Just fer saying influencers make their livelihood influencing their influencees' to buy what they reccommend...... most likely not on the clearance rack given their income is directly related.

I have to agree that many a fashion movement has been started by those who had the least to spend, which later was emulated by those who had loads to spend. As Dolly used to say, "It costs a lot of money to look this cheap!"

But realistically, everyones "basics" are different. I've never subscribed to the idea that every woman needs the same ten items in her wardrobe. That's absurd and cookie-cutter. People can be great shoppers and very stylish regardless of the price point at which they shop. And people can spend lots of money and look dreadful because all the money in the world can't buy style.

Everyone has made excellent points. I am not sure what she means by the clearance rack - not quite the same as sales or second hand to me. The clearance rack brings to mine a small collection of leftovers, not the huge array of things available on sale or second hand these days.

I get lots of great clothes on sale. But the strongest items are sometimes full priced ones, at more of a “building” phase. I’m no longer building my wardrobe I’m just maintaining it and tweaking it. So while I don’t agree with her, I agree a tiny bit. It’s easy to be more serendipitous when you already have a good base?

Of course it’s a mixed concept. Not much use in phrases like “ you can’t “.

I might alter it by saying , it’s hard to build a great wardrobe without SEARCHING for specific items”. For me nowadays anyway.

Because I find I do have a medium- large wardrobe but still wardrobe holes that are related to things like proportions— length of tops or jackets; colors— with “ softening” of my coloring over time, I gravitate toward a mid- range palette and often heathery colors for even my main pieces and then they don’t work together as well, compared to using black, white or navy.

Or, if I find things are not fitting right or giving me the look I want, it’s too easy for that to lead me to just buy something new that doesn’t really address the issue. Especially if it’s on sale! But often I need to try some different brands that might fit better, or a new silhouette , but I have very limited brick & mortar options for inspiration & experimenting in the dressing room, , and often can’t tell online what to order.
Or have to pay shipping and return fees to just try something.

If there’s a distinction between “clearance” and “on sale”, I think it could be difficult to pull together a completely stylish wardrobe for most people if they were shopping only “clearance” items.

To me “on sale” is a different kettle of fish, as many stores usually offer a variety of items on sale at some point and “clearance” tends to be the remnants of these sales that didn’t so sell well, now deeply discounted.

I believe you can, if you have patience, an off-the-rack size & a clear style direction.

The clearance rack is great but can produce wardrobe orphans (which I suspect the author is alluding to). So I now ask myself 'Would I still buy this if it was full price?'

Which reminds me of my Zara haul last season - I felt guilty about buying it without a discount, because I've been trained to wait for the sales (especially for fast fashion), but buying early on in September ensured that I could still find my true size AND be able to use the items throughout the 'Autumn' (we don't really get distinct seasons in HK lol).

With a lot of patience and luck, yes you can. For example, Anthropologie currently has a pair of very on trend PIlcro Skipper jeans marked down to less that $40, and they were more than $120+ new. Very small sizes only by the time I saw them, but for someone who is small it would have been a great and stylish find.

Some people are very creative and have an eye for seeing the potential in a garment. I see lots of people with fabulous wardrobes that shop clearance, charity shops, consignment, etc. I am not sure what this person means by stylish. They also have the time and patience.

There are so many ways to be stylish - as seen on the forum..

But I have always loved an eclectic style that people wear from clearance and vintage and op shop etc - and I love the curated high end look as well.

For me - I do shop clearance and general sale and second hand - and full price new. I could spend less - but would spend more time - it's a trade off.

Things I have added in my closet from the clearance rack (not second hand, not 20% off shop wide and not full price).The theme would be more statements than essentials, and not workhorses. I do view one of these items as a mistake (the navy dress) with one wear in two years and nothing planned..... The skirt and two blouses have had reasonable wear (12-15 I think) and the heels have been worn to a wedding, a funeral and are a great classic to own.

I disagree. I have found that sales racks are not equal. In my last city, most of the women were large and the sales racks were full of good stuff on small sizes like I wore.
Here the women are smaller and exercise a lot. The small stuff is the first to go. Sales racks are full of plus sizes.
I am on my third year of buying 90% used stuff, and feel I can put pretty good outfits together although maybe not stylish. Most of my footwear is new, so makes an outfit more current. I pick up tips on this site as to tends and look for them. Right now I am looking for more green that is not bluish and trying to decrease black. Sometimes what is wanted is just not available new. Like the terrible winter of no full length pants or nothing but sweaters with dropped sleeves in awful-on-me colors.

To me, this adage seems to date from an older era when things only went on sale at the very end of the season and hung sadly in a dark corner of a store. Nowadays large chains like JCrew, Boden etc. have mini-sales all the time, and even the big sales come earlier than they used to. Then we have sites like Rack or Saks Off 5th that have loads of things from previous seasons that I don’t think are simply there because they failed to sell. Poshmark etc. (where I get most of my clothes these days) are yet a different case, as they are garments that may well have been bought originally early in a season or at full price. In sum, this seems to me outdated advice in an era when there are multiple ways of buying clothes at a discount that are not simply the dregs and rejects of a particular season.