The Great American Apparel Diet

no buying for one year

Tonight I was with my friend Portia who has been contemplating going on this diet for 11 months now.  I told her that I have decided to extend the diet for one more year, in light of the fact that there have been so many people interested in joining the effort in the past few weeks (here we go again).  When I told Portia it wasn’t too late to realize the benefits of clothing deprivation she hooped and hollered “That’s what I need, a closet colonic.”  The visual made me gag.  She went on to claim, “Deep within my big, fat, bloated walk-in closet there is a skinny one begging to be free.”  Portia, warming to the idea, is going to “think about it,” before she commits.  Let me be clear…I am not doing this for another year myself but I will moderate, facilitate, contemplate and write about life post diet.   

Alright already Portia—stop the squawkin’ and start walkin’ give your closet the future it deserves with a purge, a cleanse a regular down home colonic.  We’re here my dear and waiting to hear how it all “flushes out.”

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O.K., I am not proud.  I have told nearly every woman I know that I am simply starving on this @#$%^& diet.  The good news, my incessant complaints and whines have been rewarded with hand-me-downs from friends and family (maybe they just want me to shut up).  Now, these aren’t Oliver Twist castoffs.  Remember, birds of a feather flock together.   My friends and family have hand-me-downs with tags still on them or barely worn items that they “bought on a whim,” and shouldn’t have (you know the story).  I am sorry for their mistakes, but not really.  I’m glad to be the one who can take these items off their hands.  Most importantly their gifts are going to good use.  Just last week I received a beautiful wrap from my mother,  a white knit item, just like Meryl Streep wore in the movie It’s Complicated.  I am now wearing a pair of pewter Donald Pliner slides and a great pair of lulu lemon tights my yoga friend gave me (she has three of the same pair).  So my point?  Tell people you will gladly take their shopping mistakes off their hands.  They will fell great about it, especially if you wear them again and again.  Now go forth and tell the world, “I am hungry, feed me your scraps!”

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My name is J.S., and this challenge really struck a chord with me when I first read about it. As a young adult who works in the fashion industry, I witness consumerism and the short lifespan of ever-evolving trends on a daily basis. One day it’s in, the next day it’s out. This is why I believe developing your own style is important. Not only do you become less immune to these trends, but you can stand out from the crowd. Why wear something just because it’s “in right now”? Your style is what makes you, you. This challenge is an opportunity to continue developing my style by looking into my closet and exercising some creativity! The other goal is to free up, time (and space) to invest in what is important to me. This will be an interesting challenge because all day I am surrounded by clothes, and I occasionally wholesale-buy for clothing. I guess the perk of saving aside a pair to stow away in my closet will be gone until September 1st, 2010. I want to see how strong I mentally am. Bring it on!

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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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All right dieters, for many of you this diet ends in 85 days.  I am trying to prepare as best I can for the day when we are “set free.”  The last thing I want is a mass binge on crappy, (earth damning) clothes all made in inhumane factories in China. 

As you know I have been pondering the question—what does responsible consumerism mean and is eco-fashion code for burlap dress?  First let me reflect a bit. At the beginning of this diet I didn’t know I would become interested in “world friendly” fashion.  But through TGAAD experiment I have read, met and interviewed several fashionistas who have made a concerted effort to be both fashionable and kind to the globe.  I have come to admire that goal and would like to try that myself. 

So, with that thought, I am hoping that when I am finally “let loose” at the mall I will be much more aware of where my products come from, who made them and what they are made of.  We are talking sophisticated, hot, sexy, sharp, professional, fun clothes, not Burning Man attire.  Apparel that looks beautiful, is made well and comes from a place that you can pronounce. 

So beginning today I am going to, along with my intern Kim, share the knowledge of what eco brands exist out there.  This will be a daily update.  We will begin to educate you on who is shaping the designs and direction of eco friendly fashion.  We will introduce you to people and companies who can legitimately boast fair treatment of their employees.  And finally and I think most exciting we will open your eyes to some stellar American sourced and American made brands that you can get enthusiastic about.  So here it goes.

