Cheryl Shops

One of my favorite types of fashion stories is the kind where they take 10 or 12 items and create 50 (or more) different outfits with them--Lucky does this at least once a year, as does Shopbop. I always feel incredibly inspired to purge my closet after reading these articles, in the pursuit of creating a more perfect, streamlined wardrobe. So I was intrigued by this article in the Times' Thursday Styles section; it highlights two different websites, one that challenges participants to wear only six items of clothing or less for a month and another that encourages readers not to buy new clothes for an entire year. The latter website, while admirable in its intention, made me cringe for reasons that should be obvious to readers of a blog called Cheryl Shops, but I was fascinated by the former...at first. Again, it's a noble concept, but it's really not practical. For example, if you exercise, your workout clothes count as part of your six items (underwear and accessories, thankfully, are freebies). Think of the amount of laundry one ends up doing during this experiment. Still, I think there is a lesson to be learned, albeit on a far less extreme level, and that's the same one that appeals to me in those 10-pieces, 100 outfits articles: Buy less clothing, wear it in more ways. Yes, readers, it's that simple.

As much as I poke fun at the New York Times' Styles section for being a bit behind on news (hey, did you hear bloggers go to fashion shows?), I must give them props for their reporting, which is what truly gives the Gray Lady her strong reputation. And the Times dropped a doozy on H&M today with this article on how H&M mutilates unsold clothing and then leaves it out in the garbage. The blogosphere reaction has ranged from outrage to "Everybody does it", and H&M has already issued a statement on their Facebook page (which, by the way, is filled with countless "Shame on you" comments), explaining that this is not company practice, and they're looking into it. Of course, the obvious reaction is disgust, especially considering the thousands of homeless and/or impoverished people out there who could use a warm coat and clean clothes; even if throwing out clothes seems like a cheaper option (than, say, shipping them back to a warehouse somewhere), most charities will come pick up a sizable donation and give you a form so you can deduct the expense on your taxes. In other words, there's really no excuse for this. Whether or not it's standard industry practice, hopefully this incident will force retailers to become more responsible.

On a happier note, I'm always pleased to see my fellow bloggers hit the big time, so props to Bryanboy for his charming article in Paper about his trip to Michigan last fall. Bryanboy is fabulous enough to sit front row at Dolce & Gabbana, yes, but he's also witty and sweet and, as this article reveals, entirely human.

Website of the Week: The Moment
I've decided to resurrect my Website of the Week feature, and so 2008's first entry is The Moment, a new blog from T Magazine, the fashion/food/design/travel magazine that appears every so often in the Sunday New York Times. The fellow Times fashion blog, On the Runway, is written by the esteemed Cathy Horyn but is updated woefully infrequently, so The Moment is, I believe, aiming to supplement the gaps with multiple daily posts. It also helps that more than one staffer works on it--everyone from fashion writer Horacio Silva to nose Chandler Burr, and there's also a rotating cast of guest bloggers; this week, it's Milan artist Francisco Vezzoli. Topics range from the practical--daily blog roundups, fashion show reports--to the totally irreverent, like this hilarious post on how to ask for butt implants in Portuguese. I'm definitely interested to see how they'll cover the upcoming women's fall fashion shows; I'm guessing it will be with a little snark, a bit of whimsy, and a unique point of view, all of which makes The Moment definitely worth a daily read.