Sweet hosts and builds The ReVamp, she finds that it has the same effect on others, she said.
“And when I’m in it, I don’t even know who that (scared little) girl is – I am truly the Creative Fairy Godmother! Like, the wings come out, the ears come out — literally, but also spiritually in a way.
“I was never like, ‘Oh yeah, one day when I grow up, I’m gonna be this person that helps hundreds of people and organizations.’ But we’re really doing something, you know. And maybe it was by accident, maybe it was divine, maybe it was on purpose. Maybe it was a little bit of everything,” Sweet said, sweeping away tears.
“[My style] is spiritual. [The ReVamp] is spiritual. It’s so much bigger than me, and I’m so grateful that I got gifted with this community to take care of.”
