As you read this, I will be just starting a three-month challenge.
I am pledging to wear the same dress, yes the actual same dress, every day consecutively for 90 days.
For my challenge, I purchased my black sheath dress for $71 at a Squamish shop. Yes, I will wash it regularly.
I’ll change into old sweats to work out. The rest of the time, I will don the dress.
Why, you ask?
My main reason is to raise awareness about conspicuous consumption. The average Canadian household spent $3,503 on new clothes in 2014, according to StatsCan. That figure seems low to me, but regardless, it is a lot of money to be spending each year.
In North America, we wear clothes for a plethora of motivations beyond keeping our bodies covered.
I humbly suggest we should think about this and our need to endlessly replace items of clothing that are no longer trendy.
Admittedly, I have been known to get my clothes where I pick up my groceries. Such items are notoriously cheap and dependent on questionable labour practices. By doing this challenge, hopefully I can save up and buy some ethical pieces I will keep for years.
Another personal reason is to save time and energy wasted on thinking about what to wear. Space used in my brain will perhaps go to solving world peace – or figuring out how to rearrange the garage storage area so the top boxes stop falling down.
It is good to simplify, focus on the important things and challenge one’s vanity, isn’t it?
This challenge certainly isn’t new. In 2009, the Uniform Project was launched when a girl pledged to wear a little black dress for a year to raise consciousness about sustainable fashion, according to the project’s website. It was also a fundraiser to help poor children in India go to school.
The idea spread around the world. Google “same dress” and stories of women wearing the same outfit for a month, three months or a year will fill your computer screen. In January, Ingrid Uhrich, a fashion instructor at Kelowna’s Centre for Arts and Technology, started wearing the same black dress for 180 days.
I may continue my pledge for another three months once May 14 rolls around. We’ll see how it goes.
Wish me luck, or… join me?
