Personally, I've been feeling a lot of joy and a lot of indecision about
my clothes. I'm not used to acquiring so much all at one time-- I do
much easier with a few pieces a season. That said, my dress code at work
had changed and I needed new things. I've been chronically
under-shopping by choice and necessity and this fall I had the budget
set aside to get myself set up better, and who knows when that will
happen again. While I'm buying pretty minimally, I still worry about
what happens if the next job doesn't allow jeans or requires a uniform
because then there will be too much to wear. That said, owning 3 pairs
of jeans when you wear them daily is a ridiculous response to that. So,
this season I felt both a very real need to make some purchases so I
could get dressed and a concern that once I had things that I should
have made different decisions or waited for better and wondering what will happen next season --- I've made a commitment to myself to keep my wardrobe on the smallish side but have no idea how much turnover I will have. I do know that I'm gonna buy until I can do laundry once a week and will consider a February refresher. Mostly I'm ready to be done shopping. I've decided that I'm going to just enjoy my things and learn from there. I tallied it up and have made 17 purchases, and I still have items coming to me. That
said, I've realized that I need more toppers and shoes than I started
off looking for to get through the season comfortably, and still haven't
found all the tops I started out searching for for laundry reasons. I've probably returned over 80 items.

So, this season, including NAS I've purchased:

1 layering tee
1 sassy sweatshirt
1 zip hoodie
1 scoop neck welted sweater
1 cowl neck curved hem sweater
1 solid-color flannel shirt
1 navy and coral patterned chiffon blouse
1 navy silk blouse out of season
1 navy long cardi for patterned blouse
1 olive green hooded sweatshirt/top
1 black belt
1 pair of dark straight leg jeans
1 pair of black straight leg jeans
1 pair of slouch skinnies in medium distressed wash
1 pair of gear/ casual weekend cargo pants
1 drape front blouse-- mostly for transitional seasons and gallery openings
1 pair of doc martens
1 replacement pair of sneakers
several heatgear underlayers

That
is 17 items, mostly black, navy, and grey. And I'm STILL shopping
because I'm not to the point where I have enough clean clothes! It
wasn't until I got close to having "enough" clothes to get through the
workweek that I realized everything I was keeping was black and grey
because I'd returned so many pieces.

I returned 2 pair of ponte pants, 6 pair of jeans, several tops at NAS, probably 5 or 6 button downs, several blouses, and 20 sweaters and sweatshirts and probably 15 pairs of shoes, several belts, several bags, and several scarves.

AT the start of the season I had 2 pair of work appropriate bootcut jeans
and 1 pair of weekend bootcuts, 1 gallery type blouse, a denim jacket,
two black leather jackets, navy and black layering tees, an army jacket,
and several pieces from my interview capsule, and red boots to start the season.

I still have 2 flannel shirts, 2 sweaters, 2 jackets, 2 hats, and 5
pair of boots on order, and one belt. I have no idea where my clothing
budget is at (although I know it is under my maximum) because of the
returns.

What I've learned so far:

Part of this is that my workplace is so darn cold that I'm wearing 2-4 layers inside at all times, but I still have bursts where I climb ladders or stairs a lot and will get momentarily hot if I'm in one huge sweater. I also wear very closed footwear with wool socks for the cold. I love my sneakers and think that they are equally good for transition season, but don't imagine them getting much wear once the snow flies.

I hadn't planned on adding jackets, but I realized that I was a month and a half into the cold season (7 months, give or take) and I was sick of black leather and blue denim because I was wearing them everyday all day long for warmth at work, and the olive every weekend and things were showing wear. I have different jacket and top needs during the workweek and weekend-- during the workweek I need layers that I will wear almost all day indoors, where on the weekend I wear my jackets mostly out in public and take them off at home. The olive gets worn a ton in fall, but is too light for winter with most items. So, I'm looking for black/gray alternatives since most of my work bottoms are blue.

I still find that I like to wear my items mostly one way-- I have two sweaters that I like to wear with skinny pants, two tops I like to wear with bootcuts or slouchies, one pair of jeans I like two with only two styles of shoes. I have plenty of bottoms, but not too many. Usually if I get creative it is to sub in a different pair of shoes, different topper, or different colored bottom but keep the basic proportions the same -- so it is important I vary my shillouttes when purchasing because I won't mix it up much at home.

I'm feeling very mixed about color. I like everything I've purchased and think that all the dark neutrals flatter me, but it wasn't my intention to have an entirely neutral winter wardrobe. I'm okay with it now, but I have a feeling in January and february this might not be the case -- so with my last few purchases I'm trying to add a little more color that fits well with my existing pallette, or will add something to the 1-2 items that feel a little dull by themselves. I will let myself add scarves to the couple pieces that would suit and then re-think this Jan. and Feb. and add a couple tops or sweaters if desired then, especially if the items will transition into our spring. I'm also wearing my hair down and glasses more than ever before, and I think this affects my color and pattern preferences.

I also amnot wearing my 2.5 year old clogs at all this winter for comfort reasons and my favorite red boots may only have one season in them. I had to replace my sneakers already-- I think last year's shoes were just worn very heavily with only 3 pair in rotation most the winter. I need more shoes.

My work bag has popped a seam, which has made a replacement more pressing.