We recently received this e-mail from a great reader:
I noticed you all use belts as a sort of crutch item in all your outfits. I would love you see you guys go a week without using belts. I think they’re great once in awhile, but when all three of you use them all the time (and always right around the smallest part of your waist), it gets kinda old. Up to the challenge?
Why, dear lady, whatever could you possibly mean? Us? Over-belters?!

Okay, maybe you have a point.
As we’re all entering new stages in our academic careers — going abroad, working more from home, having a baby in tow — we’ve also been thinking about how we can keep ourselves from getting into a rut style-wise. We’ve definitely noticed that all three of us use belts a lot, albeit for slightly different reasons, so this challenge comes at the perfect time.
So… you bet we’re up for a week without belts! We’ll start tomorrow!
P.S. Partly out of curiosity and partly because we’ll need the inspiration this week, we made a Flickr set of our beltless outfits until this point. We figure that it’s a rare enough phenomenon to document.

Oh, now this is a great idea! Can’t wait to see what ya’ll come up with.
First, I love your use of belts!! Secondly, I give you all big props for going a week without. I couldn’t and wouldn’t do it myself!! :-)
I wouldn’t call it a crutch… perhaps I am feeling a little defensive about my own constant use of belts (really, my waist is my very best feature, and I want to show it off). Regardless, it will be interesting to see what you all can come up with for sure!
I like this idea! I think I sometimes fall into this rut as well. You all look awesome with belts, but I’m excited to see how you style your outfits without them.
I’m looking forward to your beltless challenge
I’m very excited! As a non-beltwearer myself (for the most part), I’m excited to see you all strip off the sash and see how it goes.
Great to see you ladies take me up on my challenge! Can’t wait to see how this week goes. :) Good luck!
I am also excited to see how you ladies do without the belts. I have to say, as much as I love how polished belts look, there are some days when they just don’t feel good.
Also, that picture made me snort. Heh. :)
Cool! Good luck with the challenge.
If you’re looking for other suggestions, I’d love to see a Fashion 101 on texture. I really liked the color lessons you all did and would like to hear about combining textures/fabrics for visual interest.
I look forward to seeing the challenge and checking out your flickr pics!
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