The Great American Apparel Diet

no buying for one year

While I am a newbie(and thank you Sally for the welcome), I’ve been on a self imposed no clothes buying order since before the New Year, as that is when it all hit me.  I’ve found it easy thus far, steering clear from my old clothing haunts including the very limited number of decent clothing stores for men in Seattle, there are three in total, and most deadly, the online sites.  The problem is, each month that goes by, I find myself justifying the amount of money I’m saving from not shopping.  This little ”spend averaging” attitude easily slips into my mind.  For each month I don’t spend this year, I’m off setting a month of spend on clothing from last year and bringing the average spend on clothes down.  And over time, I’m going to start telling myself that I deserve to get something because I’ve not spent for so long. 

You see, the way this hit me is I went overboard on clothes shopping the last two years, fueled by the fact that I decided I only like a few designer labels: Armani, Hugo Boss, Jill Sander, Zegna, Ralph Lauren Black and John Varvatos and with the bad economy last year, there were plenty of sales on these brands.  So the “sales justification” mentality kicked into high gear.  The Jill Sander leather jacket I eyed at Barney’s, $2,400.  Too rich for me and too scared to even wear that expensive of a jacket out, but then the 40% off sale.  Still couldn’t justify. And then 65% off….$840, okay.  Sold.  Fits perfectly and I receive lots of compliments, but there is was, a justification from a sale.  By the end of the year, it had gotten out of hand. 

So to put it fairly, the closest is full and I don’t need any more clothes, but I miss it. I miss pawing through the racks and seeing the latest colors and trends, or searching on saks.com or yoox.com for the latest pieces from my favorite designers, or using shopstyle.com to see what others are finding that I didn’t find.  You get caught up in the search…for something new, fresh, different, unique, but you also know the consequence.  If you look, you will find, and if you find, you will want.

Thanks for reading.

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Last year I made the choice to stop purchasing new clothes, and this year I have chosen not to purchase any clothes at all. So far, so good. In fact, I don’t even miss the endless, mindless shopping and I’ve decided to put my saved cash toward something fun, my first vacation in 5 years. My husband and I chose to head out to Park City, Utah for some pretty intense snowboarding. We traveled with friends to keep the expense down, but really enjoyed ourselves and I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to go. My three lifestyle changes that I have implemented have made the trip possible. No smoking, means that I could still breathe and be active at 11,000+ feet, getting up early and working out prepared me for four straight days of hardcore riding, and the money that I didn’t spend on clothes helped to fund the trip. I finally feel unencumbered, rather than just sacrificing by participating.

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Hi. OK, the coat came from Bluefly.com and it is so fantastic. It is faux shearling from Via Spiga. I saved 39% by shopping at Bluefly.com. That is what is so hard to resist. I will try to make this my last cheating expedition. I am sorry. It won’t happen again. I don’t know what came over me. Now, off to blog about my new mascaras at www.beautyalert.biz/blog

