The Great American Apparel Diet

no buying for one year

Sunday is in 2.5 hours from now. It will be the end of my year long “no shopping for apparel diet”. I said last week that I would go downtown and see what damage I could do. I got a post from a reader saying “Didn’t you learn anything from all of this?” I will say, yes, I did learn something!!!! I learned that I missed shopping with my girlfriends. I actually gave up something I love doing, and it ended up being a great way to learn to appreciate what I have, and really think about what I want. What is the point of giving up chocolate if you never liked chocolate? Are the people on this diet really never going to shop for clothes ever again after the year is up?

Although I have never been an out of control shopper, or freakishly impulsive, it did feel good to enjoy what I have — and take what I wasn’t wearing to the tailor to make it better. If it wasn’t possible to save with the tailor, I gave it away. But I do love a good clothing designer, I love seeing what people are creating, and I love visiting small businesses and seeing what the buyers are presenting. I love women’s apparel.

What ever your reason for starting this whole Sally thing, it will be an interesting year. Too bad stores aren’t open until 11:00 AM on Sundays. I will be downtown with my friends tomorrow, and next week, I will be in New York. I may buy something, or not, but I will be following many of Sally’s rules, combined with Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style rules. Only if I love it and it looks and fits great, and something I need. I will also be sticking to basics. More soon, with photos of what I actually get, if anything!

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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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As I read these wonderful entries, and as I begin this diet as of 7/22/10, I feel fortunate because I’ve always wished I could have just a few comfortable outfits and cycle through them — kind of like a uniform.  I think a few t-shirts, jeans or khakis, denim jacket or dressy sweater for work…the problem for me became needing that one pair of really comfortable pair of khakis that look really good, or just one really good white t-shirt (understated and stylish)…well, suddenly I’m on a treadmill of purchasing ‘key basics’ to build my comfy, stylish uniform.  How did I get here?  Even though I was deluding myself that I was practical but cool, I was still looking for some item to make me perfect.  Maybe I have been deluding myself, a little self-congratulatory, on the whole ‘uniform’ thing, since in reality I kept looking for the perfect items.

This is the year I say enough, I work on my mind and body, and I also learn to say good enough:  the white t-shirt I own is good enough…the khakis are good enough.  I hope this coming period is when I learn to say my mind and body are good enough.  It’s not the clothes — it’s the woman.

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Change Your Underwear!

A new favorite thing (and legal TGAAD purchase): PACT underwear. A “Hanky Panky” die hard, I’m pretty picky in this department, but PACT’s functional fashion and eco-friendly manufacturing has won me over.

PACT’s motto: CHANGE STARTS WITH YOUR UNDERWEAR. Not only are PACT panties incredibly comfy (and VERY sexy, especially those men’s boxer briefs), they’re made from organic cotton, sustainably manufactured and 10% of every purchase goes to a non-profit.

Started by ecopreneurs Jason Kibbey and Jeff Denby, designed by Yves Behar and based in Berkeley, CA, PACT has created a beautiful line with an impressive supply chain that supports organic cotton farmers, promotes responsible labor practices and makes positive change (from your body to the world’s).

All good from the inside out!

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My friend Dikka “No Scrap Too Small” is organizing a show of recycled fashions in Seattle’s Greenwood Parade. More info at Sew Up Seattle http://www.sewupseattle.blogspot.com/

Dikka is part of the great Re-Skilling of America, teaching free sewing classes (using all recycled materials) every month.

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The day after I posted on this blog last month, all proud that I hadn’t felt the need to cheat, yada yada, and saying that really the only thing on my post-September list was a pair of running shoes, what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a pair of my favorite brand of running shoes at 70% off!

I briefly considered walking away but then quickly ran down a hasty list of justifications and in no time at all, well, you read the title so you know what comes next…   Do you want to hear my list?  OK, here goes:

1.  This is fate.  A higher power has spoken.  I just blogged about this…”ask and the universe shall provide,” right?

2.  Running shoes are a tool, not really apparel.  I don’t buy them because I want to and get a fashion high from them, but rather because they wear out and I need to replace them to stay healthy.

3.  Though this is a purchase, it does comply with my new pledge to stop recreational shopping, and to only buy things that I have decided that I need.  This is the one thing I’ve said I need and will buy, right?

