The Great American Apparel Diet » diet

Revel this. Or not.

Susie Hanna — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 22:44:58 +0000

Hi – for the followers that know or don’t know: I bought a jacket. Whoop-de-doo..right? But! It wasn’t just any jacket, it was a limited edition – and I’m 1 of 100 people in the WORLD that own one. [It makes me feel special, okay] So any way, I bought it back in February on my 49th day of the challenge and I haven’t bought anything since. [cue applause]

Well here I am trotting along on this diet –trot, trot, trot– then: A revelation sprung!! Albeit a small one, but nonetheless: A REVELATION PEOPLE!!

Here it is: Why don’t I extend my diet to the day I bought the jacket? Huh, hmm..haww..why has this never occurred to me?!? Whyyy?! YES that is EXACTLYYY what I’ll do!

So this is my NEWOld diet end date: February 18, 2012.

Happy Friday FOLKS.

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4 Months Down!

Janna — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 05:21:41 +0000

Just wanted to check in! I have been participating for 4 months and although I may or may not have purchased a few items, my drive is still strong! At least the things I may, or may not, have bought were of necessity and on sale! i.e. jackets and sweaters (I do live in COLORADO!) I’m just happy that I have been learning about myself during this process and thus far, I am pleased. Happy to say that I am remaining on the band wagon THROUGH the TGAAD date and hopefully all the way till next March!
xoxo

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Women will spend eight years of their life shopping! That’s Depressing!

Sally Bjornsen — Tue, 03 May 2011 21:30:25 +0000

Dieters–chew on this, depressing!

Last updated at 21:22 27 November 2006

Women will spend more than eight years of their lives shopping, says a study.

While keeping their families fed and clothed -and indulging in a little retail therapy – the average woman will shop for an astonishing 25,184 hours and 53 minutes over a period of 63 years.

If the average expedition lasted the length of a full working day – from 9am to 5pm – that would be 3,148 days trudging around the shops, or just over eight-and-a-half years.

The poll of 3,000 women, conducted by GE Money, revealed they make an average of 301 shopping trips per year, lasting a total of 399 hours and 46 minutes.

Food shopping can take more than an hour to complete each time. With an average of 84 trips to stock the pantry over a year, that is 94 hours and 55 minutes in the supermarket.

Women also dedicate 90 trips a year to keeping up their appearances – shopping for clothes 30 times, shoes 15 times, accessories 18 times and toiletries 27 times.

A total of 100 hours and 48 minutes is spent hunting for the latest clothing bargains and fashion statements.

A further 40 hours and 30 minutes is spent shopping for footwear, and 29 hours and 31 minutes looking for accessories such as handbags, jewellery and scarves.

Even shopping for more mundane items such as deodorant, shower gel and razors takes women around 17 hours and 33 minutes over one year.

A further 19 trips, or 36 hours and 17 minutes, are used to buy gifts for friends and family.

The poll also showed women will go window shopping 51 times a year, spending 48 hours and 51 minutes just looking for their next purchase.

Stewart Macphail, of GE Money, said: “Women clearly dedicate a lot of time to making sure they find the best deals and the most suitable items for their needs.

“So perhaps the best Christmas present British men could give their wives or girlfriends this year would be to do their fair share of the shopping.”

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I learned something new yesterday.

Amy S — Mon, 02 May 2011 02:12:22 +0000

I went to the mall yesterday to return a purse my daughter picked out for prom. She brought it home and it didn’t exactly match her dress. Since my husband was home with the kids, I went alone. I usually have to run errands with at least a couple of kids in tow, but this time, luxuriously, I went alone. In retrospect, it would have been better to have a few little people with me moaning about being bored and rushing me along, but I went into the den of enticement without anyone to keep me from “just looking”. I was sorely tempted by lovely, adorable things that I absolutely don’t need and didn’t want to spend money on. I withstood and didn’t buy anything, but I came pretty close! Today, I am so glad I didn’t, but it was very hard to walk away at the time.

I should have know better than to spend more than two minutes at the mall because the first step to withstanding temptation is to avoid, it, right?

Anyway, later in the evening, while I sat up waiting for the above mentioned daughter to return from the prom, I read part of a book on weight loss with a chapter about resisting temptation. It suggested imagining the food that was tempting you as dirty, smashed and maggot ridden. I was thinking today that that might work to help with the temptation to buy while I am on TGAAD. I still think the best thing to do is stay out of the mall, but that isn’t always possible. I could imagine a new sweater pilled and stretched out, or dress pants with frayed edges and tees with stains on the front. If I get really desperate, maybe I’ll even go all the way and think about maggots on that pretty dress!

