But what has actually influenced your wardrobe shopping choices?

[DeHumanaeMentisApatheia]

There are intermittent threads asking for lists of where people shop - I’m not sure how compelling these are for readers. (And where the OP takes no active role in the thread it’s hard to believe they’re not just some sort of AI generated thing.)

Surely the crucial thing is what shapes a person’s tastes and preferences - all the more so for mature women who have more hinterland. Whether that’s your parents’ interests when you were a child, or shopping with friends as a teen, or a revelation at university or in early jobs. As much as life stages, health, environment, finances.

My ‘reading Vogue from 13’ history is all over S&B.

What influenced you, before ‘influencers’? And how does that affect how you shop now?

I think this thread is about what inspires you to buy particular clothing- but I think we are all also looking at what inspires you to keep certain items of clothing.
Do we need all new clothes all the time?
I am not sure personally what is fashionable or not- but "I know what I like"
I have some items I love that I have had for 30 years.
Maybe I look a fool wearing them but I do not think so and actually I do not care that much
I also mourn particular items finally wearing out and try to replace the specific thing second hand.

@CortieTat in addition to you being upset about plastic, it is good to look at things like how much sheep farmers are paid for a fleece. We are in a bizarre world where they get low amounts for a fleece but pure wool clothing is very expensive.

Gosh that photo was taken the year I was born (1956) @DeHumanaeMentisApatheia.

What a fascinating convergence of timelines, @Floisme!

@Breadcat24 - for me the desire to keep an item of clothing is intrinsic to wanting to buy it. Some posters here have said they like clothes with a story - I’m very specifically attracted to clothes that immediately make me think of the future, of how I might wear them in ten or fifteen years time, when they’re less pristine and precious. Generally I imagine wearing them for gardening or hosting a louche supper at home, mixed with clothes I already have, or with things I haven’t yet encountered. I assume they’ll have years before that at grander or more public events, then become part of my everyday wardrobe. Obviously not everything lasts that long (I’m still prone to giving things away and regretting it later) but there’s absolutely no point for me in anything with a potentially brief lifespan.

This is a great topic. I also keep and wear some of my clothes for years. For me it’s the quality and classic style that makes me reach for something again and again. I have two ancient wool coats. They are extremely well made and just keep returning, I saw a nearly identical coat in a newsletter I received about two weeks ago from a well-known Scottish wool mill. Suddenly I feel very fashion-forward with my 1980s coat :-)

I am aware of the wool problem, I follow several wool accounts on insta. One of the problems I think is that most consumers do not accept anymore that wool from European sheep, with good welfare standards, can be itchy. People want soft clothes and if the clothes look bobbly or fall apart after a few washes, they can get new soft clothes.

I’m one of the posters who likes my clothes to tell a story. Literally. I’d love to find out who originally wore my vintage clothes but that’s impossible now - some of them are well over 100 years old. But I’ve been reading 2 books by Ingrid Mida called ‘The Dress Detective’ and ‘The New Dress Detective’ that show you how you can pick up clues about previous owners and their lives just from close observation e.g. looking for signs of alterations. It’s fascinating.

Oh yes! If I had the figure and the funds, I would live in Dior. That V&A exhibition was sublime!

Our old office manager was very tall and slim and I believe could have been a 1950s model. She was very chic and old school and would look us up and down so even 30 years on when I'm getting ready for work I think would [Office Manager name] approve?

I worked in central London and lived in black and navy throught the 90s (gorgeous decade for workwear imo) and 2000s. As I got older, black started draining me and DH encouraged me to explore more colourful options. My wardrobe is now very colourful and feminine and I've gone from having a couple of dresses 20 years ago, to having dozens now - mostly from Monsoon. I love a swing dress and I imagine I'm channelling Sandy Shaw singing Puppet on a String - I loved her look (I do have the hair!).