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I cheated. Nine months in and I cheated. I bought two new yoga tops. I could give you some good excuses like – my droopy boobs that seem to have dropped two additional inches this year – needed a bit more support, but that would just be an excuse. A real one none the less, but still I could have held out. The real reason is that I started ‘not to care’…just got tired of all the other pressures of my life and this seemed the easier route to take. Just got back from a very rough trip to NY while my brother received chemo for 4 days in a row, with me by his side. Many, many family dynamics and a long flight delay home, to MORE RAIN and MORE family pressures and I just got plain tired. I’m sorry. But I’m not returning the tops. I will do my best to stay on track for the remaining months. As much as I say I don’t care…it does matter.

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As I descend into my sixth month on the clothes diet, I’ve caught myself reminiscing about my last trip to a mall. My friend Tina and I were quite bored after lunch one afternoon and had some time to spare, so we ventured to a relatively new mall that was close-by, but rarely possessed anything either of us could afford. Being that I was on the clothes diet and she has been trying to cut back a little, we made a pact. We could look at all the pretty things we want, but if either of us tried to make a purchase, they would be allotted one smack and a stern “NO”.  There would be no rationalizing a purchase here, nor any mindless spending.

Soon, of course, we found that this formerly extravagant mall had fallen on (slightly) tough times, allowing more affordable stores into their hallowed halls. (I might add that you can now cue Joe Jackson’s “Captain of Industry (Overture)” to play in the background of this paragraph.) Upon our realization of the mall’s new persona that was filled with the likes of Forever 21 and Anthropologie, we ran around like kids in a store that sold not just candy, but also some forbidden fireworks and other explosives.  At this point, the clothing racks were flooded with echoes of oohs and aahs. Fingers were pointed at sparkly trinkets, and puppy dog eyes gleamed in the face of plumed fascinators. But all was forgotten as an apple-red tweed jacket lined with navy tartan and a portion of Paddington Bear’s soul quickly caught my canine sight, overshadowing any reflections from the other doodads. Light shone from its threads as swirling, twinkling colors straight from the opening credits of Family Affair settled upon its countenance. It was the apple of my eye, and as said eyes glazed over and my drool washed ashore, Tina sensed my weakness very quickly, pulling me aside to look at floral frocks to which she knows I would never feel betrothed. This brought up another point of conversation, a story from our teenage years.

Soon pointing a rigid finger at a bowl full of jewel encrusted, tiger bedecked rings, and glitter nail polish, Tina squealed, “Tabatha, I neeeeed these things,” mocking a former incarnation of herself who was also blinded by the light of fashion. We chortled at Tina’s quotation of that hidden and buried inner girl that had once picked up a bundle of tchotchkes in a Claire’s Accessories, making the exact same proclamation, one of need rather than desire. However, we knew deeply that neither of us had really grown out of the inane love spell that we first noted while perusing those novelties during that hazy memory of a spring evening. The little girls within ourselves would never let us forget those sparkled yearnings.

Luckily, through our wit and self-deprecating humor, we made it out of the mall with nothing but a discount Erlenmeyer flask that I had, as I explained to Tina with her lips already poised for a “NO”, been searching for over a six month period. Right now I still think about the jacket, and if I hadn’t been on the diet I know that I probably would have returned to romantically whisk  it off its hanger. But I can rest easy knowing that I now have money to spend on making memories at summer concerts for the Psychedelic Furs and the Go-Gos that would otherwise have been spent on my addiction to tweed. This is at least a great solace.

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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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One of the best things about this diet is connecting with new people all over the world.  Apparently this is a topic that has hit a nerve and has been pondered for a while.  One of the people I have been in contact with is Kelly Drennan Founderof  Fashion Takes Action, www.fashiontakesaction.com.  Kelly has provided us with the facts below that are both depressing and enlightening.  Kelly is a thought leader in the fashion/sustainability arena and is a great resource for information on sustainable fashion. 

FACTS ABOUT THE FASHION INDUSTRY

 Consumption & Waste:

• In North America, the average person consumes over 80 pounds of textiles per year.
• Synthetic (man-made fibres) products will not decompose, and while woolen garments do decompose, they produce methane gas which contributes to climate change.
• 38% of Canada’s methane emissions (greenhouse gases) comes from landfill sites.
• On average, 80% of textiles thrown away still have 75% of their wear-ability left. 

