The Great American Apparel Diet
no buying for one year

Katie Macdonald

Age – 46 (who’s counting) Married – 23 years Mother to 3 amazing children, Bella 20 (daughter), Angus & Lachlan 18 (Identical twin boys) Currently I am a freelance producer for a talk radio station (567 Cape Talk & Talk Radio 702) and I present one of their overnight shows. I stumbled upon your site during one of my ‘google’ sessions as I was doing research for my show. Being impulsive and up for personal challenges, I thought wow this is for me. The more I thought the more it all made sense. I inherited a love of clothes from my beautiful eccentric Finnish mother and they have become my therapy, my crutch and my tools for slipping into different personas. My spending habits with regards to clothing have caused me to become what I call a ‘creative accountant’ , balancing the household budget with my ‘need’ to keep the wardrobe well stocked. My clothes (which I do not throw away) tell the story of my life from weight fluctuations ( and weight is such a female issue) to the ongoing battle between being the chic woman that my mother was to the happy hippy jean wearing persona which gives me comfort. I have gone from a career in merchant banking to full time motherhood and now a new start in radio as my children fly the nest and I embrace new challenges and opportunities in life. Another realisation that hit me was, having grown up in Sydney (Australia) with much privilege I moved to Cape Town with my South African husband 21 years ago – and the contrasts are enormous. We do live a relatively affluent and privileged life here, but everyday in so many ways you are reminded of the disparity between the first and third worlds. As I said in my first email, a large part of our population do not even have the luxury of knowing whether they can feed themselves on a daily basis, let alone choose what they wear. I am impulsive and I can clearly see the practical reasons for joining this diet but I am hoping that the process will also take me on a journey of self awareness, questioning and simply show me that I can do without!