Skirt: Old Navy; Shirt & Shoes #1: The Home. T, Toms via Zulily; Shirt & Shoes #2: Target, Dirty Laundry via Nordstrom Rack, Shirt & Shoes #3: Forever 21
This morning I pulled my black and white pencil skirt out and immediately pulled out the white tank that I paired with it the last time I wore it. I find myself doing that pretty often, pairing the same pieces over and over again, even when I've got ideas of other ways I'd like to wear it. Now, I don't think there's anything wrong with having certain things that you always wear together or that every single item in your closet has be mix and match-able, but it sure makes things go a lot further if you've at least got a few things that you like to wear in different ways (and remember to do it).
I think the best clothes-buying advice I ever got was when I was back-to-school shopping with my mom one year, and she told me to "buy in outfits". Every time I chose something, she would ask what I was going to wear it with. Of course many times I had no plan, so we'd find something to go with it.
I try to remember that advice when I'm shopping, looking for something to go with whatever I find if I don't already have something at home. And buying in outfits doesn't mean that there's only one way that you can ever wear something, it just means that you'll always have at least one way to wear everything. I've got a skirt that I love that's been hanging in my closet for over a year that I've only worn a couple of times because I fell in love with it, bought it, and had no plan for how I would wear it. And it stumps me. So there it hangs. Now that could have been remedied had I found a top to go with it that day. Or if I couldn't find a top to go with it, I probably should have realized that it wouldn't be the best addition to my closet and left it on the rack!
This might seem like an expensive rule of thumb, but I'd rather spend $35 (I shop at Forever 21, so this is a realistic number for me. If you shop at Gap or J. Crew or something, you might not want to listen to me!) for an outfit that I will wear many times, than $20 for a skirt that will do little more than make my closet look pretty.
Maybe next week I will try to tackle that skirt...
