The End of Project 333 and the Beginning of the Capsule Wardrobe

Well today marks the end of my first round of Project 333. That's three months with only thirty-three items in my closet. I struggled with committing to this project. But I found that once I committed it made my life easier. I no longer stand in front on my closet wondering what I should wear. Minimizing my choices has maximized my time.

For my next round, I decided to mix it up a bit a do a Capsule Wardrobe that has some pretty nifty wardrobe planning worksheets. There are some minor differences between the capsule wardrobe and Project 333, but they are similar ideas. When choosing my clothes last time, I don't think I was aware of the types of things that I wore most often. Casual tops, sundresses, etc. Instead, I choose things that I liked and ended up with a few too many dressy tops and a few to few pants and functional items.  I'm excited to use the capsule wardrobe planner worksheets as I remix my closet for the next three months.

This minimalist adventure has taken me on a journey. It's allowed me to start to hone my style and think about my fashion choices from an ethical viewpoint.

I am coming around to the idea of slow fashion and conscious consumerism. Perhaps this is a normal progression as I often work with people in other countries and spend time thinking about the inequality in the world. But I never considered the fact that clothing in my closet  is an active choice, and I am promoting unethical treatment with my consumerism.

I am also a pragmatic so I know that it will be quite difficult for me to stop purchasing unsustainable items entirely. But I hope to strike a balance between ethical considerations, budget, and access as I live overseas.  I decided to make a few guidelines for myself as I make purchases this year.

• I will not purchase any more new, unsustainably made items from fast fashion stores. This week I removed all my favorite shopping apps and promotional emails. Goodbye Rue La La! Goodbye Hautelook! Goodbye Express!

• I will try to replace items I need with used items first. 

• I will repair/reuse items that I already own.

• I will pay more attention to tags and purchase more natural fabrics (cotton, silk, linen,etc.). I found that the older items in my closet were mostly natural fabrics and endured time better. I will also make efforts to purchase more U.S. made items. That's just simple patriotism.   

• If I have to buy a new item, I will purchase a sustainably made brand.

 If every American spent an extra $3.33 on U.S. made products it would create almost 10,000 new jobs. 

I truly don't know if this is a fad or a change I will carry through my lifetime. But I hope that I will continue to ask questions about the things I buy and the lives that my actions can affect. 

The Fall of Fashion and the Return of Self Satifaction

When I started exploring the idea of minimizing my closet, Dom got me this pretty little book loaded with beautiful illustrations and food for thought.

After I read it. I downloaded, “Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion” by Elizabeth L. Cline. I have been spent the last few weeks pouring over its pages and broadening my knowledge on something I knew nothing about.

I assumed by the title that I’d be reading about sweatshops and poor working conditions. But I also received a history lesson on the luxury fashion industry, the rise of American consumerism, and a behind the scenes look at how shops run their business.

In the book, the author meets Sarah Kate Beaumont who decides to start making all of her clothing and documenting her progress on a blog. This idea sent me back to my childhood. I come from a long line of women creators whose chosen medium was sewing. One of my only memories of my granny was learning to make a little-cross-stitched box. It was hunter green with a white lid and a little pink flower on the lid.  My mom patiently sat with me while I made my first dress on the sewing machine at fifteen---it was a light purple floral cotton sundress. And on one of my last trips home, my Aunt Dessie taught me to crochet.

I can remember the exact details of the items I created. I can't remember my favorite items of clothing from the last ten years. I haven’t done any sewing in years. But the lack of inspiration in my closet and the clothing in my price point could lead me to dust off the sewing machine in the back of my closet.

From 1810-1910, the Arts and Crafts movement flourished right after the industrial revolution. The Arts and Crafts style started as a search for aesthetic design and decoration and as a reaction against machine production.  Owen Wilson, one of the fathers of the movement, declared, “Ornament must be secondary to the thing decorated.” Form follows function.

I wonder whether we have an “Arts & Crafts Movement” in our future?  The quality of products continues to lesson, and the availability of cheap products broadens. How much more satisfaction would we feel if we created our style instead of wearing latest fad from H&M?

