I’m always keeping my eyes open for articles on our changing spending habits. There’s been a recent poll on TGAAD on whether dieters out there really consider this recession over. Well turns out there have been changes amongst spending habits even for those who many assumed were to be above the financial woes of middle to lower class America. Highlighted is a link to the Wall Street Journal article posted today that gives a little light consumers spending on luxury goods!
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!”
I have been seeing different sites and blogs that suggest “consumer diets” and have slowly built an interest. At first I thought “Good for them!”, then I started thinking “Could be fun…” and now I’m thinking “I can do this!!” I do shop very frugally, enjoying the hunt for sales and thrifting, but have now turned my focus towards home decor and cooking, so why not just cut out buying clothes altogether? I have a whole closet room-so no need to purchase more clothes, my hubby and I have begun our financial planning for investing and retirement-so I can contribute more toward that with the money I save and honestly I think it’ll do me good to face this challenge. I would like to believe that I am not a materialistic person by nature and this will be proof to me that I have my priorities in order and am not consumed by consumerism 
Part of the reason we live in a disposable apparel culture is that we don’t take the time or make the effort to take care of the clothes we own. I remember as a kid my mother hand washing her favorite items. This was long before people sent everything to the dry cleaner, which by the way can ruin a wardrobe if you are not careful. My mother’s special “delicate” silks and jerseys would hang on the shower rod in our bathroom or on the floor laid flat to dry. I can’t remember the last time I hand washed something. My mother, by the way is a fashion icon at 72 years old. Her wardrobe can go up against anyone’s wardrobe anyday. Most of what’s especially beautiful in her closet are those things she has hung onto for years. So that brings me to this…how do we modern girls learn from the generation before us about taking care of what we already own? Here are some basic principles. Please add on your own and I will post them too.
Tips for taking care of the clothes you already own:
SoOoOooOoo I’ve done it. I have fallen off the proverbial wagon and bought something.
Was it expensive? Probably…
Unnecessary? Probably..
Worth it? TOTALLY.
To be fair, this isn’t juuusst ‘something’ it’s more than that…I bought a limited edition type coat by Smythe for HBC. It’s ABSOLUTELY 100% GORGEOUS!! And I LOOOVVVEE it and it LOOVEESS MEEEEE back! I want to have its babies! 100,000,000 of them!!
………annnyywaaayyy.
Let’s slow things down with a little history lesson about this jacket: In 2009 HBC [Hudson Bay Company] asked 10 Canadian Designers to re-create one of a kind coats from a HBC Point Blanket. Originally, they weren’t for sale, however, Smythe’s jacket in particular was so popular that they made a special order of 100 coats and sold them during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Anyhow, this is just one little minor blip on the radar. I will continue on with this challenge. After purchasing my jacket, I started thinking; I wonder what the success rate of this challenge is. I know you can measure ‘successes’ in a number of different ways yadayadayada. But if you measure your success rate as 100% = no buying anything and 0% = buying a new pair of Louboutin’s every week, what would it beeeee?!?!
Perhaps we can start a poll: For those on the challenge, how many non-essential items have you purchased? Don’t’ be shy, be honest…but be warned, I WILL JUDGE YOU! [just kidding, I won't - cubs honor]
Zero
1 – 4
5 – 9
10 – 14
15 & Up
I suppose it was rather ambitious of me for thinking I could go an ENTIRE year without shopping. Mehhh…oh well, it was a good run; 7 weeks of zero shopping. That’s pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good…if I say so myself. All in all, No regrets. And whatever your number is; keep on keeping on.
