Saturday 26 July 2014

so why 20 items

we had our very first fashion swap event at the office yesterday. a lot of 'swapping' happened. it is so good to see someone else walked away with your stuff happy. it was truly a case of being happy making other people happy.

i took home 3 items. (yes, 6 items went out of the closet.)


why 20 items?

there is no concrete reason. i took that number out of thin air. i wanted to say 10, which would be a more realistic number, but thought that doubling that would make the experiment funner. that's all there is to it, there was no further thought involved in coming up with that number. or the twist in the shopping ban design (quantity instead of duration).

i admit that i like fashion, well, some what. i enjoy dressing up and all its associated process, including shopping and budgeting (side track: my neighbours are having sex and i can hear them through the wall!!), but fashion is something that i cannot take seriously. i cannot talk about this in real life without bursting into laughter one way or another. this is not to say that this is not a serious matter, because there are people who take this seriously; this is to say that this is a fun pursuit for me.

have a nice weekend - it is wet, windy and cold. talk to you through Twitter. stay warm and dry. xx


Friday 18 July 2014

another shopping ban


hey guys!

i am going to embark on another shopping ban. yes, i know i've said previously that the real challenge is to practise disciplined purchasing sans the shopping ban. but i am intrigued, perhaps a more accurate diction is inspired by Kali Vine, to do this all over again (Kali calls it shopping fast, but shopping ban or shopping fast, they are pretty much the same thing in practice).

but first, since the shopping ban back in February, how was my shopping activity?

yes, i have been a consumer. on average, i purchase 2 new items per month - these are in the form of clothing items mostly. they are not my needs, although if required, i can convince myself that i need them. i have been practising the one-in-two-out rule loosely, as in, if i purchase say, a jacket, it doesn't always follow that i would be getting rid of two jackets, it can be other items. the jacket pictured above was in my lust list for the longest time, ok, exaggeration, since two winters ago. i have been in and out of the superdry store trying out all sorts of jackets and not purchasing anything because i seemed unable to find the one at the right length. i decided to stick to my standards and not purchase until i see one that fits the bill. oh, it also helps that my boss kindly gave out a big fat bonus at round about the same time.

needless to say, my wardrobe size is shrinking, i am still an active consumerist, and i am terrible at documenting this journey. sorry :(

i derive this unexplainable, odd pleasure out of window shopping - both in the virtual world and the physical world. i guess this is partially because i am Asian, and we quite literally spend a lot of our leisure time hanging out in the mall (stinking hot outside, okay). i've worked on raising my wardrobe standards so that i can make it smaller over time. it is a lot smaller today than a year ago, and i want it to be smaller by the end of this year.

which brings us to this shopping ban. my lust list is not empty, there are items on that list that have been outstanding for the longest time. there will be temptation for me to shop. but what i'd like to try is to resist this temptation. i would like to succeed, of course, but acknowledge that there is a very real possibility of failing. i will still practise the one-in-two-out rule as i currently do, it is just that the item that comes in is not something that i purchase (or le boyf purchases for me).

i will try to document the process better this time - in particular, blogging once a week detailing all the temptations and how i deal with them. they say that will power alone is not enough, and i tend to agree, so there will be my tips on how to survive the journey altogether. as a starting point, i have every intention to stay away from ASOS, Shopbop and Net-a-porter.

this shopping ban will end once i have gotten rid of 20 items from my wardrobe, excluding the ones that go out because of the application of the one-in-two-out rule. what this really means is if i get rid of two items because another one is coming in, those two items out do not count towards the 20. i will try to document these too - this is largely inspired by Debbie Roes. i am currently in the middle of a closet clean out, and i don't want these items to count towards the 20, so the counting of the 20 will start on August 1st, so that they will, one way or another, represent the items that have survived the current decluttering spree. the idea is to purchase new things once i've gone through another round of closet clean-out, of if there are 20 items that are worn out.

ok, i hope that the above twist should make things a little bit different. post this current clean-out, i will have no intention of getting rid of 20 items, but will say that i can probably function and dress better with 20 less items, so let's see.

happy weekend. please comment through Twitter.