The other day while in the elevator with two friends I over heard them chatting about an article one had read in the NYtimes titled ‘My Year of No Shopping’. I laughed when the word “challenge” left her mouth and rang in my ear followed by a momentary flash of panic. No shopping! For a year! I love shopping. Having grown up in the south bay, before each school year my mother would plan a back to school shopping trip to the city. Some of my fondest memories are of our stays at the St. Francis hotel and shopping at I. Magnin on Union Square. Back then, shopping itself was an event, even a type of sport. Finding the perfect outfit accessorized by the right shoe (one that you could last walking in for six to eight hours), to wear and walking into an elaborately decorated establishment, and staring up at the impeccably dressed sales woman in amazement because she got to work in such gorgeous surroundings; these are just a few of my fondest fashion memories from childhood. Shopping has since lost that allure, but I still love it. So much so that the thought of not being able to acquire new items made me sit down and write a list of the things I’ve been coveting lately. As my pen paused, I reflected. Not that I would want to do it, but could I do it, not shop for a year? The idea of saving money is always enticing coupled with the challenge of using only what I already own to dress for 12 months. I obviously love most of what is in my wardrobe because, …. I purchased it. And there are times when I see something I haven’t worn in a while simply because it has been lost in my closet only to be found with the excitement paralleled to purchasing a new item. If you have ever taken your dry cleaning in only to be too busy to pick it up and when you finally do it’s as if you went shopping, then you know what I mean. So I accept this challenge to shop from my own closet, as I do for clients all the time. But, not today. Today I acquiesce, halfheartedly to buying only new items that can be paired with the old, breathing new life into my wardrobe. For instance, this old H&M neoprene print skirt pictured above in today’s post (and previously on my Instagram) that I paired with this subtly sheer lace top from Sandro Paris that I purchased for spring. Add these amazing metallic pink boots by Marco de Vincenzo (on sale in rose gold here) and an entirely new ensemble is born.