For previous post, and more ridiculousness check out Naked Susie; A year without [new] clothes
Opening the mail yesterday I got the usual: bills; banking stuff; pre-approved credit card applications etc… however, I did not expect to be faced with 100% temptation. COACH sent me this [ever-so-slightly-evil] promotional deal. “Our Gift to YOU!! Use this $100 card toward your purchase of $300 or more”
Whaaaaattt?!?! For realsies? Hmm… Well, I do really need a new purse. I mean, not now, but sometime in my life I will probably need another one so why not get a head of the game? OMG, this MUST be a sign! This is the heavenly purse gods telling me themselves that I need to buy a purse! A $600 purse!!!! And I’ll get $100 off! Yesssss! It’s the deal of the century! This is totally a one off; I’ll never see this kind of deal again. Ever. Everrrrr…! Aghhh!! I need purse. Must get purse:
Luckily for me, I have a completely normal and rational boyfriend. He flat out told me “NO don’t do it” and something like “What do you need a $600 purse for and $600 is a lot of money for a purse…blah, blah, blah” To which I quietly replied, “But… but I’d love it forever and it would last a lifetime; so the cost per wear would be incredibly low.” As I said those words, I realized that even I couldn’t convince myself that this was true. I know I don’t need it; I probably wouldn’t even use it that often. More so, I would most likely lose it, or have someone steal it from me.
So if you’re interested, have I got a deal for you! If you want this $100 off $300’s spent, message me and I’ll give it to you for $50 bucks. Don’t worry; you’re still getting a GREAT DEAL!!
What’s the moral of the story? Spending $300 to get $100 off is NOT a deal. You’re NOT saving money and you’re still spending $200 [or more] to get that so-called “deal”. Common sense can be so difficult sometimes…
xoxo $ixHundredDollar purse girl.
For previous post, please check out Naked Susie; a year without [new] clothes.
Time magazine has published an article today on shopping and consumer behavior, which discusses why we make some of the spending choices that we make. Particularly interesting was their discussion of the domino effect when we buy one item and feel the need to buy many more to “go” with it instead of considering returning that pair of shoes, dress, shirt, ect. There has been extensive marketing research done in recent years on consumer behavior and debt in America, and we are getting down to some of the consumer psychology that explains our shopping behaviors. The Great American Apparel Diet is mentioned in this discussion, and the article is incredibly interesting and offers some relevant evaluations of our behavior as consumers.
Check it out! http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2039389,00.html
Hello Dieters, we’ve stumbled upon an article written today in the Huffington post about shopping and consumerism. The author, Judith Acosta, is smart and insightful bringing interesting comparisons to help us think about our consumer behaviors. Check it out!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judith-acosta-lisw-cht/stop-shopping-and-start-t_b_788568.html
Interesting article about the changes that are happening in the apparel industry and how it is going to affect consumers.
A little background, I am a child of retail–father, grandfather both in the retail business. My childhood was spent in department stores (closed on Sunday) hiding behind the rounders and racks, befriending mannequins and overly made up sales clerks. I tell you this because I do love retail, it’s in my bones. But that said it has gotten nutty and has lost its luster for me. Why you ask?
Retailers used to be closed on Sundays and holidays—lest they encroach on the consumer’s chance to relax, reflect and to spend time with family and friends. In those days consumerism was just one small part of our lives. Today retailers are open until six o clock on Sundays. Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day are fair game. On the news today I saw that many retailers are opening their doors at 3am on black Friday (tomorrow). Really? Who is shopping at 3am? When did getting the best deal become more important than getting a good night’s sleep? And what is a deal if you have to spend the night on concrete in a tent outside a big box retailer. I ask, what is your time worth and is it really a deal?
It’s moments like this that I am embarrassed to be an American. Is our cultural identity wrapped up in consumerism, intertwined with Best Buy and Nordstrom ? When I think of the Italians I think pasta, the French cigarettes and beautiful women. The Greeks remind me of olives and the Olympics. Brazil, soccer. Is America Apple Pie and Target? I certainly hope not.
I say back off, enjoy the holidays. You have a whole month before Christmas, no need to sleep in a parking lot on Thanksgiving night. There will always be more to buy and retailers willing to give you a deal. Let’s take back our culture and find something else to go nuts about.
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