Last week I posted on the new action I will be trying out for you in February.  Afterwords I will review it, describing every gory detail.  Although I know you like me to go first, I am hoping we can grow our influence by having some of you join me in wearing the same item of clothing for a month.

Please check out last week’s post to get a feel for the motivation behind this project and other important details: Action: Little Black Dress (This is also known as the Uniform Project or One Dress Protest).

How to do the Action: Little Black Dress

  1. Decide you will do it.
  2. Get your gear.
  3. Check out our fundraising page for this year.
  4. Link it to your own profile to team with me (though you can use my page, regardless).
  5. Tell people about it.
  6. Wear your designated clothing item for the month of February.
  7. Learn what you can about the Horn of Africa to bore people with the details.
  8. Follow the “Escapist Rules.”
  9. Update your blog, my blog, your Facebook, Pintrest, etc… with daily pictures of you in your same-thing.
  10. Tell people about it even more, with the slightest glance your way or every wrinkled nose.
  11. March- wear ANYTHING else while we donate the funds we raised together to our chosen organization!

Get Your Gear

First, you have got to have the basics. Find a little black dress to wear. Ideally, not “little” as in “cocktail party.” That might make grocery shopping, work, school, church, and meeting in-laws a bit awkward.   The Uniform Project has a specific super versatile dress pattern you can get to make their original 2-way little black dress. Or you can buy one of their super expensive ones. Personally, I opted to go to Target.

And, if you are a guy or just hate wearing dresses, you can buy this shirt to wear instead (Link to Little Black Shirt). You are welcome to edit it a little. You can also make your own T-shirt to wear, or just choose a shirt you already own to wear, like a button-down black dress shirt. I myself prefer a dress because they are easier to be creative with, which is half the fun!

Regardless what your item of clothing is, you might want to plaster a big sign on your posterior to get more attention, as not everyone might be aware that you are wearing the same thing daily (let alone ask about it). And if I am going to be wearing the same thing for a month, heck, I really want to be sure people know I am not doing it because I forgot to change my clothing. I want them to know what the purpose behind it is.

I realize that although a sign on your booty might be effective, it might not be the most appropriate way to draw attention to yourself. I myself will be wearing one of these buttons on my dress or bag. If you will be trying out this action with me, I myself will ship you a button (unless you want to buy one here: Button for One Month. One Dress. One Cause.).

Maybe you can find another creative way to start conversations or relay why you care about the famine in the Horn of Africa. If so, please share! Especially if it involves Duct Tape!

I know all you self-sufficient people have to work. If you can wear black scrubs for a month, I will be oh so proud of you. Even if you have a dress code at work, consider how you might still be able to Action: Little Black Dress. The workplace might be the best place to have conversations with people about what you are doing. Don’t be annoyed when I am not convinced you can’t do Action: Little Black Dress, even if you are a teacher, fireman, engineer, lawyer, construction guy. You might have to make some adjustments, but the majority of careers allow some flexibility in fashion.

The Escapist Rules

These are set up to help us out of the inflexibility of being so simple in our same piece of clothing:

  1. Be sure to buy anything you are going to wear BEFORE February, as part of the idea of doing this is to be apart from consuming fashion. In other words, challenge yourself to donate your clothing/accessories budget for the month to our cause.
  2. If you must, have extras of your dress/shirt. I plan on washing mine at night, but I realize this might not pan out as perfectly as I would like.
  3. Please don’t reek. We want our friends/families to approve of this, not despise us because we smell like masculine Spaniards who survived the running-with-the-bulls.
  4. As such, I here by decree all of us to wear something different when we workout!
  5. And, honestly, I am not planning on wearing my little black dress to bed. Let’s not go there.
  6. Accessorize! Borrow or beg your friends for accessories for your dress. It will make your time so much more fun and fashionable.
  7. Log-in what you are doing as much as possible. I hopefully will be posting a picture of me-in-my dress daily as I get creative with it.

Fundraising For a Charity

I would actually like your help deciding on a charity or two whom Crowdrise will give our funds to. As such, I recommend looking at this link by Charity Navigator, listing some of the great organizations working to minimize the effects of the Famine in the Horn of Africa.

Here is the fundraising page for Action: Little Black Dress. Stay tuned for later when I write a whole glamorous review on Crowdrise.

If you made it through this whole post and never saw the first one, go back and check out part one by clicking here.

And if you are interested in the background information of how the Uniform Project got started, here is a nervous Sheena (just another average girl-turned-advocate) telling her story:

TEDxDubai 2010| Sheena Matheiken from Giorgio Ungania on Vimeo.