A Teacher Wears One Dress for One Hundred Days to Prove That Being a  Shopaholic Is a Serious Problem

We often buy clothes on the spur of the moment, tempted by sales and promotions. Many of us buy new clothes at least twice a month.

I bet you all know the feeling you get when you open your closet and you realize that there is nothing you can put on. In spite of the pile of dresses and blouses. In fact, we wear only 20% of the clothes that we have. Unfortunately, most of them end up dumped. A denim jacket takes 10 – 12 months to decompose. Lycra leggings need much longer – up to 200 years!

Is there a way to spend our money more wisely? How to buy less? What can we do to highlight the problem of excessive consumption? An American woman came up with a very original idea.

Julia Mooney is an art teacher from New Jersey. Worried about the impact of clothing industry on the environment, our wallets and our general well-being, she went for a challenge. She decided to wear one dress for 100 days in a row! All the variety she wanted to include was about accessories, for example footwear, scarves, sweaters or jewelry. If the dress happened to tear, she simply patched it. She did not see any need to buy a new one.

Julia Mooney did face up to it. She shared some of her conclusions once it was over.

• She did not have to go through this everyday ‘ What to wear?’ dilemma,

• When you have children, putting on a clearly set item is a lifesaver. This is what allows you to leave home even at 7:00 am with no delay

• Fewer clothes mean more space in your closet

• Aware buying prevents excessive clothes dumping – a great contribution to save the planet

• She managed to break this ‘buy-wear-throw away-buy’ vicious circle. She no longer needs a pile of clothes

The woman believes that buying fewer clothes we will decrease the demand for cheaper products and, consequently, we will not contribute to exploiting the employees of Asian factories.

Moreover, hopefully we will stop judging others based on what they wear.

Would you accept a challenge making you wear something for one hundred days?