Feeling despondent about my wardrobe of clothing

[SeptemberVibes]

Not sure if I’m just feeling meh….but I just feel like going home and throwing all my clothes away. I’m currently on my way home from holidaying on the med. It’s not that everyone was amazingly dressed. Just that, from what I saw in the shops it was all simple styles, fabulous material and a bit pricier. Items to last.

Every season I buy some new clothes, not a lot, probably about 10 pieces for summer and 5-7 Autumn/ Winter. It’s a mixture of decent cashmere, a bit of Zara, Reiss and Mango.

I’ve got summer dresses I’ve never worn, and now don’t like (flowery maxi dress from mint velvet), and boots I’ve worn but not fine for 2 seasons.

Not sure what the solution is. Go back and brutally cull it on Vinted and buy more. Or cull, use what I have and not buy anything this Autumn/ Winter.

How do you resist buying new things!!!

Sell the decent stuff that you don't like, keep what you do like and add to them with good quality items.

What are your clothes size and height, @SeptemberVibes ? And do you need clothes for work or leisure?

Simple styles, fabulous material and a bit pricier are all easily accessible, but I wouldn’t want to suggest things that would be useless to you.

I sometimes wonder why we go on holiday. I know very few people who come back refreshed and happy. It seems to make most of us (including me) disgruntled with life.

I know nothing about you but, if you culled your wardrobe, I'd bet good money that you'd end up replacing it with a pile of mistakes, bought in haste. That doesn't mean I don't think you need to change anything, I just have a hunch that it's likely you could achieve a lot by buying two or three things to give your wardrobe a kick - but things that are outside your usual style comfort zone and maybe things that cost more than usual. As examples (and again, I know very little about your taste) maybe instead of cashmere, buy a chunky fisherman's jumper or some Harley of Scotland fairisle. Or refresh your footwear - I'm terrible at that and my shoes / boots often let my wardrobe down. You might be able to fund some of it by selling unwanted clothes but I'd still pause for thought and make sure you can't repurpose them.

As for how to resist buying: personally and unless you have superhuman willpower, I'd stay away from Vinted until you have a clearer idea of what you want.

Have to say - I have never in my life (not even when I was working full time in the City) bought 10 items across a single season. I’m a seasoned shopper and love finding new things - but I wouldn’t know what to do with so much new stuff all at once. It would be too discombobulating.

Do you think you’re buying more than you need? Or is it that you don’t have time to properly consider each purchase and how it will work in your wardrobe?

I get a lot of info on clothes from Chat GPT. You can also look on you tube putting in information to help you. To help with style I recommend going to an image consultant. I did that years ago and I know what clothes suit me. A lot of people on here have booked in with John Lewis style people. I prefer an independent as they will not recommend just clothes from JL .There are of info on style on that internet machine.

The cashmere and REISS items should be lasting for years. Stick to a colour palette, buy the best quality you can afford, change your shoes to update your style.

I rarely buy new clothes unless I really need to. There are so many other things I'd rather spend my money on.

Thinking abut the sumner dresses you've never worn and now don't like, can you remember why you bought them? Were you motivated by an idea, seeing someone else in that style, a trend??? If you can work out why you bought the things you never wore and now don't like that could help you avoid doing that again.

I don’t buy anything that won’t last!
it has to work hard and have a purpose

Do you actually know what you have? While a cull sounds good in theory, perhaps pull out everything to catalogue it properly, create a look, put together outfits.

See where it all fits together. Include your handbags, scarves, shoes. Everything. Get to know the things you thought so nice you bought them.

Then you can create your capsule and cull the rest. Hang complete outfits together for a while so you don’t have to think about what to wear - it’s already done and you just pull it out and put it on.

My philosophy is different. I often get fed up with my style and pick a new one. Then I buy stuff to fulfil my current aims, as cheap as I can get it without coating myself in crap from Shein - though I have found a handful of great bargains there.

I sometimes buy an item to alter it or make something from scratch, but find this usually means I'm thinking further ahead than the chain store buyers and they'll have it in a few months' time.

Difficulties: I find it hard to locate pure wool knitwear in my price range. If I can't win the January sales game, I stick with cotton - there's a lot of great cotton knitwear now, and it doesn't require kid-glove treatment! I'm disappointed by my value coats, so might actually save up for something frighteningly expensive next year. Or not bother, and just keep wearing "well, it's a coat" coats.

By the time I get tired of myself again, my clothes are still in good nick and still current. They go to charity and I start again 🙂

I used to be more upmarket, with fewer and better clothes, shoes and bags - but still got bored with myself. It's more fun this way.