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Is The Great American Apparel Diet Part of the Slow Clothing Movement?

Sally Bjornsen — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:00:19 +0000

Last night as I was rummaging around in my closet looking for something to wear it occurred to me that I have given, thrown or recycled a lot of clothes over the past ten years. Darn, I’d love to have some of those items back, and if not the items themselves the time it took for me to shop, clean, futz and manage them into my wardrobe. Especially now since I am no longer able to purchase any new apparel. I remember vividly, an amazing and probably overpriced DKNY sweater coat. A sort of retro 20s style with velvet accents. I wonder who’s wearing that gorgeous garment now. I wish I were.

This morning, right on the heels of my closet rummaging, I read an article in the NYTimes magazine about storage and consumerism. By 2005, according to the Boston College sociologist Juliet B. Schol, the average consumer purchased one new piece of clothing every five and a half days.

This eye-opening statistic got me thinking about a “slow clothing” movement. There are official slow food, slow money, slow travel and slow sex movements these days. Why not a slow clothing movement? I wondered. And is The Great Amearican Apparel Diet the beginning of it?

I googled “slow clothing” and “slow fashion,” and guess what…we’re slow to the movement. People have been blogging about this for a long time. “Wear local,” they say—is that like a sweater made with Fido the family dog’s hair? Or does it mean belting your neighbor’s old drapes and wearing them as a topper, a la Maria Van Trapp? Maybe we could learn from the Hispanics who wear huarache sandals made from repurposed flat tires? Buy from a thrift store and then remake your own, the experts suggest. Sew the arms of one sweater to the bodice of another, cut off pants and make them into a patchwork skirt, turn a tube top into a Rasta hair band. I am envisioning a renaissance fair.

In one article I read in the Christian Science Monitor, the author challenged US households “to create a single outfit for every man, woman, and child that is homemade.” Going back to a bygone era, she also suggested that people mend and darn their clothes.

Good idea for those people who:

a.) Know the meaning of darn in this context.

b). Know how to darn or sew http://www.ehow.com/how_648_darn-sock.html

c). Have a sewing machine. ( Investment Tip: Buy Singer, Ticker Symbol: SEW, you heard it here).

Darn (as in Darn-it), I wish I had that DKNY sweater coat and that brown Liz Claiborne maxi, corduroy coat from 1987, and let’s not forget the blinding Neon Obermeyer ski jacket I bought in 1992 to match the bottom of my K2s. Looking back, I admit, it was a wasteful, hedonistic and consumer-centric few decades—but we looked good.

Now, with my apparel budget cut to the quick and my participation in The Great American Apparel Diet, I am left fantasizing about my old wardrobe. I imagine a lovely waif of a “slow clothing movement” girl prancing down the runway of life in my old clothes and my Guess booties. I trust that she appreciates where her wardrobe began. I really hope, upon further reflection, that the “slow girl” hasn’t sewn the arms of my Obermeyer ski jacket onto the bodice of my brown Liz Claiborne Courdory Maxi coat. But if she has, all I can say is “you go–slow girl!”

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Cycling Girdle

Sally Bjornsen — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 22:39:49 +0000

Hi guys…anyone out there? Things are sort of quiet on the blog these days which makes me wonder….are you all still dieting? Remember only a few more months.

Some good news. My husband and I just got a tandem bike. The bad news…cycling apparel. For those of you unfamiliar with cycling shorts they are every girl’s fashion nemesis. The good news, I don’t have to spend anytime in a dressing room trying on cycling shorts like I did last year thanks to TGAAD. I will blaze forward in the same bad, unattractive shorts I wore last year. Which brings up a scary topic. Trying on bike shorts. If you haven’t done it don’t. It’s enough to make a girl give up on the sport. See my post from last Spring when I found myself in the same situation. Unfortuantely I was still shopping…

June 2009 (pre TGAAD)

I have recently and reluctantly re-taken up cycling, I guess you could call it recycling. I say reluctantly not because I don’t enjoy cycling or its benefits—forty miles equals a monster sized burrito and a frothy Hefferweizen. I say reluctantly because the clothes SUCK. I am being kind when I say that no one, not even Mark, my handsome, 2% body fat husband looks good in the stuff.

My re-entry into the sport began last spring when Mark talked me into upgrading my old, Raleigh ten speed to a fancy, schmancy, carbon fiber, eighteen speed something or other, with clip-in pedals. He said the upgrade was for me but I really think the old red Raleigh along side his pimped-out racing bike embarrassed him. My new bike, donned with all the components and the aero dynamic seat that is sure to give me hemorrhoids, is something he can stand by with pride. My outfit? Not so much. Upon completing the expensive bike transaction with the tattooed sales specialist, Mark insisted we stop by the apparel section of the store to check out some cycling pants. He obviously had a vision.

