One dress for 365 days

What if you had to wear the same thing every day for an entire year? Personally, it gives me a bit of a fashion panic attack but if it was for a good cause I'm sure I could learn to accessorize. Let me just preface this by saying this woman has more courage than I. Starting this past May, Sheena Matheiken name has pledged to wear a black dress for an entire year. She calls it The Uniform Project. "Every day I will reinvent the dress with layers, accessories and all kinds of accouterments, the majority of which will be vintage, hand-made, or hand-me-down goodies, " says Matheiken on her site. Many people wore uniforms all through school and it didn't seem to squelch our fashionista tendencies. (Sometimes I'm actually thankful there is less documentation of all previous fashion disasters due to uniforms.) Eliza Starbuck, Matheiken's friend and a designer created the soon-to-be-overworn-dresses. She designed the frock out of cotton so it would breathe and so it could be worn a variety of ways: both front and back, and as an open tunic. She then made seven identical versions. The accessories were found by Matheiken around her city, New York, and you can donate your accessories to the project to keep her looking savvy. You can also check out the site every day where she posts her look. She's got some great ideas for transforming the same old duds. Here are a few of my favourites. The one on the far left is day one of the project.

The Uniform Project is a year-long fundraiser with all contributions going toward the Akanksha Foundation's School Project to fund uniforms and other educational expenses for slum children in India. Matheiken herself went to school in India, and had to wear a uniform, so she's once again enacting her stylish touches on her everyday outfit. It's funny that someone's childhood uniform in India would later lead them back to where they began. It seems like everything comes full circle. Now that's some sustainable fashion.

- Kate Daley