For most of my life, I’ve considered fashion a preferred form of self-expression. But when I turn a discerning eye on my closet, the items there seem to be almost identical. My self-identified expression has been taken over by cheaply made replicas of eras gone by and trends that move at the speed of light. There is very little creativity in what I see hanging there.

I am thirty-two years old and yet I vividly recall the texture of the yarn, the feel of the needle as I pushed it through the plastic squares, and the satisfaction I felt in creating something both functional and beautiful when I was just seven or eight years old. The memory alone is enough to really make really reconsider my choices.

The Holidays and the Minimalist Suitcase

Happy New Year! Dom and I just spent two weeks visiting Rome, Prague, and Barcelona. We went to Rome to see our good friends Leah and Collins get married. Since we were in Europe already, we figured we might as well squeeze in a few other places. What an amazing adventure!

During the trip planning, Dom and I realized that checking a bag on the multiple legs of the airfare would cost us 35 euros per leg per bag. Considering that the flights were pretty inexpensive, we didn't want to pay the extra cash in luggage fees. Unwittingly, we'd created the perfect storm to try out our "minimizing" in the real world. The challenge: 14 days, three countries, and winter clothing in a carry-on bag weighing no more that 10 kg (22 lbs). We were both surprised to find out that packing with limitations isn't as hard as we thought it would be. Since we didn't have bags to wait on at each stop, we had extra time for sightseeing!

My tiny suitcase! 

Here my short packing list:
6 sweaters
1 Pair of Jeans
1 Pair of Black Pants
1 Black Skirt
1 Little Black Dress
1 pair of cuddle duds (best purchase of the trip!)
5 pairs of socks
8 pairs underwear
2 bras
1 pair tall brown boots
1 pair short grey boots
1 scarf
1 pair of gloves
1 heavy jacket
Curling Iron
Straightener
Makeup
1 Quart Size bag of toiletries
Travel Meds
Jewelry
Hair Accessories

I also loved using a packing cube by Eagle Creek to minimize my sweaters and keep my suitcase tidy!

Dom was successful in his packing as well!

We stayed at different Air BnB apartments along the way and made sure that they had washing machines so we could do laundry. Having the weight constraint kept us from buying souvenirs along the way, which means we'll have less junk to minimize later on in our home.

Since our final flight didn't have a fee or weight restriction for checking in a bag, we rewarded our good behavior with a few Spanish goodies that we can't get in Rwanda. Something tells me that we will be traveling lighter in the future!

To our wine loving friends we highly recommend Spanish Rioja, Tempranillo, Cava, and Rose Cava.

I'll be sure to share more of our European adventures via video as soon as I can.  Check out Leah's blog for more on our traveling adventures!

Halfway Through My First Round of Project 333

I am just a few weeks away from the half way point of my 333 Project. If you remember I was feeling a little anxious about whether or not I could actually pull my clothes loving self out of the routine of having so many clothes and working with limited options.

I think the most surprising thing about this experiment is the fact that I have magically cleared about fifteen minutes in my morning schedule. No really. I didn't believe it myself but I realized that the minutes were ticking away as I stared into the depths of my closet trying to figure out what to wear. I love that my mornings are more relaxed and I realize that limiting my choices has helped my quality of life.

I am also slowly honing my personal style. I thought I'd share a few of my favorite wardrobe items to celebrate the halfway mark of the project.

Everlane:

I love Everlane's transparent pricing and high quality product. I own two of their V Cotton T (pictured above left) and their Cotton Lawn shirt (pictured above right) is one of the go to shirts in my closet.  I also loved their campaign over the last couple of years to encourage thoughtful consumerism. They shut down their website on Black Friday for the last two years. This year they left it open but dedicated all sales to the building of a rec center for their employees working at factories overseas. I am thrilled with the quality of the product, the effortlessness of the look, and the ideology behind the brand. It's a win, win, win! 

Portofino Shirt from Express

I have three versions of this shirt in my closet. I particularly like the long sleeve shirt because you can roll it to make it three quarter length. It is dressy enough for work but can easily be more casual when pared with jeans.

Well that's it for now! I can't wait to see what I think after I wrap my first three month session and do the planning for the next one. :)

Do We Have Giving All Wrong?

