The Shopping Diet: Six Pieces, 31 Days
July 23, 2010— -- The latest "diet" craze is not about what you eat, but instead about what you wear.
It's called a "shopping diet" and it's an exercise in fashion frugality: take any six items from your closet and wear only those six items for 31 days.
"I liked the idea of a challenge, so I just took it. It didn't really take that much persuading," said participant Kirsty Saddler, a 32-year-old advertising executive in New York City. "Although I have to be honest, there was a lot of skepticism from people that know me about how well I'd actually stick to it."
Saddler, along with 100 or so other men and women across the globe who call themselves "Sixers," took on the "Six Items or Less" challenge in June.
"Some people wanted to see how creative they could be with their stuff," said Heidi Hackemer, who helped start the movement and co-founded the website Sixitemsorless.com. "Anti-consumption was our biggest group and then what we call curiosity/masochism, which a lot of the guys fall into, where they're just like, 'I wonder if I could do it.'"
Hackemer first spoke to the New York Times about the experiment and an especially startling side effect for fashionistas.
"One of the things that was so surprising was how few people even noticed what they were doing," said New York Times reporter Eric Wilson.
"I've had people come to me on week three saying, 'Are you doing that?' And I work with them and I sit next to them every day! And I'm like, 'I've worn the same outfit four days in a row!'" said Hackemer, who opted for black, grey and denim staples.
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Without a closet full of clothes to choose from, Saddler focused on other ways to spice up her outfits, relying heavily on accessories, which were excluded from the challenge.
"Lots of broaches, and belts and things like that came in to play where I normally wouldn't make the effort," she said. "The funny thing was getting dressed in the morning actually felt much quicker."
Shoes, undergarments, uniforms and outerwear were also exempt.