I get complimented a lot on my clothes which is gratifying considering I am plus size and trying to find clothes in my younger days was a miserable experience. I love clothes shopping now 😊

@Lemonmeringue76’s epiphanic observation was so tremendously impressive I’ve hesitated to respond to it (beyond admiring the multiple museum visits!).

But earlier this evening I was browsing the Studio Nicholson site and my heart skipped a beat when I saw Nick Wakeman referencing Margiela era Hermes as an influence on her S/S 27 collection.

https://www.studionicholson.com/blogs/features/ss27-paris-this-is-who-we-are

I remember during those years the Hermes journal (was it twice a year?) was probably the most seductive and persuasive publication I came into contact with. It’s hard to explain - there was almost no content, wordy and nonsensical little essays, a few stylised photos of teacups and scarves, leather skirts and riding equipment - but there was something ultimate about it. I never bought anything beyond scarves and costume jewellery, despite all the hours I spent loitering in Hermes stores. But my God - the clothes. The rigour, the simplicity, the perfection - the achieve of the thing.

(Wonderfully Studio Nicholson seems to have recovered its pre-Covid mastery with this coming collection. I love that she’s looks back in exactly the same direction to design for the future.)

The 90’s were a good time for me clothes wise and I still have some pieces ( although they’re much more formal than my life now). I’ve also moved away from all black after becoming bored with it. I used to feel colour was a bit “ Saturday Swap Shop” coded but now I enjoy mixing my colours up. I have to say the only rule I have kept from Trinny and Susannah era is not mixing colour with black. I love muddying colours with brown or navy or clashing colours like pinks and reds.On occasions I will do a head to toe colour drench. ( I think I may have borrowed that term from interiors). Never anything too bright but maybe a forest green. I have a Japanese book of colour combinations which gives me inspiration for less obvious colour combinations.

This is a great thread.
As a child we were poor. I had very few clothes. Maybe one party dress a year. One coat. That sort of thing. I often wore matching clothes with my cousin but in different colours. ( our mums were very close.) Due to her colouring, I seamed to always get to wear the red items. As a young adult I assumed red suited me but now realise that I don’t own any red, maybe it’s an unconscious decision to rebel.
When I was a teenager I was influenced by music. I wore long dark skirts with a lacy underskirt showing, a black fitted cardigan, belted, lace gloves, a black lacy band in my short hair, dark eyeliner, lots of bangles and dangly earrings. I died my hair black. I also spent many years in tight jeans and not much else. I had an aversion to dresses, maybe another subconscious rebellion to being put in dresses as a child.
Then in my 20s I went to work in a cosmopolitan town and became good friends with a colleague. We socialised together and I started dressing like her. Short, tight skirts, flat shoes, nice blouse, fitted jackets.
After that, I went back to wearing a lot of black. The suits I owned were black. If it wasn’t black then it was black and white patterned.
Recently, I dress more for comfort. I only buy comfortable shoes after spending years cramming my feet into uncomfortable shoes. I have wide feet so comfort outstrips anything else. I don’t care if my shoes are fashionable or not. I spend quite a lot on decent shoes as I need them to not cripple me.
I prefer natural fabrics. Although having to iron my 100% cotton dresses is a pain.
I always look at labels and won’t buy anything which doesn’t contain natural fibres, this is down to the menopause and awful hot flashes.
I don’t buy clothes that are see through, A lot of my clothes are lined.
I spend more on better made clothing. I have always used charity shops, long before it was fashionable. I’d rather buy a better quality pre loved item than a cheap new item.
I don’t follow fashion,
I don’t have a capsule wardrobe.
I buy what I am attracted too.
I have a lot of white and cream clothes.
I buy more navy than black now as I don’t suit black so much.
My clothes tend to be loose fitting, longer and not with labels showing.

I like puff sleeves and square necklines, as it balances out my figure.