“Wait a minute,” I said, pausing in my tracks for effect. “Cycling pants? Are you !@#$%^ nuts? I told you I’d ride but I didn’t say I’d wear the pants. I would rather wear a pair of high waist, acid washed jeans than a pair of ugly, spandex, sausage legged shorts with a crotch chaffing, Kotex Maxi Pad chamois. It’s not my look.”

“Well then what are you going to wear?” he asked.

“My yoga pants.”

“Your yoga pants, for cycling?”

“Yeah, why not? They look so much better. You know the ones, the bell bottom lulu lemon pants with the hipster contrast border at the waist.”

“You’re not serious.”

“Yes. I am not wearing those weird pants. No way.”

I saw in his eyes his vision for our future of biking together slip away. “You can’t wear yoga pants babe. Not with your fancy new bike. It’s just not done.”

I knew then I was in over my head. This cycling business was so much more than the bike. It was a culture that demanded an aesthetic reset. I was now the proud owner of a fancy bike that required me to scrap my instinctive fashion sensibility and embrace the ugliest, most unattractive trend invented by man (a woman would know better).

And so right there in the bike store I acquiesced. I gathered six to ten pair of black cycling shorts and began the demoralizing task of squeezing my soft body into a variety of girdle like contraptions, one after the other in search of the “most flattering pair.” News flash, for those of you who have an issue with cellulite the issue becomes an all out crisis in bike shorts. I stood face to face with myself in the small, dingy fitting room and mouthed the words “you know better.”

Mark called from outside the dressing room, “hon, come out and show us.” The us included the youngish, sinewy sales woman. “Not yet,” I said, nearly out of breath and laboriously peeling off another pair of tourniquet shorts. The sales girl chimed in, “do you have a jersey?” And with that she hung three loudly colored polyester jerseys over the dressing room door. “Try these on, we just got them in. They’re awesome.” Awesome was not the word that came to mind. Logo-mad print designer on acid was more like it.

I finally settled on a pair of black, below the knee knickers with a stayfree mini-pad sized chamois. They were $90. Who knew that being unattractive could cost so much? My husband and his sales clerk side-kick were disappointed that I passed on the Jerseys. I was certain that I could get away with cycling pants and a Gap t-shirt for a while. At least until I found an inconspicuous jersey that didn’t scream “this is ugly.”

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Clothing Swaps! my new best friend

Jen Mason — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:22:20 +0000

Hi everyone,

I just joined and I’m so excited about this challenge
because it takes my current self imposed challenge to another level.
At the beginning of the year I made the personal decision to abstain
from shopping at any department/retail stores for one year and this
includes shoes. Yes, shoes! (will tell you later how I have overcome
that pain) As a result of my personal challenge my sewing skills have
been reignited, my Goodwill and thrift store shopping skills have been
enhanced and I have discovered the latest craze, Clothing Swaps!

In case you don’t know, the way a clothing swaps works is you bring a
few folks together who have clothes they decide they don’t want
anymore and trade with others. There is no limit to how much you can
take away or how much you can bring to the swap. Afterwards if any
clothes are left over you can donate to Goodwill or use for crafting
projects. Just this past weekend at The Green Living Expo I attended
a seminar given by Goodwill, I was introduced to the TGAAD and have
decided to participate. Since I cannot use thrift stores or Goodwill I
will be swapping at least once a month. Swaps more than anything have
allowed me to expand my wardrobe beyond belief. Ive attended 5 this
year. It’s amazing how much excess we have in our closets that we
don’t wear, that still have tags on them or that just don’t fit. I’ve
found suits, sweaters, shoes, boots and dresses. You name it you can
find it. And the larger the swap the better the selection.

To bring a little relief to this challenge we have embarked upon I
would recommend getting a group of your friends together and having a
small swap in your home. 5-10 people who wear nearly the same size
clothing swapping their wears can yield some great finds. In fact I’m
organizing a swap on May 1st in Bowie, MD. For those who are
interested and live in the DC, MD or VA area let me know and I will
send you the info or check out
http://www.meetup.com/PrettyGirlz-Clothing-Swap/ for more information.
If you need ideas or help getting organized in you city let me know
and I’m happy to help.

Oh and the self imposed shoe diet………Well I’m attending a shoe
swap in May. That should take care of my shoe needs through the end of
the year problem solved.

Happy Swapping!

