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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Thanks to all of you who participated in the interview with the Time Magazine blog reporter.  I think he did a good job telling our story.  Once again a great example of how all of our motivations are different and yet the same.  I encourage you to read it when you get the chance!

Q&A: The Year of No Clothing Purchases

Posted by Brad Tuttle Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 8:12 am

 

 

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/yhq6sv4

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I own an Etsy shop where I sell items made from recycled clothes and fabrics and often peruse the site to share with other sellers, check out what’s new and get inspiration. I was delighted that one of the guest speakers in the virtual chat one evening were the ladies from The Uniform Project. I hadn’t previously heard of the project, but I listened into the chat and was delighted to learn that it involved wearing the same plain black dress for 365 days a year. The idea was to use accesories to change the outfit; what a great inspiration!  Here is some information about the project from their website:

The Idea

Starting May 2009, I have pledged to wear one dress for one year as an exercise in sustainable fashion. Here’s how it works: There are 7 identical dresses, one for each day of the week. Every day I will reinvent the dress with layers, accessories and all kinds of accouterments, the majority of which will be vintage, hand-made, or hand-me-down goodies. Think of it as wearing a daily uniform with enough creative license to make it look like I just crawled out of the Marquis de Sade’s boudoir.

The Uniform Project is also a year-long fundraiser for the Akanksha Foundation, a grassroots movement that is revolutionizing education in India. At the end of the year, all contributions will go toward Akanksha’s School Project to fund uniforms and other educational expenses for children living in Indian slums.

So, if you are feeling a little bored and feel there is nothing to wear in your closet, take some cues from The Uniform Project, get inspired and mix it up!

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I love, love, love clothing swap’s! Fortunately for me, my friends who own the bar in my neighborhood biannually agree to open up for the ladies to conduct a “squaw swap” and what a great one we had this past Sunday. While the turnout wasn’t large, the group of ladies (about 10) had enough clothes, shoes, accesories, and housewares to really make it fun. We swapped stories of our favorite items while enjoying a glass of wine or a Guiness and poked through each other’s cast-offs.  We made goofy costumes, we were amused at another ladies delight over our silly hand-me-downs and we had a blast. Guilt-free shopping is always fun. I am in between sizes so I swapped out for a few new items in both smaller and larger sizes so I’ll be sure to have space to move up and down over the next few months. I got clothes that fit perfect, some that I can refashion or alter and some that I plan to simply cut apart for the fabric and figure it out later. My favorite find was a brown cashmere knit poncho, like an all-business snuggie; I love it. I also found a beautiful Banana Republic blazer, sweaters galore and an awesome cowgirl shirt.  It was fun, it was refreshing and I can’t wait to do it again!  If you live in the Baltimore City area and are intersted in future clothing swaps, you can follow my personal blog or twitter feed for updates, or sign up for the Parkside’s newsletter where they’ll send you emails of their upcoming events, including clothing swaps. The more ladies we get, the more choices we’ll have so bring your used clothes and get ready to have have a liberating, guilt-free, swapping party!

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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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In an effort to stay on track and avert the pangs that I feel every time I receive an email notification of some crazy sale, clearance or closeout I have made an effort to unsubscribe to each an every email fitting that bill this week.  I hadn’t reailized how many times a day I was bombarded with these messages to “Buy Now!”, but I know that as I receive fewer of these emails I am beginning to feel better already.  Instead, I’ve subscribed to some refashion blogs and newsletters as well as some fashion/couture websites. This helps me to feel like I’m still in the loop, but forces me to think about how I can rework what I already have in my closet instead of rushing to buy something online. My favorite is the daily dose of fashion voyeurism that I get from “The Cut: New York Magazine’s Fashion Blog”. I still get my fill of fashion goodness and its almost as good as dark chocolate.

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Hello World! I’m just now jumping on the bandwagon after reading coverage of The Great American Apparel Diet on Treehugger recently. Fortunately, I came to the realization that I should really quit buying new clothes in 2007 and began purchasing previously loved clothes from thrift stores and Ebay.  I also made quite a few purchases from sellers of refashioned, recycled, upcycled clothing on Etsy and ArtFire. Now, I’m finally taking the plunge and I’m not going to buy myself any new clothes this year. This should be fairly easy because I have piles of used clothes clogging up every nook and cranny of my closet, basement shelves and my poor little sewing corner. I’m also a woman of efficiency, so I’m excited to find one solution for three of my resolutions for 2010:

1. Decreasing my carbon footprint (decrease consumption of resources)
2. Taking control of my finances (saving money, paying off debt, etc).
3. Geting in shape, and staying in good physical health
4. Continuing to not smoke

So, as you can see not buying new clothes contributes to the first three (3. counts because not buying new clothes will force me to stay in the same size).  So here I go, wish me luck

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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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What are you wishing for for Christmas?

My husband told me yesterday he “went off the tracks” on my Christmas gift.  “You will love it but you don’t even know you want it,” he bragged.  I think that’s a bad sign. I have visions of a fancy new technological mega ram bam thank you ma’am kind of something-or-other under the Christmas tree.   This is the same guy who practically ruined my computer by upgrading it to the point that I couldn’t even log-in because of the tight security system.  “There are dangerous viruses out there,” he warned.  “I just wanted to protect you.”  

His new brainstorm seems to have nothing to do with the hints I have been dropping all fall.  “When Christmas rolls around remember…I want clothes.”  Subtle I know.   How could he have misinterpreted that to mean I wanted something I didn’t know I wanted?  Hmmm. 

The other day the UPS guy brought a package to our porch.  My husband made a fuss about intercepting it.  He likes to do this, it’s kind of a game for him.  “Hey don’t look at the box, turn your head,” that kinda thing.  Well of course I peeked.  If he hadn’t fallen all over himself on the way to the door I might not have noticed.   

The box, from Amazon, was about 8 x 10 and one inch thick.  So, unless he’s bought me some thong bikini underwear there are no new clothes from my husband in my future.  In fact, on reflection the box looked like it contained a computing device.  Argggghhhh.  And I was so hoping for a wardrobe pick-me-up.  Oh well, maybe my seven year old will come through with a school logo sweat shirt.

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