I don't like gaudy labels and never buy slogan items.
Whilst I do wear patterns, I never buy any items with writing on them, including labels or whitty slogans. I go for a more conservative look.
My trousers are wide legged. I pair them with neutral, plain tops.
I would never wear leggings or a tracksuit other than in the house or at the gym. I suppose I am more of a ‘dressy’ type person.
If it’s cold I layer up. Again for practical reasons- thanks menopause.
I wear whatever jewellery takes my fancy. I have pieces which were my mother’s and modern items.

I have no idea what my style would be classed as. Probably more on the dressy side but not a follower of fashion.

I loved those Just17 features on what ordinary young women were wearing! To this day when I’m happy in my clothes I imagine being interviewed like that.

I also remember fondly those streetstyle photos! In the 80s it was definitely difficult to buy a lot of things you saw in magazines, on musicians etc, so seeing how others had created looks was inspiring. I think I still have a bit of that DIY attitude to clothes (not full dressmaking) but that fiddling/adjusting clothes. Sometimes those little changes can make all the difference. Combined with that, I'm still a great fan of secondhand, as it can add a bit of a wildcard influence.

I was talking on another thread about recently re-reading the Vogue ‘More Dash than Cash’ book and, as far as I remember, there were no recommended brands or shops other than a general endorsement of second hand shops, sports shops and menswear; also nothing about dressing for your shape or any discussion of flattering. The DIY spirit was really striking and also inspiring. I doubt whether Vogue would be able to do something similar today.

I’m pretty sure the More Dash than Cash magazine supplements included High St shops - as well as vintage and, for me revelatory, army surplus stuff.

I recall it sent me repeatedly to a huge secondhand shop on Long Acre in Covent Garden. (I couldn’t remember its name but Google says Flip.) That shop was paradise for me for a few years, it provided a good part of my university wardrobe. I have just this moment remembered a pair of thick khaki twill knickerbockers that I must have worn to numerous supervisions and lectures!

But I absolutely loved swooning over the Sarah Moon / Tim Walker / Mario Testino / etc photos in the main Vogue mag, and then rushing to Oxford St to search for the amazing things MDTC highlighted that cost pennies.

The combination was a proper education in dressing. No 2026 John Lewis personal shopping thing could ever come close.

(I do often wonder if I’m now too old for MN Style & Beauty. Not in the usual Am I too old to wear this entirely standard article of clothing? sense, but because so many decades of exquisite eye training and trying on and experiencing everything means I’m impatient and dismissive of the meagre resources people seem satisfied with now. It’s all so utilitarian - no one ever seems thrilled with clothes these days.)

One practice that's served me well is the 10 year rule - would I have liked this ten years ago, can I see myself liking it ten years from now? It doesn't apply to everything but generally applied saves me from more extreme fashion-y purchases. I find if I stick to that I can have a core wardrobe and make minimal nods to current trends if I like them.

@CortieTat My overall point was that it's easy to be very doctrinaire about other people's choices. I could just as easily say that you very likely had a choice about where to live. We chose to be in an area where we can walk or take public transport 99% of the time, and get our groceries from local greengrocer, fishmonger, and on the very rare occasions we eat meat, butcher; all packaged in paper, carried home in a reusable canvas bag. Very few of us are perfect and there's not much point in getting into a tit for tat about which of us is doing more of a disservice to the environment.

What’s the relevance of the first question, @certainlycertain?

I’m a bit of a shopaholic, and I think it stems from being really tiny & boyish
growing up, which meant I could rarely find things to fit me. Oh how I longed to fit in and look as good as my peers! As soon as I ‘bloomed’ and could fit into standard sizes, and actually look good in them, I was like a kid in a sweet shop. Even now, if something fits and flatters me, I feel like I absolutely have to have it. Which is a bit dangerous, as this applies to many things now! I follow fashion to some extent, but mostly just buy what looks attractive to me that I think I’ll look good in. Lately I’ve been less into patterns and more into colourful trousers/skirts and tops that complement each other, and nice fabrics. I’ve worked with some really stylish, coordinated women over the years who have given me lots of inspiration. I’m definitely trying to cut down, but my clothes bring me a lot of pleasure, and I’ve always (in adulthood) been complimented on my style.

