How This Project Made Me Obsessed with a Clothing Brand
Wool& and the 30-day Dress Challenge
Some top notes:
First, after months of thinking about it, I’ve decided to offer a paid subscription option to Cramming for the Apocalypse. However, it’s going to be more like a public radio donation situation where, at least for the time being, everyone still receives all of my weekly articles. There will likely be some paid-only content down the line, but for now, it’s a voluntary way for regular readers to show their appreciation for the work. I did this because I’ve often struggled with appropriately valuing my work (quite a common issue for many women out there—thanks society). So I’ve decided to take the leap and, at the very least, believe in the value of my work. Thanks for supporting this whole endeavor whether through paid or free subscriptions—all of your support is valued!
Second, this post is about a dress I wore for a whole month. Honestly, given the ongoing bombardment and rising death toll in Gaza, I’ve been sitting with the discomfort of posting something that is as trivial as this silly little story. With that, I wanted to start this post by reminding readers that we still have so much work to do to demand a ceasefire. And remind us all that we can support our Jewish friends and fight antisemitism and wish them love and light during Hanukkah while also demanding freedom for Palestinians. As such, there’s still a lot of work to do. Continue calling your elected officials, write and call the White House, and show your support for a free Palestine wherever and however you can.
With that, if you just need a palate cleanser of a story before you start making those calls, read on. If not, I totally understand and feel like this is quite a good one to miss. In the meantime, make those calls and send those emails!
While I committed to more or less give up buying new stuff in 2023, there’s one brand that I found that I kept going back to. It was among one of the first purchases I made this year well into spring (sorry No-Buy Year 😐). That brand is Wool&.
Wool& is a sustainable clothing, all merino wool brand for the femme-types among us (their sibling brand is Wool&Prince for the masc-types). Given that Wool& has been coming across my social media feed relentlessly for a few years, it was only a matter of time before I succumbed. It’s no coincidence, though, that I made the jump while I was deep in this Cramming for the Apocalypse project. And also kind of because I was doing the No-Buy Year thing. I know, it’s still capitalism. And also, it sounds counterintuitive, but hear me out.
The ethos of Wool& is all about simplification. Simplifying your wardrobe and simplifying your life by paring down your closet. Their three principles, in fact, are: live simply, consume carefully, and do good. And I really don’t think it’s lip service. They believe so much in this idea that they launched a couple of official challenges that encourage Wool& owners to live that simplification by wearing a piece of their clothing for either 30 days in a row or 100 days in a row. Not only is it proof that their clothing is, indeed, durable if cared for correctly, but that you can do a lot with less. And I’d argue that this goal of simplification can help create a different mindset about the stuff we already own.
I realize as I’m writing all of this that I sound like I’m writing copy for a Wool& ad. And perhaps that’s exactly what I’m doing (without the payout, lol). But that’s kind of how Wool& works. While their Instagram ads certainly caught my attention, what kept me was the community that has rallied around this brand and its principles. The Wool& groupies–which I’m apparently one of now–are walking advertisements in and of themselves. These groupies (dubbed “woolies”) convene in a special Facebook group dedicated to sharing tips about Wool& product care, sharing outfit ideas, getting second opinions on how the dresses look, but especially sharing about progress on the 30- and 100-day challenges. In fact, I think the group all started so that 100-day challenge people could share outfit ideas.
I lurked for a while before jumping into the comments. But what won me over was that it was an exceptionally supportive, diverse group of (mostly) women of all shapes and sizes. Despite being a group of nearly 20,000 people (no joke!), it feels strange to see this camaraderie around a specific brand. But there it is. Also within the group, there is an encouragement not to hold onto our items if they’re not serving us. While a lot of it is dedicated to being excited about their purchases, there’s also another, separate Facebook group dedicated to buying, selling, and trading Wool& items.
This is all to say that I’ve officially become a “Woolie.” It officially happened when I attended their annual Sample Sale which–because Wool& also happens to be based in my fair city of Portland–happened to be just a few minutes’ drive from my house. When I was thinking about going, I did not expect I’d be waiting in line for 1.5 hours to get into the first of their two day pop-up event. But it was nice to try on some Wool& items and potentially buy heavily discounted goods. As I stood in line lo those many minutes, I wondered if it was worth it. Reader: it was worth it.
I managed not to buy a shitton of stuff, which is a win in my book. Although, the feel of the shop during the time I spent there was most definitely one of Black Friday shopping day frenzy yet much, much more friendly. But it is a space where you can feel tempted to load up on way more than one needs despite the brand standing for the opposite. What is different is that they encourage folks to head over to the Buy/Sell/Trade group when they decide an item was just not as enticing when they got home.
Fully bought in, I took the leap and later purchased a full priced dress so that I could do the 30-day challenge. And that, my friends, ended on Saturday. I wore the Ocean Teal Chloe dress for 30 days in a row after getting validation and encouragement that I would, indeed, be able to match it with enough things for that period of time from other Woolies
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And so, here are my reflections on that journey on the dress itself, the experience, and any kind of consumeristic transformation that might have taken place:
The dress is, indeed, quite durable. And I can confirm that it does well at resisting odors. I washed the dress once throughout the entire month, but also spot-cleaned some grease spots from cooking and when my pits got extra sweaty some days (the latter could be a whole other post not related to this project at all).
There’s a learning curve with wool care, particularly when you’re wearing the thing the entire month. What I learned was do not under any circumstances use a Tide stain stick, it will discolor your item. And also, there’s a particularly easy and effective way to clean off grease stains if you google correctly. Oh and also some deodorants will ruin the fabric, so I had to make that switch.
You can do quite a lot with one staple item. In fact, it was a really fun exercise of being creative with what I already have. Admittedly the teal didn’t go with everything, but I was more willing to try some color coordinations that I wouldn’t otherwise. Also, I used this as an opportunity to challenge myself to change up my look every single day. I work from home, so there’s often very little need to mix up my styles or like particularly put together other than perhaps from the waste up when I have Zoom meetings. So having the opportunity to think more creatively about my wardrobe was a fun challenge every day and encouraged me to try out some styles I probably never would’ve thought of before.
It really did make me look at my closet differently (which my dear husband is happy about). While I’m not yet ready to go in and purge most of what I have hanging in there, it made it clear that I definitely don’t need a ton of clothes to mix up my style.
The power of community is strong. I really enjoy the community of Woolies. It’s something I never thought about getting out of it, but they are inspiring with their creativity and they’re always affirming with their words.
Admittedly, I’m ready to wear some of the things in my closet that just don’t go with teal. But I am considering the 100-day challenge with a more neutral colored dress. I’m already obsessively screenshotting different styles Woolies and people in the Wool& ads have of the dress I’ll likely jump on. So stay tuned.