Trying to be more sustainable and push myself, I’m doing the 100 day dress challenge. Every day for 100 days straight I’m going to wear the same Wool& brand wool dress. I’ve started talking about trying to consume fashion a little more sustainably in my other blog House of Henmar.
The challenge is about encouraging thoughtful consumption. Per pictures I’ve seen, women delight in wearing the dress in different ways to create dozens of unique outfits. They style their dress with different pullovers, blazers, cardigans, and other layers. And belts, lots of belts.
There are several wool dresses to choose from. I chose the Clara dress. It’s a henley cut shirt dress. I chose the aubergine hue.
True sentence no. 22: I don’t even like the wool dress I married myself to for 100 days.
I thought I would. It seemed like the best option. But it looks like Ebeneezer Scrooge’s nightgown. If he had worn an eggplant colored one cropped at the knees.
In all the pics of the Clara dress styled for the 100 day challenge, I just see it worn with different belts or cardigans. No unique upstyles like I see for their A-line cuts.
I don’t think I can wear a caftan-nightgown-granola tunic for 100 days. I’m far too vain and materialistic.
I did a Google and Insta check to find trendy ways to style a henley shirt dress. Guess what? They don’t exist.
Every woman (model) I see wearing this dress is in her 60’s or older with cropped hair and large metal earrings that look like they came from an art fair in Santa Fe. That’s a great vibe for me – a few decades out.
Vainly, I am worried that this 100 day dress challenge is a challenge for women of all ages who are fashion apathetic (if not clueless). Is it not for people who love the planet so much as it for is people who want to not have to figure out what to wear every day? Or to have to shop for fashion? Is this a challenge for people who don’t know how to dress their body so they lean into one wool dress the way Steve Jobs had his black turtleneck uniform?
I suspect that these reasons are a big driver. I mean a challenge that involved a 100 day uniform isn’t going to appeal to a fashion horse.
But I think good intentions must also be a big reason people do this. And a desire for simplicity.
Day 1, I am frustrated and trying to figure out why other people do this.
A few minutes ago, I found myself searching online for cute sweaters and tops I can style with this dress. But really. Consuming more fashion to make the 100 day challenge bearable is ridiculous.
It’s 100 days. I can do this.
Somehow I feel like I have to stick it out. Like fashion is beside the point: it’s about curbing impulses and focusing energy on other things and loving the planet.
Like eating vegetables, this has got to be good for me.
Right?