One Dress Protest is me, Kristy Powell, wearing one dress for one year in order to protest the ideas and motivations behind how and why I wear my clothes. Over the year I aim to challenge the ways identity is constructed through clothing, what sustainability means for consumption, how our perception of others is so often based on external presentation, and what “fashion” ultimately means for me going forward.
{day 144}
Join Me and ODP!
I’m one dress protesting, and you should too! Consider this your formal invitation.
I, Kristy Powell, invite you, female or male, curious and courageous soul, to join me in protest from June 3rd to July 3rd.
The stipulations are few and simple.
One dress, one month. That’s it!
But seriously though, I want you to consider joining me for a host of reasons. A few of mine are as follows:
- To bring a screeching halt to my complicated history with fashion and style for self-examination.
- To refuse to change my dress despite societal pressures.
- To experience myself as outside of fashion as possible and to investigate what that means for my identity.
- To fast from clothing consumption.
- To provide a specifically allotted time (1 year for me) to consider the environmental implications of clothing production, consumption, and disposal, as well as my participation in this monstrous system.
- To experience my interpretation of others perception of me with one, unchanging, external presentation of myself.
- To consider what fashion ultimately means for me going forward.
Of course, there are many other experiences that come with wearing one dress for one year. I don’t doubt that if you take your own month-long ODP on, you will uncover a trove of worthy purposes in your experience.
My primary encouragement is that what you choose to wear should be exceptionally simple and relatively versatile. Consider this an identity challenge, a perception challenge of sorts, a sustainability protest, a cultural protest, an experiment with extreme minimalism, a welcoming of radical simplicity. If you can swing it, keep your accessories to an extreme minimum (including shoes). Challenge yourself. Do something different. Even if this is only feasible with the few items you already own, then by all means, go for it. The intention is not to recreate your external presentation within your one dress, but to do something extreme in order to break the strong arms of the clothing industry that tightly grasp us with the hands of want and habit.
Lots of people have asked about bathing suits (especially now that it’s summer), pajamas, work-out attire, etc. I’ve kept out one bathing suit in the event I need one. I wear pajamas at home, but never when I leave the house. I wear work-out attire to exercise, but I’ve selected a uniform for myself that never changes in these occasions – I wear it then and only then. That is what feels reasonable and authentic to me while remaining aligned with the heart of the protest.
Though I might be running the risk of scaring a few of you off, I want to encourage you to be as extreme as you can manage. I mean, it’s only one month, right? I thought this would be the best month of all for you to join me given the lack of weather variability in most places.
So go forth and consider. Do let me know if you plan to join – I’d love to hear about your considerations, decisions, and ideas.
Until then, I’m looking forward to having some ODP company!
I’m doing it! I have my dress. I’m looking for shoes. I should find them this weekend and I’ll be ready. I’m excited and looking forward to it!
Yayayayaaayy!!! Just a little bit exciting.
Do you not have any shoes that will work. It is hard to have one pair of shoes for all times. I have three pair: tennis shoes for biking to and from (my mode of transport), flip-flops (for errands), and close toed nicer shoes for work. I couldn’t exist in any one pair of these fully I don’t think. I perhaps could find a pair going forward that could work for all three but I didn’t have any before starting that would and I didn’t want to consume anything other than my dress.
And, will you be blogging about this?
yes! I’ll be blogging about it. I’m so excited!
About the shoes, I want something tennis-like that I’m planning on wearing every day. I already have nicer shoes that I can wear a few times. I definitely need tennis shoes because I have two little girls and I’m always on the go. I need my comfortable shoes. I was going to the store today, but I feel so sick with a cold. Either way, the good thing is that I already have the dress. I will be wearing my dress even if I can’t find the comfortable shoes, by my deadline.
Are you going to have to have to wash the one dress very often?
I’m assuming everyone will handle that differently. I wash mine once a week-ish. I think that may increase as the summer heats up and the body responds. You do have to find a time in your schedule to wash it and have time for it to dry OR have a dress that is dryable (mine, unfortunately, is not).
Kristy
I am looking through my clothing to find something I would like to wear to join you. I am NOT a dress person at all…..never have been but I’m so excited to join you and having a little trouble making a choice….any suggestions? I do not want to consume anything to take part in the 30day ODP, I am excited to join you and I will blog about my exp. with you.
Hi Lisa, So great to hear from you and thrilled you want to join and not consume to do so! If you aren’t a dress person… are you a skirt (short, long or longer) and simple top person? I never was a dress person either, but it was the only thing that seemed to work for every day and all circumstances. But that also means it isn’t anything all too cute or snazzy… as you have seen. How about something as plain as khakis and a simple top. The tricky thing is picking something you could wear to all events and activities (outside of working out or sleeping or swimming). I look forward to hearing what you come up with.
I’d love to check out your blog if you do write about your experience. Please link your blog posts about your ODP experience here and to the ODP fb page if you like for others to check out!
This is for Lisa. I am not a dress person either, but I think it’s going to work if I wear shorts underneath. Then after a month, I might become a dress person! I think that dresses are so practical! I decided to go with a black dress in case I get it dirty or a stain that doesn’t come off. Black is great! I already had the dress and because I’m not a dress person I hadrly wore it and the dress looks new. Ha!
I have my material (it’s a little 70s looking, but its something I have had for a long time… meaning i didn’t bUY it for this) and a borrowed pattern, borrowed sewing machine. I want to relate to the many women in the world who make their own simple style dresses. My one dress- repurposed fabric, hand-made by yours truly.
So excited.
I am getting nervous though now that it’s time for the stitching. Not for the dress. But for the meaning. and the change. My heart needs some time to prepare for this. So… I’ve got a week!
