How it works

It starts and ends with you.

Sweet Notions collects jewelry and other fashion items that you no longer need or use, polishing them up, restoring any nicks here and there, and putting together the most eclectic collection of pretty, one of a kind, antique and precious accessories that come to us from around the world.

We have an extra, special addition: when you donate, we ask you, where possible, to include the story behind the item. We know these pieces may have been valuable to you, and we promise to value them in return. We will always aim to include a little note with each piece saying where or who it’s come from. Of course, if you wish to remain anonymous, we will respect that too.

We set up our special boutique events wherever we are invited (for now, that is only in the United Kingdom or United States, but we do intend to expand further)! We don’t have a fixed location – we want to come to you. Individuals have hosted us in their homes for exclusive parties; businesses have invited us to their place of work for alternative corporate events and staff-bonding activities. We have also set up in community spaces.

We have our own ethos about selling. At the Sweet Notions boutique, we ask those attending to name their own price when purchasing, often based on the stories they’ve heard about the items rather than on market value. We want to make money on our items, but we believe in genuine and productive human interaction and social capital more.

Sweet Notions is reproducible, and in the future we intend to expand our boutique events worldwide. Our goal is pretty big: we want to change how people shop.

So where does the money go?

Sweet Notions is a social enterprise, which means we believe in re-investing the money we make back into the community. You can learn more about our partner projects here.

How you can get involved

• Root out accessories – jewelry, handbags, scarves, hats, belts, etc. – from your own closets and drawers (please, no clothes), or collect them from friends and relatives, and donate them to us. If possible, please include information about yourself and where the items come from!
• If you are a store or wholesaler, we would gratefully receive stock or other types of assistance.
• Host the Sweet Notions boutique in your home or office or at corporate or community events (for now we can only set up in the United Kingdom and United States), e.g., a Sweet Notions cocktail party.
• Come shop at the Sweet Notions boutique – we will have notifications on our website of events that are open to wider groups.

If you are an individual, business, community group or collective interested in hosting the Sweet Notions boutique at your home, place of work or other space, please let us know.

We have received amazing donations so far – like an exquisite diamond and sapphire ring given to us by someone in North Carolina (yes, it’s been sold!); $8000 worth of designer shoes from a boutique in Alaska; and the purse a woman in London received several years ago from her first boyfriend.
Lee St. Pierre, a master jeweler in Alaska, donated several pieces of silver jewelry, and kindly put all our stock through his professional machine to clean and polish items for us.