This self-imposed exercise in frugality was prompted by a Web challenge called Six Items or Less (sixitemsorless.com). The premise was to go a month wearing six items in your closet (not counting shoes, underwear or accessories). Nearly 100 "Sixers" around the United States, and in places like Dubai and Bangalore, India, took part, with motives including a way to trim spending, a rejection of fashion, and a concern that the mass production and global transportation of clothing is damaging the environment.
Meanwhile, the Great American Apparel Diet, which began on September 1, has attracted pledges by more than 150 people to abstain from buying for a year.
As the economy begins to improve, shoppers of every income appear to be wrestling with the same questions: Is it safe to go back to our old, prerecession ways? Or should we? The authors of these diets seem to think not.
Sally Bjornsen, the founder of the Great American Apparel Diet (thegreatamericanappareldiet.com), said she stopped buying clothes for a simple reason: "I was sick and tired of consumerism." Ms. Bjornsen, 47, said she realized that she spent $5,000 to $10,000 a year on clothes.
"I was buying in an egregious way,"Ms. Bjornsen said. "I was grossed out by the whole thing."
(According to Consumer Reports, one in four American women surveyed said she owned 10 pairs of jeans or more.) Six Items or Less was conceived by two friends who work in advertising, Heidi Hackemer, 31, and Tamsin Davies, 34.
"Our whole thing was not to put a philosophy behind it, and not be too preachy," Ms. Hackemer said. Her six items were a black dress, a pair of black jeggings (a jeans-leggings hybrid), a black tank top, a black blazer, a gray skirt and denim shorts. "Once you hit Week 3, you think, You've got to be kidding me," she said.
One Sixer, Addy, from Milwaukee, wrote on the Web site that she had become so bored with her six items "that I don't even have a desire to get up in the morning."
But others describe a life-changing experience. Sneha Lakshman, 32, of Bangalore, said that she had decided, "I'm going to wear only black from now on."
The most interesting thing to many Sixers was how few people noticed what they were doing.
Stella Brennan, 31, an insurance executive from Kenosha, Wiscon- sin, realized that not even her husband, Kelly, had yet figured out that she had been wearing the same six items since June 21. The sad truth is that Mr. Brennan is the one who actually does the laundry in the family.