My dress is from NY and Co. ha! I don’t even want to know who made this dress. I hope people who were treated right. I bought my dress like two years ago. I can’t even remember. I hope that we become “one dress friends” I’m so excited!
I’m a dude, so I’m going to skip the dress part (although I think I’d look pretty good). I just now realized that I’m already almost One Dress Protesting but I’ll go ahead and make it official.
Khaki shorts, canvas TOMS, and white v-neck t-shirt is what I wear everyday. If it’s cold (I’m in Michigan and this time of year varies from the 30′s-90′s) I’ll wear jeans instead. I also have a completely plain grey zip-up hoodie that I wear.
Occasionally I bust out a nice dress shirt or a different t-shirt, but I’m going to do my best to prevent that from happening during the one moth of official ODP’ing.
Good stuff!
You so could rock a dress, but your other selection sounds just fine.
Thrilled you’ll be joining me “officially.”
And you can make it on the super simple outfit you’ve described, sans alternatives, hoodies, accessories, etc. I can’t wait to hear how you experience this.
I just realized that I actually have several white v-neck t-shirts that I wear. I don’t know if I could go through an entire month with just one white shirt. I’m pretty sure it’d be looking pretty nasty by the end. I think I will slightly modify the challenge to allow myself the ability to keep 4 or 5 white t-shirts available for logistical reasons.
Yeah, that seems definitely reasonable considering it is very different to keep white clean and presentable as compared to my black dress. That is also part of the reason I chose black. I’d just make sure they are all the same darn thing if you can and just have enough to stay as clean as you like. You’re not breaking the rules… this is as much a sustainability challenge as it is an identity and perception challenge so the appearance of the same look is a major part of it (at least it is for me). Peace, brother.
This is great. I’m excited to read everyone’s plans, and I can’t wait to see the photos and blogs. I’m considering sewing a dress for myself, possibly in the T-tunic style. I haven’t decided definitely to do it because I’m about to move to a new work/living situation, and while it probably won’t matter, it feels like it will! At the same time, I’ve been considering my plans and rules and exceptions. Weather and working conditions and safety matter! I need to be able to look “nice” but also move freely and do dirty garden work, at minimum. I’ll need either an overskirt for work (I sit when I weed) or more than one dress, so I’ll always have one without mud and manure on it. But pants are more practical around some machinery, so I may just dedicate jeans and a T-shirt for such work. Or if I participate, I may change methods within the month. It doesn’t have to be perfect, after all: It’s about discovery.
Hi, Brittany. The sewn ensemble sounds pretty awesome but I understand this could seem like too much through the changes you’re about to go through in terms of work and living situation. It could also be one area of extreme simplicity during a time of extreme complication.
The dedicated pair of jeans and t-shirt seems most practical for your daily yard/mud/manure work. I do wear my one dress outdoors for such activities but I’m not doing those things with incredible regularity. That would be impractical in terms of cleanliness and the job I have.
I would encourage you to pick one “look” to stick to for the entire month for everything but your daily muddy work… that way you have one look for longer to experience life and other people and yourself out in the world in. Let me know what you decide.
This is going to be a rad month. Tres awesome.
I’m SO in.
- Josh
(@nonconformistpa)
Hey, Josh, Stoked to have you join!
Hello Kristy,
I’ll be joining you too!
I’ll only wear 2 of the 4 black dresses from 3 june – 3 july. I’ll choose 2 pair of shoes (the black healthy ones….not fashionable at all…). Take of my bracelets and other jewelry (except for very small earrings and my watch). Bit nervous about the shoes, because the healthy, flat shoes give you a different feeling (nerd, nun, grandma, your own mother) than the business ones with the heels (business, hip, strong, stupid (would a guy walk on heels for hours?). But that’s the whole point of the project.
Did a trial with the shoes at work today…..I think I’ll be fine, it’s more a thing in my head…. I think in a week I will be proud to wear these shoes. Just as I am very proud of my 4 simple black dresses.
A friend of mine is joining too. He’ll be wearing just 1 suit and 1 pair of shoes at work during this period.
The Netherlands are “soooooooo in”
Grtz,
Susanne
Wow, Susanne! Way to up the ante from the commitment you already made to only wear 4 dresses for the year. I’m thrilled to have you joining me even more, and your friend too. What he is doing is awesome. I don’t know any dudes doing this that have to wear a suit everyday to work. Go him!
I can’t wait to hear about how this even more intense month goes for you. Thank you Netherlands for your support!
Peace.
Got my shoes! I’m ready!
This is very cool, I have already done the 33 challenge so I don’t have a lot to begin with, but this seems like the next step.
Unfortunately at the moment I am moving and the amount of sweat and grime involved as we clear out our stuff from the basement, shed etc., and then have a huge yard sale, plus the move itself, makes this not feasible, YET.
I will begin my month on July 19th, the day after my move and it gives me time to find the dress. I love the above poster’s idea of making their own, another thing I have always wanted to do, but time is of the essence at the moment.
You look great in that dress, Kristy!
Also – I love this idea. I look forward to reading your thoughts and reflections about fashion and consumerism at the end of the year.
I admire what you are doing. I agree with the previous poster that you look great in the dress. I think this is something I would like to try soon– I will first try it for a week and go from there. Thanks for the inspiration to throw off the opinions and pressures of what other people think! kudos to you!
Hi, Adrienne. And thank you. More importantly, I feel good wearing it. I’m glad you’re giving it a go for a week and considering ODPing for longer. Let me know how it goes (and know that it is very hardest in the beginning so a week might not even be the best representation)!