Hi, so I'm super late to the party, but I'm on a clothes/shoes/accessories shopping ban this year so I figured I'd join the challenge for accountability and community 😊
I've done a yearlong clothes shopping ban before (in 2014, if I recall correctly) and actually found it surprisingly easy then.
I'm fascinated by the discussion about what "counts" as shopping - For me, the main aim is just to not spend money on clothes. However, like many of you I also joined hoping to spend less time browsing for clothes (especially online), yet I hadn't thought of it as really breaking the ban if I were to look at a few items. Last time I did a shopping ban, I pretty much automatically stopped 99% of the browsing I had been doing beforehand, so I suppose I don't really feel like it's necessary to count browsing as a violation. But I see doing that if you think you wouldn't stop looking at stuff otherwise.
To me, taking back a faulty item to the store for a replacement is pretty clearly not breaking the ban, while spending gift cards does count as shopping to me. However, I never really thought of actual gifts of clothes as breaking the ban. The way I got through the last ban was by asking for replacements for a black and a nude cami had worn out during the challenge as gifts for my birthday, and I didn't count that as breaking the ban. But I guess it depends on what the purpose of the challenge is for each participant - if you're just trying to save money, accepting gifts would be fine whereas if you're trying to learn to get by with less clothes, it does make sense to count it as a violation. If you're trying to cut back on browsing, I think it depends on whether you will use gifts as an excuse to spend time looking at clothes to ask for as gifts. If not, I'd say it's fine.