Scoop: Closet Shoppers

Some local clotheshorses are turning away from stores and toward their own closets

If your New Year’s resolutions involve spending less, saving more and helping the environment, The Great American Apparel Diet may be a good fit for you. Sally Bjornsen, a Seattle-based writer and business owner, launched the Apparel Diet last September to rethink why she shops. Since then, 27 women from Seattle and beyond have joined her cause, swearing off buying new clothes until August 31 (though thankfully, underwear, shoes and accessories are fair game). Fellow apparel dieter Anne Hurley, a local writer and editor, believes she’s become more resourceful since she began the diet, as she has to “shop” from her own closet. But the diet has its critics—in this sluggish economy, struggling local retailers aren’t thrilled with the concept. Perhaps the dieters can help by buying extra underwear and shoes?