I’m about to go off the grid for a few days – no computer or internet for me, so I wanted to send out an early New Year’s wish.

And my what a year it’s been.

Shopping, fashion, and retail took a major hit in ’09; this time last year we watched as some of our favorite shops closed, and everyone else in town took turns holding huge blowout sales in attempts to get things – anything – moving through the doors.

But there were openings too. Gucci, Sassoon, and Neiman Marcus to name just a few of the big ones.

Frankly, all of this was a little taxing on the shopping brain. To buy or not to buy? Because on one hand, retailers weren’t the only ones struggling. Many of us felt it at home, too. But on the other hand, we began to truly grasp the power of our spending cash, and we caught wind of cool ways to think about how much our purchases matter.

There was even the Wear What When Stimulate This plan.

It was the year Zac came to town and Logan went to L.A. It was the year New York Fashion Academy really established itself as the alma mater for local design minds and Project Red Dress got really glamorous. It was the year shop owners got creative and entrepreneurs got gutsy. It was the year of t-shirts. Holy cow was it ever the year of t-shirts. It was a year of speculating about what’s recession proof, and speculating about Snuggies.

In many ways, yeah, it was the best of times and the worst of times, but 2009 was a year of sourcing locally wherever possible and I have to believe that in the long run, that’s what we’ll remember most.

Thanks very much for making the first Wear What When year so much fun. All the best to you in 2010.