Sorry, not sure I understand - do you mean this question?

would I have liked this ten years ago, can I see myself liking it ten years from now?

I only wear pink, aqua, green, red or pale blue.

I don’t own any trousers as I hate them. I wear midi or midaxi dresses, I wear floral patterns too. I always used to wear tiered maxi skirts, but they’re all too long for me now, so I wear the slightly shorter length dresses now, I like them to be ankle or lower calf length.

I wear soft shoes, never anything with any type of heel, and my jackets are a couple of variations of pink, and I’ve just bought a pale blue/grey rubberised jacket from Vinted.

The two colours I’d never ever even look at are black and orange, hate them both.

@certainlycertain - apologies for being unclear! Why does it matter whether you would have liked something ten years ago?

Thinking about my own clothes, I still like almost everything that’s more than ten years old, but I wouldn’t know how to apply that criterion at the point of buying. And I can’t grasp why it would matter.

There are things I stop wearing, give away, or rest indefinitely - due to weight changes, or lifestyle changes, or because a thing suddenly seems peculiarly unfashionable, but none of those reasons would indicate that I like the garment less, or regret buying it.

So I guess I want to know what I’m missing in your thinking process.

I’m a very purposeful shopper. I make bad spontaneous purchases, which makes me buy beautiful but unmatchable things that are too good to give away, so I’m desperately trying to curb that. I make a beeline for rich jewel tones in block colours. Emerald, ruby, sapphire, topaz. And yet I keep buying grey jumpers and black cigarette pants.

I also have to adapt with age, but I keep lusting after Bardot tops and prom skirts …

But why?

@BebbanburgIsMine and @DuggansBakery - you’ve both started at Chapter 7. Rewind to Chapter 1 …

Compliments -> always get them when I wear the jewel tones

Old habits -> keep buying blue jeans, grey jumpers

Thanks for the link to the Studio Nicholson show, OP, with its beautifully minimal clothing worn by all the jolie laide models of the day.

I must admit I did snort at the reference to "The Piano Teacher pump" - I knew exactly the image she was referring to, as it was used in most of the film posters at the time. But that film - have you seen it??!!

It was (& still is, nearly 26 years later) so very disturbing ... I cannot imagine getting past its content to the point where I'd focus on her footwear more than the voyeurism, self-harm, & masochism!!

However, I just came across this from last year - so "buttoned-up, self-loathing, sexually warped, French-music-teacher-chic" continues to be a thing!

https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/shanghai-spring-2025/shushutong

(Maybe it's more to do with the coolly haughty Isabelle Huppert, who does seem to enjoy disturbing roles rather a lot, & looks sublime in every one! Elle is another great but disturbing film of hers.)

I think it's to do with keeping up to date but in a way that suits my essential sense of style, if that makes any sense? It's not that I keep every item I buy forever, but if I'm going to spend on something, and contribute to the previously discussed environmental damage inherent in the clothing industry, I don't want it to be an item that's going to feel like a momentary whim.

For example, I'm loving some of this season's Dries Van Noten, so I might buy a piece, but it will be one with one of the fabrics that I'm finding interesting but a cut that's a shape or style I would have been drawn to at any point in my life. Kilts seem to be having a moment and I like them. I have a few from previous fashion cycles that I still wear, but there are some interesting shapes and lengths this year. I might buy an updated one because they're something I know I'll still like a bit down the road and can ultimately have altered to a different shape.

I did the same thing when we renovated our house. I tried to steer clear of things that looked good just because they were on trend - I didn't want things - fittings, fixtures, floors, worktops - that you would later be able to date within a 5 year range.

Hope I made that make sense?

Erm … 😅 I’m maybe being a bit dense … We share the same attitude towards buying for longevity. In the future.

I still don’t understand why that process would require the extra question ‘Would I have liked this ten years ago?’ I don’t feel ‘ten years younger me’ has a better idea of what I need now than ‘present me’.

But I’ll stop labouring the point!