4.  Wow.  70% off!

5.  I will buy them now, and keep them in the closet until September.  So really it’s just a budgeting issue–post-TGAAD I get new shoes that I just happened to pay for a few months before.

Did I convince you?  Obviously, I convinced myself.  However, at the end of the day and this list of justifications, the truth is that I cheated.  But I’m back on the wagon now!

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• Designed and made in California
• “ecoSkin is a privately-held California apparel company offering chic, contemporary designs for the eco-conscious but fashion-savvy woman. Core to its planet-friendly mission, ecoSkin uses only environmentally sustainable luxury fabrics woven, dyed and sewn in the USA.”

My friends and I would shop at ecoSkin; pre-teens would shop at ecoSkin. My mother would shop at ecoSkin, and even my Aunt would shop at ecoSkin. That is only one of many appealing things about this earth-friendly brand made and designed in L.A. by industry veteran Sandy Skinner. Offering everything from casual shirts to evening-worthy dresses, there is something for everyone and every moment of your life. Outfits come in toned-down blues, reds and pinks as well as neutrals such as grey and beige. Their looser tunics and summer dresses caught my eye, and I know my mother would love the selection of wrap dresses; they are perfect for the office. The clothes are begging you to style them which allows fashion freedom and the ability for them to easily slip into any existing wardrobe. With Sandy closely watching every step of the process to make sure the clothes are made with environment in mind, you are sure to walk away feeling guilt-free and with a jump in your step that these flirty pieces will surely produce.

Twistflower Dress

• Prices are on par with Banana, though unlike Banana these items were not made in sweatshops in China, so overall a good deal.
• Sold in boutiques in 31 states as well as show rooms in LA and there is an online store.

http://www.ecoskincollections.com/ecoskin/index.html#

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Me sporting one of Erika's gifts

As my participation in TGAAD is nearing it’s 8th month, I’ve come to realize that this is not merely a little social experiment.   TGAAD is, in fact, a group of REAL flesh-and-blood people from across the world who, together, have created a community – a caring, supportive alliance.  Whether it’s empathic comments and feedback on one another’s entries, clothing swaps organized amongst geographically close members, or offers of support for fellow participants, I see the manifestation of that caring community on the pages of this blog every day.

For me, personally, the support of TGAAD has taken the form of encouraging feedback on my blogs about our family’s struggles with unemployment, kind words about my weight loss successes, and generally supportive replies to my various posts.  I know that I’m a part of a warmhearted network of women here!

I was impressed all-the-more recently when Erika – a Seattle dieter I’d never met – made a very thoughtful and generous offer.  After reading my entry about needing clothes for a new part-time job, she e-mailed me photos of three lovely work blouses she no longer wears.  She thought they’d be my size and offered to send them to me if I was interested!

I ask you… how cool is that!?  We’re essentially complete strangers living on opposite coasts of the country, but she cared enough to reach out to me in this way and offer her help.

Appreciative of Erika’s offer, I immediately took her up on it and, not long thereafter, I received my three new blouses in the mail.  I tried them on straightaway, and was thrilled to find that all fit perfectly.  Yay!  Christmas in June!

I have already had an opportunity to wear one of the blouses (photo above) and can’t wait for a chance to do so with the others.  As a newly-working woman, I know they will play a huge role in carrying me through to September 1^st on this diet.

Well, I guess what I really want to say here is THANK YOU, Erika, for your kindness and generosity… and thanks to ALL of my fellow “dieters” for your support and for creating the caring community that TGAAD has become!  Keep on encouraging one another on your respective journeys… You guys rock!

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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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Yesterday, I wore a crisp white button up Armani shirt that I got at our clothes swap. I felt great in it, and also like I had on something new. Let’s have another one! Also, I wanted to look professional when I met etiquette and protocol expert, Arden Clise. She teaches classes on electronic protocol (emails, etc), good handshakes, proper table manners, and even how to dress for your work place. I have decided to have a class at my place on Queen Anne, so let me know if you are interested! It is on Tuesday night, May 25th. I will make yummy snacks. I already have three people signed up and we would like to have six to eight. Maybe next time we can have an etiquette class and a clothes swap all in one!

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