The Great American Apparel Diet
no buying for one year

Jan 10

Olsen twin as muse: thinking big in C.O.Bigelow

I didn’t really notice when my sister elbowed me in the gut and side-mouth whispered, “Mary-Kate to your left”, into my ear. There must have been a mad dash on makeup this weekend at C.O.Bigelow’s, because they were out of everything I wanted, and I was sort of stewing about it when I got the nudge. The whole point of this day was to buy all new makeup. I wanted to finally clean out my makeup bag and, because I have sworn off clothes shopping through the end of summer, protect Woman’s best accessory- my skin! Old makeup is the enemy of a fine face, and C.O. Big’s and Beauty Alert! were going to help me this weekend for goodness sake.

When I finally figured out what my sister was saying to me, I casually glanced over and in half a second, noticed a slip of girl, in four inch black leather wedge boots, black skinny (oh so skinny) trousers, and all wrapped up to her pleasantly disheveled blonde highlights in a light-weight, yet voluminous, black scarf. I was still upset about leaving Bigs empty handed, but I had a quiet revelation seeing one of the tiny twins standing there, svelte in front of the French soaps. I thought, hey this is what it’s all about. Simplicity. Experience. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t made a purchase, what mattered was that I was- am-living my life. And I like it. No matter that my sister and I tried on 18 different lipsticks and didn’t like a single one. We were having a good time, and seeing an Olsen twin (we never could figure out which one we saw) was a sign. A benevolent oracle for our time, dressed in black.

What I realized was this: when you take away shopping from your daily diet, and are left with only your past purchases to console you, all that really matters is a great pair of straight black trousers. Thank the muse, I have one pair of straight black Levis, that I had tailored to fit my waist, pre-TGAAD. And, thanks to BeautyAlert!, I did end up cleaning out my makeup bag this weekend. I even sterilized my brushes…. Hooray for shopping alternatives!