The Perfect LBD

Owning an amazing, sexy, functional, well-made, and great fitting little black dress just might be one of the keys to a stress free and more productive life. This past Sunday in the Style section of the Los Angeles Times, I saw an article about a young woman by the name of Sheena Matheiken.  A New Yorker, originally from India, Matheiken began writing a fashion blog a year ago called the Uniform Project. 

In it, she sets out to wear a single little black dress every day for a year. She styles it in 365 different ways, all to raise money and awareness, about the sustainability or lack thereof in fashion.  Simply put—she advocates shopping in your own closet.

Matheiken changes the look of the dress by radically changing the accessories and shoes. She exclusively uses recycled, vintage, handmade, or repurposed items. Matheiken’s friend Eliza Starbuck designed the LBD.  It’s reversible, meaning it can be worn with the buttons in the front or back. 

It’s manufactured in New York  using 100% cotton with a pique weave and a crisp finish. All the dresses are produced in small numbers so as not to have un-necessary over-stock.

On the website, www.theuniformproject.com, the readers are able to see Matheiken’s ingenious looks as well as buy the LBD for $180.00. Thirty dollars of the dress proceeds go to the Akanksha Foundation in India; a grassroots movement that promotes education in India by under-writing educational expenses for children living in India’s slums.  

The website has raised over $75,000.

She also wears tights in every color and texture imaginable, leggings, or sometimes skirts under and over. She wears it with a melange  of shirts. She drapes the dress with scarves and capes, and sometimes topping it all off with a hat. Shoes are anything from sneakers to boots or  ballet flats  to pumps.

Ultimately the dress ends up looking chic, funky, sophisticated, girly, uptown, downtown, ethnic, frumpy, or hippyish. All the looks are attractive, hip, and fresh and it doesn’t hurt that Matheiken is freaking adorable.

In order to avoid becoming a hoarder, I try to donate  something whenever I buy something new. New black shoes, donate an old pair.  Recently, because of my job, I’ve found the need to keep more stuff. I hate accumulating un-necessary stuff.

So, I’m learning the lesson from this petite young Brooklynite who for a solid year wore the same LBD. I will begin using every single thing in my closet to makeover the clothes I already have. The problem is…I feel like I really need to buy this particular LBD in order to start. Thus, I’ve just added another LBD to my wardrobe.  Argh…