George K.
So much fashion, so little time. Fashion is a billion-dollar industry for a reason. People are prepared to spend lots of money to buy clothes that make them feel more confident, that look more professional, or that are more comfortable to wear. To meet all needs and all budgets, the industry has responded by providing an infinite number of possible clothing choices.
Much as we would like to, we can’t indulge our fancy by selecting every one for our closets. To narrow down our choices, there are some decisions that need to be made and some actions to be taken.
1. Wear clothing that looks good on you
Clothing in magazines and on mannequins are designed to draw the eye and hopefully get you into the store. When you get there, you realise the look doesn’t suit your body type. It may hurt, but you have to leave it in the store.
Purchasing only the clothes you look good in, significantly narrows down the choice you have to make. The better you know your body type and the type of clothes it looks best in, the smaller the selection pool becomes for you. You are also less likely to buy clothes that are destined to hang in your closet, never worn.
2. Wear clothes you can afford
Everyone wants to own couture clothing. But unfortunately, not everyone can handle the hefty price tags. Shopping for clothes within your budget is another way you can significantly reduce the number of options available to you.
Resist the temptation to buy expensive clothing on credit. This will only put you in debt you might have trouble getting out of later.
3. Develop a personal style.
When you have a personal style, you always manage to look fashionable, even if you are not trendy.
Trends change within a very short space of time and when you try to follow everyone, you end up with clothes you have to throw out every six months. As we’ve already shown you, not every trend will suit your body and the cost of these clothes will add up.
What you want to do instead is have a few pieces of clothing that are always chic. If you’re a woman, that will be at least one little black dress, the right jacket, a matching shirt, and pants set, and suitable accessories and shoes.
If you’re a man, try to have clothing that is suitable for work, at least one piece of formal wear, and a few pieces of casual clothing.
Whatever your personal style is, it limits the number of clothes available for selection because not everything will align with it.
4. Wear clothing that matches the image you want to project to the world
Following on from the above point, wear clothes that conform to what you want the world to see about you.
If you are trying to get ahead in your career, then your look should always be clean and professional. If you want to let the world know that you are classy and feminine, choose clothes that convey this.
You will not select clothing that is inconsistent with the brand you are trying to build in others’ minds.
5. Be conscious of the effect your fashion choices are having on the environment
The clothing you wear has an environmental impact. Fast fashion may be cheap, but it is not low-cost. There are people working in near slave conditions to provide you with those “bargain” prices and manufacturers are polluting the environment to produce them at the speed and volume that people demand.
Some fashion requires fur and skin from animals. A question you need to ask yourself is are you okay with this. Other fashion choices are spawning conflict, as is the case with some diamonds. Knowing this, are you okay with purchasing jewelry made from these?
When you make fashion decisions based on the likely environmental impact of your purchase, a number of fashion options are removed from you.
6. Don’t buy more clothes than you need
Women especially fantasize about a closet full of clothes for every occasion. For those of us that live this dream, at least a quarter of those clothes are never worn, destined to go to charity or be thrown out.
If this happens to you often, consider buying fewer clothes. You won’t miss the ones you aren’t wearing anyway.
Reading this, you realise that it isn’t difficult to begin narrowing down the clothes we truly want to wear. A commitment to conscious buying decisions should help significantly.
