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The Exchange - fashion for organ donors

13 May 2013

Only by becoming an organ donor can customers shop at The Exchange, a fashion boutique opened by Native at Cavendish Square in Cape Town on Friday 10 May 2013. Described as the world's first cashless fashion boutique, it is stocked with clothing and accessories from more than 25 of South Africa's top designers.

Ryan McManus, ECD at Native, conceived the concept for The Exchange (outlined at www.facebook.com/organdonorfan).

"Fashion has typically been synonymous with consumerism. We were looking for a way in which we could change the currency of meaningless consumerism and shift it to the currency of life by purchasing fashion with organ donor registration. We partnered with the Organ Donor Foundation and came up with the idea of opening a fashion boutique where, in exchange for a garment, the consumer registers as an organ donor to potentially save lives," he explains.

Samantha Volschenk, executive director of the Organ Donor Foundation SA says, "It's not often that we come across such a compelling piece of work that will undoubtedly make such a big impact on our organisation. Each donor registration can hopefully save seven lives and, with over 500 items in the boutique, we hope to reach a target of over 3500 possible lives saved. This will be an incredible result for us."

The pop-up boutique will remain open until all the clothing and accessories have been 'exchanged'. This means fashion conscious Capetonians with big hearts had better move fast.