• If everyone in Canada bought one reclaimed woolen garment each year, it would save an average of 300 million gallons of water and 400 tonnes of chemical dyes (imagine what this means for the U.S. which is 10 times the size of Canada). 
• Fashion is the second largest industry next to agriculture in terms of water consumption.

 Cotton:

• One pound of low impact dyed cotton uses 100 gallons of water.
• One single cotton t-shirt requires 357 gallons of water to produce.
• A single t-shirt uses about 9 ounces of cotton, an average of 17 tsp of synthetic fertilizers and nearly a teaspoon of pesticides that are classified as among the most toxic by the Environmental Protection Agency.
• Agrochemical companies make on average $2.2 billion selling cotton pesticides each year. 
• Many of the agents used to spray cotton were originally developed in WWII as nerve gases.

Leather:

•    95% of US tanneries have moved overseas to avoid environmental oversight penalties.  Tanneries are so toxic that many old tannery sites can’t be used for agriculture or built on or even sold
• Quick and permanent chrome tanning creates soft leathers, dyes easily etc; however chemicals are extremely poisonous and linger in ecosystems
• In addition to chromium, modern tanneries use synthetic chemicals such as sodium sulphide, formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, sulphuric acid, bactericides, paints, dyes, degreasers and surfactants various solvents which release volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
• Chromium (VI) is the most persistent toxin used by the leather industry. It is a known carcinogen with the following documented human health effects: skin rashes, upset stomachs and ulcers, respiratory problems, weakened immune systems, kidney and liver damage, alteration of genetic material, lung cancer and death (source: Organic Leather) – because of this most tanneries have switched to chromium (III) which is considerably less toxic but it commonly oxidizes into chromium (VI) during the tanning process and so the finished product contains toxins
• Even in the finished product, chromium (VI) causes allergic reactions such as skin rashes and ulcers, and because of its oxidized nature, it moves easily across membranes such as human skin
• According to EPA, 95% of all leather has been tanned with chromium.

Dyes:

• All synthetic dyes are made from coal tar, one of the most carcinogenic substances on the planet.
• Conventional dye process discharges massive quantities of toxic chemicals into the environment, including huge amounts of dioxins, the world’s number one carcinogen (source: Mike Betts, Director Better Thinking Ltd).
• On the local level – effects on ecosystems – wet processing effluent discharged into rivers and streams, resulting in dead zones due to effluent aquatic toxicity and biological oxygen demand; areas where chemicals are found disrupt normal reproduction of fish.
• On a global level – depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer due to emissions of chlorofluorocarbons and climate change due to CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
• Heavy metals such as chromium and cadmium, while capable of making bright and vibrant dyes, can pose a threat wherever they appear in the product life cycle – during mining, use of the dye in dye wastewater, or as result of composting or incineration.

Synthetics:

• Fibers, particularly micro-fibers, which are synthetic and petroleum derived, are perilous to our lungs. Tiny dust particles – micro-dust – coat our lungs, potentially inducing lung cancer. Some fabric dyes use cadmium, which with exposure to air, binds to small particles. It falls to the ground or water as rain or snow, and may contaminate fish, plants and animals. (source: Horst Rechelbacher)
• The main catalyst used in polyester production is antimony – a known carcinogen and toxin that affects the heart, liver, lungs and skin. By products of antimony cause bronchitis and emphysema.

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O.K.  I’m wrapping up the latest poll.  And the results are in…more people think this diet is easy than hard.  That said, it’s easier by a thin margin.  58% of you said it is relatively easy and 42% said it was hard.  For me it all depends on the day.  Today it’s hard, tomorrow it might be easier.  I think about the pre diet era.  There were days when I wasn’t feeling all that good e.g., bad hair day, ridiculous work meeting, argument with my seven year old.  My immediate reaction, conscious or subconscious, was to go buy something for myself.  Often times it was something completely wrong and poorly made and probably on sale (hence my closet full of crap).  It was an emotional impulse.

But the fact is life has its peaks and valleys, but for every valley there is a peak whether you’re wearing new clothes or not.  I hope for all of you this is an easy day but remember we will be here when its not.  5 mos. and 15 days.  Your fearless leader.

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