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I did it. I admit it. I went shopping with my most enabling friend Liz. It was good. We started off with cookies and then it all went downhill. It ended in Anthropologie-the scene of many a panic attack for me. I thought I could just be there for the paper products or maybe to add another plate to my collection but no…..I innocently went into the dressing room with Liz. She tried on the cutest black blazer…..the lining was red silk with little white scottie dogs….the patches on the elbows were adorable. It did not fulfill its potential on Liz. (Though many other things did.)
I didn’t think it would hurt if I tried it on….It was so cute on the hanger. Try it on I did. Somehow in my lack of shopping, I had a hallucination that it looked adorable on me if only I could have it tailored a little.
I walked, nay, RAN to the front to buy the blazer but enroute I saw an adorable blouse that was a lovely cream with light and dark purple seagulls flying all over it. I didn’t dare intentionally go into the dressing room to try it on so I just whipped it on over my t-shirt right then and there. Lo and behold it was glorious-perfect!
I scurried up to the counter and paid before I could talk myself out of any of it. It was there that the sticker shock began to set in. The blazer was $150 plus (I can’t even quite remember!) and the blouse was no bargain itself.
I bid Liz adieu and headed home. I couldn’t even take the bag out of my trunk and schlep it upstairs. I left it in my car for a week trying not to think about it or my shame.
Well, yesterday I retrieved the bag and brought it upstairs to reassess my purchases and I was quite surprised at what I found. It was almost as if I had the blinders removed. I tried on the blazer and couldn’t figure out how my dry cleaner (and tailor) could possibly alter it ENOUGH to make it look as flattering as I had thought it already was at the store. Next, I tried on the blouse. I even wore it downstairs to show my mom. She initially thought it was cute and as she looked at it a little longer she said, “You know, it’s actually a little too big in the back but the shoulders fit.” Then I had to show her that in fact, it gapped at the chest because even the the shoulders fit perfectly, clearly my boobs were too big or there was a shortage of fabric in that area.
Final analysis: Athropologie 0 and me 2.
Both items are getting returned post haste!

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Here I am, joined last week…and I have to admit, I had to make my last goodbye shopping last week. I feel like starting with real diet, and eating a big cake the night before  But that was really final! I will not anymore support financial crisis overcoming (because some smart economists told that if we buy more, we will overcome financial crisis faster). So goodbye shinny windows, nice clothes, and discouuuunts. Will update you how it goes! And if I am surviving

Btw, any proposal what we can do with the money we save from shopping! Maybe we can organize some trip in August

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Today I was amazed when I tallied up our formidable and burgeoning group of dieters (weight watchers look out).  As of today the headcount is 70. O.K., maybe not big enough to be a political party but impressive enough to be a mini-movement.  A little overview of what our group looks like in demographic language.

We are women, though I have had a few inquiries from men none have been brave enough to join.  We range in age from 19 to 60. We are a creative, curious, sometimes hilarious and educated lot.  Many of us are self employed, business owners, creative thinkers, writers, producers, executives, lawyers, PHDs, mothers, wives, stepmothers, recessionistas, fashionistas, snowboarders, yogis, students, grandmothers, knitters, sewers and social mavens.  Some of us have recently lost our jobs while others are looking to change careers. Our shared interest?  We are all collectively reevaluating our habits, shopping habits in particular.

Some of us are motivated to curb our carbon footprint while others are more motivated to curb spending. Some are sick and tired of consumption in general while others are concerned about consumption and the environment.  Many of us want to share our trials and tribulations on the blog while others prefer to hang back and observe.   We hail from seventeen states in the U.S. Canada and the UK.  Specifically we are from: Washington, California, Florida, Texas, Ohio, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Georgia, Tennessee, Illinois, North Carolina, Idaho, Maryland, Indiana, Colorado, Virginia, Canada and England.

Twenty of us started the diet on Sept. 1^st and twenty joined in the last week.  The rest have joined at some point between October 1^st and Dec. 28^th.

Bottom line….this is a remarkable group of people who have come together to make a change.  So girls….keep on keepin’ on!

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According to an article on MSNBC Mall-loving behavior may be linked to our hunting and foraging past.

Women get back to their foraging roots by sorting through store racks — as if scanning plants for signs of ripeness, researchers suggest. 

To read the entire article go to: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34380445/ns/health-behavior/

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O.K. so we obviously know the power of having a group to motivate personal deprivation.  Right?  Anyway, the other day I was chatting with Izzy, my new Texas friend and fellow writer/blogger (see: www.stepmothersmilk.com)  who I met in Chicago at the blogher conference.  If we lived in the same town I know we’d be inseperable.   I digress.  Back to the alcohol thing…

Izzy and I were discussing on the phone (we now have bi-weekly chat sessions) our collective concern about consupmtion…this time the topic was alcohol, not clothes.   We both agreed we’d like to drop a few lbs. and that the 500 to 800 calories a day in wine consuption probably wasn’t helping the case.  Somehow we floated up the idea…how about we do a alcohol fast in January.  She liked the idea, I liked the idea and we decided to float it out here on the blog to see if anyone else is interested in abstaining from apparel and alcohol (in January) together.  My sister is on board….if TGAAD is any indication of her fortitude I’m not sure she’s the best member but she’s joining anyway.  Let me know if you’d like to jump on the wagon with Izzy,  Jacky and me.