I grew up in the family that flew their holiday flag loudly and proudly. Or rather, my mom raised it and my father either acquiesced grumpily or threw himself whole heartedly into the parts of the experience he liked (like making bacon on Christmas morning and reading the Christmas story prior to presents) and then got grumpy again.

We had some pretty incredible times and all seven of us have fantastic stories of the holidays. Ironically, none of those stories revolve around the gifts we were given. Instead we laugh about how we'd receive those gifts from Santa, The Tooth Fairy, The Domestic Fairy, or The Lingerie Fairy. I love thinking about us taking turns in the gift wrapping room and trying to come up with the funniest fairy or unicorn or wretched dwarf to send gifts from. While I love Christmas, I think I loved the act of preparing for it more than anything else.

I know that the holidays can be a stressful time for parents and often was stressful for mine as they tried to get all seven of their children the presents they wanted for Christmas. I wonder if all the stress and sacrifice is worth it? Especially as an adult I can barely remember the gifts I received.

My favorite gift from my childhood was a violin my grandmother sent me. I took lessons for a few years and then fell off the wagon but there was something about opening that gift that has stuck with me when all the others no matter how nice have drifted off down memory lane never to be heard of again. I find it interesting that the gift I most remember was really the experience more than a gift.

So when I stumbled across this article, it made me wonder if we have the holidays all wrong. Are we teaching our children that presents are more important than anything else? Not that I have any children to teach but I do have a whole load of nieces, nephews, brothers, and sisters.

For the last couple of years Dom and I had tried unsuccessfully to get our siblings and my parents to fill out the paperwork so we could send savings bonds to the kids. Apparently, you need parental permission to do so. The process was cumbersome and bulky and it just never really worked out. This article inspired me to do something different when filling out my nieces birthday card. I sent a note to her parents as well. It read like this:

Dear Ian and Priscella,

I hope all is well in beautiful Colorado and your family is happy and well. Dom and I have decided that we really wanted to stop giving presents or physical stuff as gifts to our nieces and nephews. We’ve both come to learn that the greatest treasures in our lives are experiences. 

We hope that by sending this money to you, you can help direct it to the right channels. Perhaps this can help send Jael to summer camp, swimming lessons, or something she is interested in during the year. Maybe it should go into her college fund or the family vacation fund. We think that you know her best and can make sure that she has a wonderful experience with this birthday gift.

We can’t wait to hear about the ways it’s being used and all the things that Jael is discovering as her world expands.

We love you guys and wish we were closer! Hope to see you on our return stateside!

Hugs,

Crystal & Dom

I will have to keep you posted on how it is received as things take awhile to get from here back stateside. I wonder if anyone out there has tried to give the gift of experience versus stuff? What did you find?

A Clotheshorse Tries to Minimize

I've always been obsessed with clothes and shoes. My mother called me Amelda Marcus from an early age due to the ridiculous amount of footwear in my closet. I've come to realize that clothing is my status symbol. Some people want a fancy car or a house with a three car garage, but my daydreams are all Sex And The City and Jimmy Choo shoes. In all fairness, my practical side is heavy handed with the fashion diva in my head so it's not like I am spending absurd amounts of money on these things.

When I started minimizing, I also started analyzing what is truly important in life. And I am slowly coming around to the realization that my infatuation with clothing has something to do with my vision of myself. Clothing is a means for me to feel like I can be whoever I am dressing to be.

Work Powerhouse: Blazer, button up, scarf, and perfect manicure. 

Hostess with the Mostest: Sundress, heels, cute apron while serving up something delicious.

Photographer: Black on black on black. 

A power outfit sometimes gives me confidence that I might not of had on my own. Am I simply playing dress up like I did when I was a girl? Is this obsession just another tier of my unhealthy struggle with perfectionism? What happens if I remove this element from my life? Does something more important come into focus?

As I was asking myself important questions about how I measured my own worth, Dom had me read this book.  Among other things, I learned about the 333 Project. In this minimalism exercise, you choose 33 items to wear over 3 months. You box everything else up in your closet. Repeat this on a seasonal basis.