Jenn

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Because We Can! Panties are not Apparel, So Go Crazy!

Sally Bjornsen — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:00:20 +0000

The proverbial ink had barely dried on our story about Manpacks when one of our spotters alerted us to an equivalent for women: Panty by Post, a Canadian venture that offers—sure enough—women’s underwear by monthly subscription.

Where Manpacks focuses on the practical and functional, however, Panty by Post has quite different aspirations. No basic whites here—rather, the company has an exclusive agreement with Montreal’s Blush Lingerie for its signature and bridal lines. Panties come in hipster, thong and bikini styles and are made with French lace and satin. Customers can order panties individually, or they can sign up for subscriptions lasting two, three, six or 12 months. A different panty is then sent every month, each wrapped in an attractive mailing package. Pricing ranges from CDN 16 for a single pair to CDN 240 for a year’s worth of premium deliveries. Panty by Post is also about to launch a men’s subscription service featuring Montreal-based JM Intimode’s eco-minded “Briefs in a Box.”

Part convenience and part indulgence, Panty by Post reminds us of ShoeDazzle’s monthly subscriptions to a handpicked series of stylish shoes. Where else might fashion-minded consumers be interested in a little curated selection and recurring delivery?

Website: www.pantybypost.com
Contact: info@pantybypost.com

Spotted by: Lori Kalef

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Will that be debit or credit today?

Sarah F — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 21:20:54 +0000

All right ladies, thank you for all of your votes on our last poll! It looks like the majority of dieters buy their bra’s at department stores and specialty retailers. Not surprising, how can we resist when Victoria’s Secret sends out those handy coupons every couple months…lesson learned once they get you in, you’re never getting out without a little pink bag in hand and a lot less in the bank account! So now that we’ve established where some of this purchasing is happening, here at TGAAD we’re curious as to how you are making your purchases these days. The terrible question we hear time and time again: ”Will that be debit or credit miss?…umm could it be free? Nope ok, it was worth a shot!” Part of my financial management plan has always been to only purchase clothing on debit as to avoid those impulsive spending sprees prompted by various circumstances such as: the winter blues, a bad day, oh a sunny day in February I should probably buy some shorts to get prepared for all of the upcoming sunny warm days in Seattle, half birthday gift from myself to myself (I’m really so thoughtful), etc… we’ve all been there before! So we come to our newest poll: What method of payment do you typically use to purchase clothing? Enjoy!

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What were you wearing when…?

Sally Bjornsen — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 09:23:10 +0000

I have a friend who judges women on whether or not they remember where they were when Lady Di died. She uses this as a barometer for what kind of woman you are. If you can’t remember or don’t care my friend would instantly dismiss you as “not her kind of girl.”

Well I can take that concept a step further…I know what I was wearing when Lady Di died—a pair of burnt orange Gap jeans, a gray short sleeved t-shirt and a pair of ratty Nike Pegasus shoes, sans socks. I was probably wearing a bad bra too; I don’t remember the brand. Underwear? Who knows? I had been painting my office and made a quick trip to the paint store when I heard the news. I wish I had been more appropriately dressed for the occasion. It was Lady Di after all.

I know it’s silly and probably a giant brain drain but like songs from the 70s I remember almost every important event in my life by the outfit I wore. I am not just talking about clothes I wore in pictures; I am talking about clothes that I wore to my first gyno appt., my first kiss, and my first day of third grade. The list goes on and on, it’s kind of embarrassing.

I also have a list in my brain of my top ten outfits of a lifetime. It starts with an ensemble from third grade. A knit pant suit with yellow and white horizontal striped bell bottoms (who knew that was ever a good look) and a solid yellow knit tunic. And then there was the pair of footless black leggings paired with a fuchsia shaker sweater that went down to my knees—In retrospect I looked like The Big Fig Newton with a ratty perm. Then there was the Rayon black blazer from The Limited that I wore with pleated Seattle Blues acid washed jeans, The Nicole Miller aqua and black print flapper dress with the long waist (it looked hideous on me but I loved the print).

I won’t bore you with the rest of my top ten, but here’s my point. Apparel makes my world-go-round. It’s part of who I am, how I approach the world and how I organize my mind. Weird, and quite possibly shallow, I know. Just think of all the world’s problems that have been left unsolved simply because my brain is filled with memories of polyester and wool. But, oh well, that’s me.

For the record, as I write this I am wearing a J. Crew heather gray long sleeved cotton t-shirt, a pair of strategically ripped jeans by Big Star, my Frye engineer boots with Hue stripped socks, a pair of Calvin Klein undies and a flesh colored Natori bra.

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