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# A year without want
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/a-year-without-want/
- Published: 2008-05-23T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T00:04:56.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Mariel Howsepian West Dressed*

MY FRIEND HAZEL KIGHT WITHAM IS halfway through a year-long experiment.

On Dec. 1, 2007, Hazel announced to the blogosphere that she would not be buying any clothes for a whole year. (Hazel averages a mere 1.3 blog entries per month, but she decided that posting her resolution to shop only from her own closet for 12 full months would keep her accountable.) Like many women, Hazel has a closet full of clothes, but enjoys going out and buying more.

What is it about shopping? Is it the act itself? Are we seduced by the artistry of stacks of perfectly folded sweaters? Are we lured by the opportunity to disguise ourselves? Is it that we think we’ve gained some sort of upper hand when we find a bargain?

Are we just hardwired to stockpile, like cave women storing our bison jerky for the cold winter ahead?

Hazel and I are both middle school teachers. We’re both married, we’re both in graduate school, and neither of us has children.

But, when it comes to shopping, Hazel and I are total opposites. Hazel loves to buy clothes, but isn’t letting herself. I hate trying on clothes and I will undoubtedly have buyer’s remorse about anything and everything, but I love writing about fashion, and am therefore forced to shop.

Hazel is a self-proclaimed packrat. She believes in “in with the new,” but she’s not so keen on “out with the old.” Over the past decade, she hasn’t gotten rid of much.

Before she started her experiment, Hazel would bring home new purchases, (clothes that, in the store, she just had to have), hang them in her closet, and it wouldn’t be long before she forgot about them.

She’s not a shopaholic. Hazel estimates that, before the experiment, she spent about $2,000 dollars per year on clothes and shoes. That’s an average of $5.48 per day — such a reasonably priced vice.

I don’t know how much money I spend on clothes, but now I’m certainly curious. It can’t be as much as Hazel spends. But maybe it is. It can’t be. But what if? How is it I have nothing to wear?

Hazel is calling her experiment “A Year Without Want.”

But Hazel wants. We were having coffee, when a woman in cute jeans walked into the café. “Damn, I want a new pair of jeans,” said Hazel. (The jeans Hazel was wearing were fine.) Her birthday is coming up, and she has hinted to her husband Drake that she really wants a pair of sandals she describes as “perfect.” (Hazel has more than 30 pairs of shoes, but only “seven are in the rotation regularly.”) She also wants new black pants. (Hazel has six pairs of black pants. I’m not counting the ripped linen pair she won’t throw out though her seamstress deemed them irreparable.) Hazel’s earliest shopping memory is from the fifth grade.

“It was the Guess/Esprit era and I wanted these two Guess shirts,” she said. “They were like $35 each, which was ridiculous.”

Her parents were divorced, and her mother was a teacher. Spending $35 on a T-shirt was out of the question. Hazel said, “I had a friend who had name brands, and I had my one Esprit sweat-shirt.”

I remember that era. I begged for scrunch socks. Misty Mason had scrunch socks. When I accuse Hazel of being an infrequent blogger, she bursts into laughter.

“I am, aren’t I? It’s not something that I have something to say about everyday. I’m a total infrequent blogger. Maybe it just hasn’t been as hard as I thought. After a while, it’s just been a real sense of freedom.”

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/052308-13_01.jpg)

(Photo: Photo courtesy Fox)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 23, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/052308.pdf?ref=smdp.com)