Do you have any clothes in your wardrobe that you don’t wear? Unless you’ve just done a cull and a wardrobe audit, the answer is most likely YES! You are completely normal if this is you because there are so many tricks and techniques retailers use to get you to buy, which is why I’m so passionate about giving you the education in colour and style so you can make the best purchasing decisions rather than falling into the retailer’s traps.
Here are 6 powerful tests to ensure that what you buy, you’ll love and wear.
1. Colour Reality Check
Before you buy something in this season’s latest colour, check that you have clothes in your existing wardrobe that will work with it, so you can create outfits and marry it back into your wardrobe
Is it related to your palette – we can love colours on others, but is it really you? Is it your ideal value? If it’s in a pattern, is it your best value and colour contrast? Ideal value, value and colour contrast are all concepts that you need to know to put stunning outfits together. Value is the technical word for how light or dark a colour is.
When you organise your wardrobe by colour, you’ll find it much easier to see what colours you have. Then it becomes easier to know if you already have garments in that colour and if the potential new garment will be a versatile new option.
I can tell you from working with thousands of women over the past 21 years that the vast majority want versatility in their garments and wardrobes. There is no point in buying garments that can only be worn one way, in one outfit. Or garments that aren’t in colours that work with your existing palette.
2. Fabric Fibre First
What kind of fabrics do you feel comfortable wearing? Are you someone who gets hot, so finds natural fibres a must? Do you hate ironing and prefer blends with polyester so that your clothes don’t look permanently crushed and you don’t have to spend time ironing them? Or do you avoid wearing clothes because you need to iron them before wearing, so they never get worn?
Feel the fabric and ensure you like how it feels on your skin as well. Don’t buy something that’s itchy and scratchy if that bothers you when wearing.
Go through your favourite garments and look at the care labels. Then go through the garments that you tend to avoid because of how they feel or because they require too much time and effort to look after. Note down the fabric fibres you love and hate, and keep a list on your phone that you can refer to when shopping to make sure that you don’t buy garments in fibres that you don’t enjoy wearing or require more maintenance than you’re prepared to do.
Not sure about fabric fibres? Learn more about how to choose great ones here.
3. Power Pause
If you’re on the fence about a garment, such as one you don’t rate an 8 or more, and you don’t want to wear it out of the store, then it’s time for the power pause.
Leave the garment there – leave at least 2 hours before purchasing, or if it’s easy to get back to the store go home and do a wardrobe check by taking a photo of the garment – make sure the garment colour looks accurate in the photo, so you can take it home and compare to the colours in your wardrobe to ensure that it’s going to play well with others if you’re not sure.
If you have a colour palette, it should harmonise with it so that you know it will work with existing pieces in your wardrobe. Not sure of your best palette that works for your colouring today (cos colours change with age), then a personal colour analysis is a good investment.
You can ask the store to set the garment aside while you make your decision if you’re worried about someone else snapping it up before you’ve made up your mind.
4. The Try on Test
Please don’t purchase a garment without trying it on first. Yes, I know it takes time and sometimes you have to queue to get a change room, but even when a garment looks like it has all the key features you want, in a style you like, the cut or fit may be a little off for you, or the fabric may not drape nicely over your body. Until you get the garment on your unique body, you’ll never know.
You need to make sure that the colour and, if patterned, it actually works for you when you’re wearing it. A gorgeous print or pattern may look fabulous on the hanger, but does it work on your body? Does it harmonise with your features? Is it related to your scale? Is it the correct value and colour contrast? These are important to note, and you’ll only know when you put the garment on.
I remember once shopping with a petite client who saw a cardigan with a gorgeous floral print that was in her colour palette. The first thing I noticed about this print was that it was a super large scale, which for a petite person is not likely to work. She loved it and asked me if she could try it on. Of course, I said yes, because I wanted to show her, when it was on her, just how the scale of that print overwhelmed her frame, which she experienced as soon as she saw it on her body.
And of course, never ever buy a garment that is too small because you’re going to lose that extra weight, and then it will fit. Or that’s what you tell yourself. I did this while pregant, buying a coat that of course I couldn’t get done up over my preganant belly and assuming that when I was no longer pregnant it would be perfect…. but sadly even when I had my baby the coat didn’t work as I discovered without the pregnant belly the collar sat too low which drew attention to my bust (something I hadn’t noticed when my belly was making my bust appear smaller).
5. Practicality Matters
How practical is the garment for you? For you and your lifestyle, location, and climate, will the garment work?
As much as we all have a fantasy life where we get to wear a fantasy wardrobe, how close is your fantasy life to your reality? If you’re a mother of kids under five, is that white silk dress really practical and how much wear will you really get out of it?
What kind of care does it need? Dry cleaning or hand washing? Is that for you?
6. FOMO is Not the Answer
Are you buying it because you’re worried it won’t be there tomorrow – the old nemesis, FOMO – fear of missing out.
When you see others wearing it on Instagram or the retail assistant in the store, and think that they look amazing and you have to have a bit of that too, (this is the fashion industrial complex’s way of getting you to buy things you don’t need). Yes, others can look great, but is it you? Ask yourself these questions:
- Is it your personality?
- Is it your style? Do you love it? Do you want to wear it right now?
- Is it in a fabric that makes you feel comfortable?
- Does it fit your current body?
- Is it in your colour palette?
- Does it work with your ideal value, value and colour contrast?
- Is it practical for your lifestyle?
- Is it filling a wardrobe gap?
- Is it better than what you already own, or is it 2nd or 3rd best?
- Is it versatile? Can you dress it up and down so that you’ll get the value from it as you wear it a lot before it goes out of fashion or wears out?
Does it sit in the centre of the Venn diagram of what you wear, what you love and what works for you? If the answer is yes, buy it; if it’s no, then probably best left in the store.
Your Next Best Step
If you found these 6 tests helpful, imagine having a complete system that helps you make confident style choices every single day. 7 Steps to Style gives you the personalised tools to understand your colours, body shape, and unique style DNA—so shopping becomes easy, your wardrobe works together, and you finally feel like you in your clothes again. Ready to stop second-guessing and start dressing with clarity? Discover 7 Steps to Style here.
