Could you go a full year without buying new clothes? Impossible, you say? But that’s exactly what a bunch of ladies intend to do. In the movement dubbed The Great American Apparel Diet, they pledged to not buy any new togs for 12 whole months.
The 'fashion fast' kicked off last September 1 with 20 Americans, and has since grown to over 100 members from the United States, Denmark, Germany, Croatia, Serbia, Canada, Italy and Britain.
In this unconventional diet, participants can devour as much as they like - so long as it is existing clothes in their closets. So they will have to rummage through their wardrobes and make do with what they have. They cannot purchase new clothing, save for underwear, footwear and accessories (like jewellery and scarves, which can help refresh the wardrobe) until Sept 1, 2010. They are, however, allowed to swap clothes with friends and accept gifts of new clothes from friends and family. But fasters cannot specifically request new clothes as gifts.
The woman who mooted the movement is Sally Bjornsen, 46, of Seattle, in the United States. Realising that she was wearing mostly jeans and T-shirts, yet has a closet full of clothes and was giving away clothes which she had never or hardly wore, she decided to examine why she was driven to shop.
Out of that exploration, The Great American Apparel Diet was born.
“I want to see what life is like when women just say no to the new apparel pick-me-up,” writes Bjorsen in the group’s website.
“A lot of women in the programme currently spend a fair amount of time planning, pondering and preparing their wardrobes. This preoccupation is usually motivated by what they want at that moment rather than what they actually need. As a result, a lot of us end up with a bunch of weird things in our closets. All that time and energy could be re-focused towards other creative endeavours. Who knows how much time, money and energy will be saved on the diet.”
Bjorsen admits that the experiment is a stretch for many of the fashion “dieters” as they are, after all, women who used to buy, buy, buy. Ranging in age from 19 to 60, they come from all walks of life and many are self-confessed shopaholics. One admits to having over 70 pairs of jeans and over 100 dresses, while another has to buy something new every day. And one does not wear her clothes more than two times.
Yup, these women desperately need help to wean them off their addiction. They blog about their efforts and support each other at www.TheGreatAmericanApparel Diet.com. Their reasons for joining the movement vary; and it is not just to save money. For some, it was simply a personal choice to re-evaluate their shopping habits. Some just wanted to clear closet clutter while others wanted to consume less and be friendlier to the environment. Some just wanted a challenge.
“I have enough clothes to last a lifetime. I’ve realised with age that I will always have enough and I will always feel like I never have enough. And I need to learn to live with that. Period,” writes designer Stephanie Greco, 49.
Laura Zielinski, 42, a Malaysian technology executive and online shopping aficionado, hopes that with less time spent shopping, she can pursue her other passions, such as cooking and gardening. “I spend too much time thinking and talking with people about clothes. I want to dedicate brain space to other things,” she writes.
Many participants have found the apparel diet “do-able”, since most have way too much stuff in their closets anyway. Says one woman: “There are people living in abject poverty all over the world, people who never wear anything new, and I can’t manage a year?”
One dieter says it is easy to forego shopping if you already have a pretty well-stocked closet in the first place. All you need to do is to accessorise to update the look. For some, however, the diet is proving hard to stick to than initially thought. Quite a few have crashed their diet and bought clothing that they felt they just had to have or which were on sale.
Six months into the diet, some dieters found that foregoing shopping has a host of benefits. Stephanie Greco says in an interview with Time: “I’ve learned that I need very little. I may want a lot more, but I certainly don’t need it. I’ve learned that we are used to so much excess we can’t even see it. In terms of my shopping habits, I’ve learned that I like not having it as an option to pass time. It’s one less thing to think about and I find it kind of liberating.”
Tricia Young realised a few weeks into the diet that she could have a new wardrobe if she put different things together. “I’m loving wearing things I have owned for years and never wore. I’m also discovering new hobbies instead of shopping during my free time. I’m saving money in other areas as well because I’m avoiding shopping areas.”
And for Bjornsen, the woman who started it all and whose clothing expenditures used to touch US$5,000 annually, the diet has transformed her into a responsible consumer.
“I am no longer beholden or hypnotised by the idea that fashion isn’t good unless it is brand new. Fashion is about personal style and how you wear things. I have become interested in creative ways to be fashionable without being so ‘consumptive’. I am now more interested in where apparel is made and how it is made. I definitely think that at the end of the year, I will shop differently,” she told Time.
Come Sept 1, 2010, the women will be allowed back into malls, department stores and online websites. But, will they want to?
