24 August 2007

Little Brown Dress Project

When I set out to create Sally Jane Vintage, I had reasons both selfish and unselfish. On the selfish side, I love vintage clothes and shopping and this gives me an opportunity to shop for vintage clothes. A lot. How convenient! On the other hand, the consumerism that plagues our daily lives makes me cringe and this is an outlet for people to satisfy their wants and needs in the way of clothing without worrying about sweatshop labor or how their latest purchase is affecting the environment. Vintage clothing provides a unique opportunity to recycle and I love taking advantage of that. Thinking about this has me revisiting the Little Brown Dress Project. The website chronicles a year in the life of a Seattle woman that decided she was tired of giving into the whims of the fashion world and set out to wear the same homemade brown dress every day that year. She allowed herself to accessorize the dress with items she already owned, layering for weather conditions and such. It was the ultimate in wardrobe remixing. While the dress she made is not quite my style, I find it to be quite an interesting social experiment. I wonder if I could go a year wearing the same dress. Would I have the restraint to not purchase a single item for one year? For now I think I’ll settle for making the majority of my purchases vintage.

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