The Great American Apparel Diet
no buying for one year

Jenny Brandt

A devotee of The Tightwad Gazette, a wheat-free/dairy-free lifestyle, and careful financial planning, Jenny Brandt, 44, is no stranger to “dieting”. “A few years ago my husband and I saw a financial planner who had us curb our spending by keeping cash in envelopes marked ‘groceries,’ ‘recreation,’ ‘beauty,’ etc. When the food money is gone for the week, we scrounge rice and beans until the next scheduled trip to the bank.” Fortunately for this avid shopper, the clothing budget line item is tracked differently (read: not at all) and her longstanding addiction to the next new apparel fix has remained unchecked. “My mother has often said there isn’t a clothing store in the world where I couldn’t unearth something wearable buy,” says Jenny, though her tastes stray primarily toward vintage, sample sales and funky boutiques. Favorite recent finds include an 80’s Op ski jacket ($2) and ruffled plaid coat ($15) ---both scored on the sidewalk---and a red crocheted cap she found in a church basement craft fair. “I notice that every time I’m complimented on my clothing, I feel compelled to state the (low, low) price, as if life were some giant apparel Olympiad where the one with the most fun-yet-tasteful-and-preferably-cheap items wins. How many hours have I dedicated to my rigorous training to be the last wo(man) standing? When I realized that every time I walked through an airport in another city, the first thought in my mind was ‘What the hell are these people wearing?’, I knew clothing was taking up way too much mental hard drive space. “ “I also must confess that when I first saw the TGAAD link, I thought someone was going to tell me what I should stop eating to start looking good in all those American Apparel leggings and clingy tees cut to fit 22 year old heroin addicts. No such luck!” Jenny lives a life of contradictions, devouring/spouting anti-consumerism ideology while being secretly relieved to live in a town with a 7-11 on every corner. She and her husband live in Los Angeles and are raising two budding clotheshorse daughters, ages 4 and 8. “I tell my kids it is more important to be beautiful on the inside than on the outside, yet if I see a bad photo of myself, I can no longer wear those clothes.” This tangled web of female insecurity, environmental sustainability, capitalism, beauty, confidence, advertising, and existential angst are just a few of the themes that draw Jenny to TGAAD. When she’s not doing yoga or gymnastics, she volunteers with a local children’s theatre group and at her daughters’ schools. With all the time and money saved buying new clothes, Jenny plans to finish covering her two cars in a duct tape picture-rama and to learn how to sew so she can still get new clothes.