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Is it my fault that black Friday fell upon the day before I left for my long awaited trip to surf/yoga camp in Sayulita, Mexico?? No. It IS, however, entirely my fault that I listened to my mom when she told me that my swim suit was tired, baggy and needed to be replaced. I tried to mitigate the damage…I really did.

My old college roommate had a darling suit on on Thanksgiving Day. (Remember, I live in Southern California.)  Anywho, it turned out her suit was Lands End so off I trudged to……Sears. I hadn’t been in a Sears since I don’t know when and to go on Black Friday seemed like sacrilege. It was as if I could hear the siren song of Anthropologie calling. Who knew that Lands End had these big sections of Sears devoted to their clothes. (Clearly not me and if couldn’t be Anthropologie, it might as well be Lands End.)

Apparently they produce these things called pants which fit on people who have smallish waists and adult size booties.  I found myself pulling pair after pair off of the displays and before I knew it, I was in a dressing room with five pairs of pants and two pairs of shorts.  Good God.  Almost three solid months of no clothes shopping and now what was I doing?  I could feel the guilt and anxiety mounting.  I could also hear the rationalizations streaming through my head.

The next thing I knew I was at the counter with two pairs of pants, a pair of shorts, two tank tops and a t shirt.  Seriously.  That’s the bad news.  The good news is that EVERYTHING was on sale and then I got an extra thirty percent off the total so the grand total of my crazed spending spree was just under $100 dollars.

The other good news is that I wore every single thing that I bought on my trip as well as many cute things in my closet.  Most things several times.  Yes, there were things in my closet that I could have worn in their stead but they didn’t fit quite as well or fit the bill as much as my new things.  (Isn’t that what we tell ourselves anyway?) In a bid for full disclosure, I got more compliments on my old items than my new.

I did find some positive in this massive transgression.  I am still actively thinking about what I am doing with this diet.  I have been digging deep in my closet and my psyche and wearing things that I have been “saving.” I have managed to leave my house every day wearing something socially acceptable and generally with no spandex involved!!

When I signed on to TGAAD, I had given some thought to what I would do with the money I would have otherwise spent shopping.  I knew that in addition to having more money in the savings account, perhaps there was something I could be doing for myself and/or my family that would benefit us more than just my feeling fashionably dressed.  I believe now that I have found the answer–travelling.

I think I had almost forgotten how much I LOVE to go to new places and meet all of the fascinating, crazy, profound, goofy and wonderful people I usually run into while travelling.  My first stop, Mexico, is now a memory but London in April will be here before I know it!!  And now I will say four Hail Marys and five Our Fathers and promise to shop no more!

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O.K. I don’t wear dresses much; it is largely due to three major issues.  1) It is often rainy where I live and the thought of a soiled dress makes me feel all washed up. 2)  I can’t sprint on demand in a dress (you never know when that will be necessary). 3) I have cankles. 

So, when I closed the poll for the most expensive piece of apparel ever purchased and the “dress” won I was somewhat surprised.   And it didn’t win by a small margin, in fact I would say it won by a landslide.  Out of 89 responses, 44 said the most expensive piece of apparel they had ever purchased was a dress.  In a close second was the sweater at 21.   I was one of the people who said sweater. 

So what gives girls?  My guess is that those expensive dresses are gathering dust at the back of some closets?  Could I be wrong?  Please someone write in defense of the dress!

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