![]() The blouse I need to go with my only clean pair of pants might be crammed behind a bunch of tops. When I open my closet in the morning, if chaos greets me, I am forced to push past the items I don’t want to find the right outfit for the day. "I don't think there one standard formula.Does your physical environment contribute to personal feelings of worth, confidence, and serenity-or subtract from them? The idea of dictating an idea isn't right," she said. Crew and Ann Taylor are good.īut, she says, putting them together is personal. But for those who don't have their wallets, Vogue's Smith said alternatives like J. Even celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Connelly and Tilda Swinton seem to love the look of less. Get one with a scoop or boat neck and get it in red or navy.ĭesigners like Narciso Rodriguez, Jill Sander, Prada and Calvin Klein have minimalist designs, so sparseness doesn't always come cheap. Instead of buying a little black dress, make it chocolate or forest green. "I don't think you have to go from eating at the buffet to eating only ramen noodles," he said. If you're going to go minimalist, Bloch warns, do it with style. "I think it's a way to keep your life under control," he said. His book, The Shopping Diet, offers tips to control spending when shopping. New York-based stylist Phillip Bloch said others may be looking to uncluttter their wardrobes and cut back on expenses after overspending before the recession. It was a sacrifice, and now we are turning it around to something positive," he said. "It used to be cutting back was a sign of poverty. As far as clothing for his kids, it's only essentials. They moved to San Francisco in June from Guam, and he says he has been paring down his life for years. Babuata and his wife have six children ranging from 4 to 17. "We realized, 'Wow, what are we doing chasing after this dream that might not really suit us?' " she said.īlogger and author Leo Babuata said he started doing the challenge, too, and got down to 50 things at one point. The couple started giving away their possessions about three years ago. She lives in a 400-square-foot apartment with her husband and their two cats in Portland, Ore. That number includes books, shoes, clothes and even a helmet. "I think it's very, very hard to sustain it over a long period of time because we have such pressure to consume," she said.īlogger Tammy Strobel, 32, has been doing a "100 Thing Challenge" for two years. But she questions whether people can stick with it now. About 100 years ago, it wasn't unheard of for a working-class woman to have only three dresses and two pairs of shoes that were worn until they couldn't be mended. Melissa Leventon, a fashion historian at California College of the Arts, said the idea of having a minimal wardrobe isn't new. She's launching a website early next month and later on will offer seasonal paring-down guides, for a fee, to people who want to follow her clothing diet but need help. Her family has canceled cable, swapped phone service and cut down on possessions.Ībout 440 people on Facebook are participating in her challenge and more than 40 are blogging about the experience, Carver said. She also has pared down other areas of her life and is now debt-free. "It's about using the clothes I have," Carver said. She included accessories like sunglasses and purses on her list of 33. In January, she'll do it for another three months, replacing whatever is inappropriate for the season. The first phase of her Project 333 ( ends this month. I did it because I thought I worked hard and deserved it," she said. "Thinking about what you are purchasing is a good thing."Ĭarver, who is in sales but is also a writer and photographer, said even a few years ago she would walk into a store to buy a couple things and leave having spent hundreds of dollars. "I think when things turned bad a couple of years ago, I think people had to pare down and really consider their purchases," Smith said. "I do think it is a new thought in fashion that is getting out to the more mainstream," she said.īut, she said, challenges like Carver's are too severe for most people. Virginia Smith, Vogue's fashion market director, said more people are making do with less in their closets. "What we are finding now is that we had to reduce our expenses and our expectations of what made us happy," she said from her home in Cottonwood Heights, Utah.
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