Kelowna woman to wear same dress for 180 days

KELOWNA, B.C. – It’s an Okanagan woman’s plan to wear the same little black dress for 180 days.

Ingrid Uhrich is 28 days into her fashion and social experiment and so far, has not repeated any outfit.

“I’m allowed to accept donations, whatever, from other friends,” says Uhrich, a fashion design instructor and mother of three.

“I might have to raid somebody’s closet.”

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And while it’s a challenge for her to keep her outfits fresh without buying anything new, the experiment is meant to inspire others to be more thoughtful about where our clothing comes from and where it ends up when we tire of it.

“Being conscious about our purchases, being conscious about where things come from, how does this impact others and where is it going after I finish with it,” says Uhrich, who notes much of our donated clothing ends up in the landfill.

“I’m very passionate about this because I’ve seen the fashion industry have a huge shift in the last few years, and it scares me,” she says. “I don’t know how it can continue to do what we are doing with the amount of disposable clothing that we have.”

Uhrich made the coat-style dress out of 1.5m of wool fabric and based the design on the uniform project. She is planning two replicas in other fabrics.

She laughs at the question of washing it, saying it doesn’t get as dirty as one might think. But assures, yes, it has been hand washed and hung to dry.

Uhrich collects her thoughts on a daily blog, which features photos of each outfit.

She also collects donations for both her children’s school rebuilding project, St. Joseph Elementary’s Masterpiece Campaign. Another portion of funds will go to a community school in Haiti.

Instead of buying her own clothing during the six month project, she’s donating $3 a day of her own money to the fundraiser. Her goal is to raise $5,000.

Uhrich hopes her challenge brings awareness and will make a difference.