ReFashion Your Mind

Some of you may remember reading my post, The Minimalist: How to Shop Smart, last month. I was thrilled with the unexpected feedback from readers from all over the world. It seems I'm not the only one intrigued by the concept of "conscious shopping".

Soon after the post was published, I received an email from Michelle, a Production Manager at a marketing firm in Perth, Australia. She contacted me after reading the post, explaining that she had been so inspired by the article that she decided to to create her own "anti-shopping" experiment with eleven ladies in her office. They properly dubbed the experiment The Refashion Challenge. The ladies documented the challenge on their blog baring an equally creative name, Men Don't Get it.

The rules seemed simple; choose six articles of clothing from your existing wardrobe and wear only those pieces for an entire month. Their reasoning? To save money, to be more environmentally friendly and to prove to their husbands/boyfriends/themselves that they didn't need to wear something different everyday just to be considered fashionably acceptable.

The ladies likened the challenge to a "fashion diet" or "Survivor Amazon for fashionistas" and halfway through week one, their musings became reality. They soon grew tired of the black they had chosen for their "six" and were tempted daily by the need to express themselves with color.

One participant, Kat, said she just couldn't stand one more day of being dressed in head to toe black. She later became the first challenge "dropout". "I was feeling really depressed about wearing black (or really dark clothes) every day. In fact my first outfit after the challenge was a white top and blue jeans! I had to break free!", she exclaims.

After two weeks and three additional dropouts later, the remaining ladies refused to give up. They stayed positive and even learned a thing or two about themselves in the process. Michelle learned to give herself permission to wear the same look twice in one week. "I am 41 and never in my life have I repeated clothes within the same week. I think this stems from going to a pretty snooty highscool where what you wore was more important than your good grades!", she says.

The other ladies said they learned to be more creative with accessories while others were relieved that they didn't have to choose a new outfit every morning. These ladies are truly courageous fashionistas who rejected social stereotypes to prove that there is more to life then just clothes and shopping.

Watch the recap of the ReFashion Challenge on the Men Don't Get It blog!

The ladies took daily photographs during the challenge. Check out their looks!