How do you plan which items of clothing you need to buy each season?

[StyleOverSubstance]

Have just been reading one of these style books which advises that you work out how you spend your week into rough percentages and then buy that proportion of clothing to fit that category. So for example, a stay at home mum needs a more casual wardrobe, with some outfits suitable for special occasions and going out, so say 60% percent of her clothing would be casual, whereas someone who works full-time and has lots of formal events to go to would have a bias towards smart work clothes and less casual wear. Sounds great in practice, but am afraid I have the butterfly mentality of see it, like it, buy it, irrespective of how it will fit in with the grand scheme of things. This probably goes some way to explaining why I have wardrobes of clothes and never seem to have anything to wear! Just curious to know if there are people who do have an organised wardrobe and shop to fill the gaps or if most people are like me and do a bit of each - although mine is a heavy bias to the impulse purchases!!

Me, too, SW. Whatever I buy has to be multi-purpose!

I mostly buy for work, which is well cut dresses and shoes and accessories. My casual wardrobe tends to be neglected as I spend less time in casual mode but my less formal work dresses can do the job with more casual shoes and coat.

For really casual, like on a rugby pitch watching my dcs, I have a pair of jeans which I wear with a plain top or jumper and nice scarves from work to give interest and colour.

If I look more dressed up casual, my philosophy is I am not getting any younger and I will rather spend the last vestiges of my fast dissipating youth looking over dressed than slobby. My last flash of glory.

Am just about to start a huge clothing cull for the whole family - so am feeling a mixture of dread at having to sort out all the accumulated stuff and pleased at the thought of the end result where everyone has stuff that actually fits and that they like and wear.

Have got some cheapo clothing rails on wheels to put each persons clothes on so we can sort out what makes up an outfit and see where the gaps are, rather than the usual impulse or random shop.

Suspect that I am the worst offender at the moment as I have accumulated stuff in lots of different sizes as my weight has yo-yoed during and between pregnancies and I haven't yet got round to realistically working out which sizes are never going to fit again and which sizes I can make use of as I get back to my pre-pregnancy size. So I am in that zone of having a wardrobe full of clothes and yet never seem to have anything to wear other than a couple of outfits that I seem to keep going back to.