VintageGriffin.com

Some of you might already know Alex Martin's Little Brown Dress Project. Or, as she put it, "A year-long performance project. 365 days. One brown dress. A one-woman show against fashion."

"So, here's the deal - I made this dress and I wore it every day for a year. I made one small, personal attempt to confront consumerism by refusing to change my dress for 365 days.

In this performance, I challenged myself to reject the economic system that pushes over-consumption, and the bill of goods that has been sold, especially to women, about what makes a person good, attractive and interesting. Clothes are a big part of this image, and the expectation in time, effort, and financial investment is immense. "

In case you don't know anything about Martin, in a singular protest against mindless fashionista consumerism, with a side-nod to conservation, she designed and sewed a simple brown dress that she wore every day for an entire year. Of course she washed it (I know some of you were desperately wondering). She also mixed it up a lot with other pieces of clothing she owned.



What did the people around her think about her wearing the same thing day after day after day after....well, what did they think? According to Martin: "Did I look crazy? Most people in my professional circle didn't even notice that I was always wearing the same dress day after day -- my take on that is that we're all too busy with our *own* appearance, family, work, etc. to keep a tally on everyone else's wardrobe rotations!"

While I applaud the dedication this project took, I have mighty doubts that no one around her really noticed she was wearing the same thing. Most people, even those of limited means, have a few wardrobe changes. What she did must have looked +mighty+ odd to her casual acquaintances, and my feeling is that many of them didn't know her well enough to ask, "Hey, Alex! So, like, your favorite color is...brown?"

So what happened to the dress, post-365? It was stolen, and Martin thinks it wound up in Lake Washington. No, really. It was stolen at Martin's public De-Frocking at the end of the project, and now the little brown dress has it's own MySpace page. No, really.

Anyway, you may be wondering what happened to our dear old brown dress. And I swear I am not making this up AND it continues to be a complete surprise to me -- whoever took it has set up their own special email account, it's if you want to write to them. On Saturday night they emailed me photos of the dress sinking into a body of water (which I think is Lake Washington) . . . and on Sunday night (just a few hours ago) they sent a photo of the dress at a Goodwill donation station."

While I applaud the dedication and determination and originality it took to pull this off, part of me just looks at that dress and thinks it perpetuates all the (bad) stereotypes about anti-fashion types. I don't expect it to look like it came off the runway, but the Shakers managed to produce simple, elegant designs in a myriad of shapes. This dress is not terribly flattering (was that part of the requirement?), and looks downright dowdy mostimes in the pictures (at least, to me). I think that undermines the anti-consumerism message, ironically.

Isn't that, partly, what vintage is all about? One of the reason vintage clothing has such a devoted following is that it is a form of recycling, conservation, preservation. There's room to appreciate fashion history as well as fashion style.

I, too, have clothes many years old in my wardrobe that I continually wear. Because I'm not a fashionista, and I see no reason to run out and get the latest fashion tippet. But you can dig vintage, honor recycling, rally for anti-consumerism and still look good. Part of the visual message here is that if you want to be on virtuous side of consumerism, you have to look frowsy. I wish the dress had been more attractive (and I get the irony).

To see the little brown dress in all the four seasons, check out Martin's photo gallery.

Martin's newest project, by the way, is her Intentional Wardrobe Project...

"I am recycling, re-mixing, re-fabbing . . . spinning straw into gold as one friend puts it. . . I am wearing only things I have made myself (clothes, jewelry, shoes, underwear, bags, everything) and my source materials are things that were already in my possession - a completely closed loop, 100% recycled from my own closet. "

Where can I find this?

http://www.littlebrowndress.com/index.htm