The idea kept niggling at me and wouldn't leave me alone. It was particularly powerful one night as I reflected on my photo shoots from the previous week where I documented the lives of Rwandan mothers and realized how grateful I should be for all I have. In that moment, I felt that I wanted to focus more intently on the truly important things in my life instead of being caught up in my own frivolity. It was time to put my money where my mouth was.

As I pulled things from my closet, I was surprised how much resistance I felt. I was nervous. Dare I say afraid? I found myself in front of my closet having a series of mental arguments with myself with an angel on one shoulder and the devil wears Prada on the other.

Clothes do not the woman make. 

But everyone is used to seeing you dressed nicely. What will people think?

It's not like you won't be dressed nicely. You'll wear nice things, just less of them.

You'll look stupid. 

No one will even notice----why do you think they would?

You can do anything for three months.

Why are you even putting yourself through this?

What's the big deal? Are you so shallow that you cannot do without a few articles of clothing?

Push, pull, push, pull.

I eventually  overcame all the voices in my head, but I still feel a bit uneasy about the project. Enter this blog post for the sheer sake of accountability.

Project 333
I narrowed my closet to 33 items of clothing and footwear. This did not include additional accessories. I minimized my accessories to 10 earrings, 1 ring, 2 bracelets, and 9 necklaces (all the true minimalists out there will find this atrocious but consider this my baby steps in the right direction). This also does not include my workout clothes, underthings, or a small selection of 12 items that I wear only on photo shoots out to the field as my shoot clothing gets pretty beat up in the long term.

I am not sure what I expect to come out of this exercise. I figure I will either be surprised by what you can do with very little and be sold on the idea in the long term or completely hate the entire process. I hope that this continues my journey of really focusing on the things that matter in life regardless of how it turns out. Our lives are so short, and we have so much more than most people in the world. I hope we all take the time to enjoy it.

Trying Out Minimalism for Ourselves

As many of you read in my last post Dom and I are exploring the idea of minimizing the things in our lives that take up space.  We realized that it's not only stuff that takes up our time. It's also things like cable and the internet. Every evening things seemed to be panning out the same way. Dinner, work out, veg out on bad AFN television or mindless internet surfing.

So we decided to put this minimalism thing to the test.

Trying Out Minimalism Our Way

1. Get rid of the stuff we simply aren't using. We spent last weekend going through every room in the house (still haven't made it to the storage room). I also am trying the Oprah hanger trick  for the next thirty days to see what I am using on a regular basis. In 30 days we have to revisit the items we decided to keep---have we used them? Are they adding to our life?

2. We are limited the amount of time we spend on the internet and on television each day. No more than one hour of internet after 6:00 p.m. per day. No more than an hour of television each day.

3. For every new item we purchase, we have to get rid of two old things.

4. We started a list of all the things we want to do and are proactively moving forward.


I've learned a few things at the end of our first week. Minimizing actually feels good especially when you realize that many of the items you are keeping are for sentimental reasons. I kept asking myself if the person who gave me the item ever thought of it again? And yet here I was keeping it because of my love for the person who gave it to me not because I truly loved it or used it. I think I need to transfer that love into creating a more meaningful relationships with that person or people. Keeping their gifts around me doesn't do a thing for our relationship. If I am thinking about them then I should call them, visit them, send them a card. I should build on the relationship.

It also feels good to give things to people who need them and will use them. We are spoiled by the massive shipment of stuff we are allowed to bring abroad. But many of our friends are making do with what they were able to bring from home in a suitcase. I have a guest room set up for "shopping" and I'll donate the rest to one of the many places doing good in Rwanda.

It's lots of fun to do things instead of watching tv. This weekend we went to a jazz event, jewelry and craft show, had friends over for dessert and drinks, and ran off to Lake Muhazi with some friends for lunch and boating on Sunday. I didn't miss CSI at all!

I have a feeling this whole experience is headed somewhere but we're still figuring it out where it's going. All I know is that I feel good about it. This week we've gotten several shipments of things we ordered prior to the whole minimalist epiphany. We both laughed because none of them seemed important or worth the money we spent. Time to figure out if I can return it all and to decide what to do next weekend!