diff --git a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/contrib_exp/newitem/declarative.py b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/contrib_exp/newitem/declarative.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 73618825c..000000000
--- a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/contrib_exp/newitem/declarative.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,18 +0,0 @@
-class DeclarativeMeta(type):
-    """Metaclass for declarative objects"""
-
-    def __new__(meta, class_name, bases, attrs):
-        cls = type.__new__(meta, class_name, bases, attrs)
-        cls.__classinit__.im_func(cls, attrs)
-        return cls
-
-
-class Declarative(object):
-    """Base class for declarative objects"""
-
-    __metaclass__ = DeclarativeMeta
-
-    def __classinit__(cls, attrs): 
-        """Override this method to initialize your class"""
-        pass
-
diff --git a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/contrib_exp/newitem/models.py b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/contrib_exp/newitem/models.py
index d1b6c71ad..e8d76c05a 100644
--- a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/contrib_exp/newitem/models.py
+++ b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/contrib_exp/newitem/models.py
@@ -1,19 +1,26 @@
 from scrapy.item import ScrapedItem
-from scrapy.contrib_exp.newitem.declarative import Declarative
 from scrapy.contrib_exp.newitem.fields import Field
 
 
-class Item(Declarative, ScrapedItem):
-    """ This is the base class for all scraped items. """
+class ItemMeta(type):
 
-    fields = {}
-
-    def __classinit__(cls, attrs):
+    def __new__(meta, class_name, bases, attrs):
+        cls = type.__new__(meta, class_name, bases, attrs)
         cls.fields = cls.fields.copy()
         for n, v in attrs.items():
             if isinstance(v, Field):
                 cls.fields[n] = v
 
+        return cls
+
+
+class Item(ScrapedItem):
+    """ This is the base class for all scraped items. """
+
+    __metaclass__ = ItemMeta
+
+    fields = {}
+
     def __init__(self):
         self._values = {}
 
diff --git a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/tests/test_newitem.py b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/tests/test_newitem.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f31797fd4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/tests/test_newitem.py
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+import unittest
+
+from scrapy.contrib_exp.newitem import *
+
+
+class NewItemTest(unittest.TestCase):
+
+    def test_simple(self):
+        class TestItem(Item):
+            name = StringField()
+
+        i = TestItem()
+        i.name = 'name'
+        assert i.name == 'name'
+