Could You Wear the Same Dress for 100 Days in a Row?

If I challenged you to wear the same dress for 100 days in a row, could you do it?

I did it. 100 days straight wearing the same dress.

I took up a challenge to: “Live simply, consume carefully and do good.”

That’s the motto of an American company Wooland, which uses Australian merino wool to create durable, breathable, odour-resistant sustainable garments.

Live Simply – More stuff doesn’t equal more happiness.

Consume carefully -Thoughtfully building a “quality over quantity” capsule wardrobe.

Do good -Together, leaving this world better than we found it.

I have talked previously how Textile waste is a huge environmental problem

Australians buy almost 15kg of clothes every year and most of it ends up in landfill, report finds. Australians buy 14.8kg of clothing, or 56 new items, every year, a new report has found, making Australia one of the highest consumers of textiles per capita in the world. 20 July 2022

The Guardian

2022 Wool.and 100-Day Dress Challenge

Back in May 2022, I embarked on a challenge to wear one dress for 100 days.

Of course, you do wash it! [anticipating your question]

Being a fine merino wool dress, you can launder it easily, and it has the bonus of drying fast. You can wash the garment overnight and have it ready to wear again, the following morning.

It’s odour-resistant, so there isn’t the need to wash the item anywhere near as frequently as other pieces of clothing. Especially stretch fabric man-made fabrics that hold odours. You can wear this fine merino wool dress for a surprising number of days without washing, and there is no smell. That’s the benefit of wool. A natural fibre.

I loved it.

• Less Washing is better for the Environment, and your clothes last longer.

Plus, this is a socially responsible company –

• The packaging is plastic-free, being made from post-consumer waste.

Buying this dress will not save the planet;

But owning less is the most effective way to reduce our individual footprints, and [Wooland is] founded on the idea that women get more out of life when they have fewer things. We say own less, own better. We think Merino wool is the key to owning less clothing, since it remains fresher for longer compared to other fibers.

We also want to help break the pattern of buying clothes we never wear! Instead, we want to make the most worn item in your closet. [Wooland]

I tend to agree!

Australian Merino Wool

This company uses:

Wool from Australian farms that follow recognized standards relating to animal welfare and eco-friendly land management practices. Through the International Wool Textile Organization, we’re able certify and trace our wool purchase to a specific farm that meets our values in sustainability. We’ve recently partnered with the family-owned Ashmore Station, based in South Australia. [Wooland]

The farm is specifically focused on improving energy efficiencies, land conservation, and biodiversity.

Wool Clothing and Carbon Footprint

I found hand-washing the dress and draping it over a clothes hanger to dry, meant I didn’t even have to iron it!

Winning!

25% of a garment’s carbon footprint comes from its lifespan of care (washing, drying, dry-cleaning), and all that cleaning takes a toll on the garment itself.

Wearing wool means wearing a garment that requires less time, money, energy, and materials to maintain. Wool can be washed less and should be washed less.

The company says “way less,” and suggests spot-cleaning your garment unless otherwise necessary.

AEG Arabia (a premier appliance manufacturer) says that

“90% of the clothes we wash aren’t dirty enough to justify being machine washed. We know habits are hard to break, and laundry is one of them. Still, we encourage our customers to re-evaluate how and when they wash their clothes since wool excels at evaporating sweat, the breeding ground for bacteria that we associate with dirty laundry.”

What was the Downside of the 100 Day Dress Challenge?

Very little, if any.

Few people even commented that I was wearing the same dress!

Benefits of A Capsule Wardrobe

*I enjoyed not having to plan out what I was going to wear the next day, I knew. I didn’t have to co-ordinate two pieces together – the majority of my wardrobe.

*I could have fun accessorizing and working out different ways to wear the same dress. Somedays I would wear something over it, wear it as an underlayer, tuck it into a skirt making a top, or just accessorize with scarfs. And I have hundreds of scarfs from around the world. Prior to my self-imposed scarf ban, I used to think one could never have too many scarfs. Now I had the perfect use for all of them.

Once I completed the 100 days, I then qualified for $100 off my next purchase at Wooland and chose a t-shirt and a sleeveless wool dress.

In case you want to know, I have not worn these items exactly every day since the challenge expired, but they have become my favourite wardrobe item.

The t-shirt is perfect for exercising, yet keeps me sun safe and the dress is super smart casual and just in time for summer in Australia.

I will continue to downsize to a capsule wardrobe – a downsized version of my former wardrobe. I have already culled, given away, donated, recycled, upcycled and re-invented purposes for some of my older clothes. One top I had in my wardrobe for over 15 years and it was worn – a lot.

Wool is the Perfect Climate-Controlling Fabric

One particularly unseasonably hot day I actually changed into the dress and out of a skimpy synthetic t-Shirt, I had been sweating in whilst out walking. To my astonishment, the wool dress was cooler to my skin than the sleeveless synthetic top with bare shoulders!

Here’s the surprising part of wool’s thermal properties: wool keeps you cool in warm climates too. Lightweight wool garments breathe and wick moisture away from the skin, keeping the wearer cool, even in humid climates.

More than any other material, merino wool is a performance fiber. We love it for its wearability and its ability to go extra days between washing (even 100 days!). But merino wool has a myriad of other benefits including wrinkle- and odor-resistance, personal climate control, and of course, it’s naturally renewable. [Wooland]

Here are some reasons anyone should give it a try:

• Learn how to get more wear out of a garment (e.g. when you spill on your dress, you’ll immediately take action to clean it since you’re wearing it again tomorrow!).
• Recognize what you need and don’t need in your wardrobe.
• Realize that your clothing isn’t what defines you (have you heard of the spotlight effect? It’s a phenomenon in which people tend to believe they are being noticed more than they really are.)
• Have more money to spend on experiences with the people that make you the happiest.
• Reduce your impact on the planet when you realize you don’t need a closet packed full of clothing.

Would I embark on another challenge?

For sure. But you can only do the 100-day challenge once with Wooland.com

We don’t need more clothes, we need better clothes.

Wooland