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7th September, 2010
“The Shopping Diet” (Gallery Books, $15), by Phillip Bloch: Celebrity stylist and fashion commentator Phillip Bloch has a solution for those who want to spend less and get more for their money when clothes shopping.
This includes the woman with a closet filled with clothes, but who feels she has “nothing” to wear; shoppers on a tight budget; and those who are limiting the number of items they wear each month (typically, about six items, not including underwear) in a self-imposed exercise in frugality.
“The Shopping Diet” is a 10-step plan that starts with acknowledging an addiction to shopping, then committing to the diet and going through a “closet cleanse.”
Divide your clothes into keepers, fixers and returns, Bloch writes. The rest? Sell, donate or throw them away. Then reorganize your closet space and learn how to satisfy your wardrobe needs.
For “smart shopping,” Bloch includes a directory of websites, outlet malls, department and big box stores, off-price retailers and nationwide charities including Goodwill, Housing Works and Dress for Success.
Some of his advice is familiar: Dress for your body type; create a clothes budget; ditch what doesn’t work. But the emphasis is on making “the shopping diet” a way of life.
“The most important thing to remember is that you don’t need a lot of clothes,” he writes. “Ten great pieces in your closet that you actually love and wear trump fifty items that you don’t wear and are just on display in the Museum of Clothing Past.”
Bloch warns readers not to transfer a fashion shopping compulsion onto other goods.
“Shopping is shopping and excess is excess, and that includes buying for your home, your kids, or even your friends and family.”
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