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A Left Brain Shops

Sadie

I was reading StayFit's post earlier and it dawned on me that people have different approaches to shopping and shopping-list-creation.

I am a strong "left-brain"- seeking order, analytical, objective- and my approach to shopping reflects this: I shop based on what wardrobe needs I have based on certain scenarios: such as an upcoming wedding, a business trip, a vacation, or to fill out a specific capsule (i.e. I need more short-sleeved tops for casual at-home wear this summer).

It was fun to see StaysFit's approach, where she planned items that would enhance her style evolution- which to me seems more right-brained (creative, emotional).

Anybody else think their wardrobe goals are more right- or left-brained, or middle ground?

Shopping

17 replies

Latest reply was from Suz

Jenn

(website)

Veteran

It's funny you should mention this, because I did a lot of left-brain shopping last season. I collected outfit ideas, made lists, and tried to logically put together a small wardrobe that would serve all my needs.

For me, the vast majority of things that didn't work out came from this type of shopping. However, the items that did work out, became essentials that my wardrobe wouldn't work without.

The items that I bought out of sheer love, because they called to me, became the joys of my wardrobe and told me way more about my true style than all my planning could have. Everything I bought this way was a winner.

I don't think I could build a functioning wardrobe with just right-brain thinking, but I'm learning to trust my gut a little more.

Anonymous

I'm someone that uses the right side of my brain more I think. I'm not a bit analytical, I don't do lists, I don't track wears and I tend not to plan that much. I 'think' I would benefit with a little more 'leftness', because a bit more planning and list making might help prevent too many stand alone pieces in my wardrobe. I've definitely got better at it over the last couple of years.

Anonymous

I'm right brained, I think. I do shop emotionally and am stopped only by self-imposed limits such as budget and color palette. My eyes glaze over when I read posts about $ spent & CPW. I know what items are low CPW without making a chart or a spreadsheet. I've made very few mistakes over the years--even less since joining YLF-- because of learning how to dress for my body type.

rabbit

Veteran

Yeah I think it's a balance. I was a heavily left-brain shopper before discovering YLF. I'd go shopping when a wardrobe item wore out or I needed gear or a wedding outfit, and I'd search for and only buy that thing. My sense of style, what worked on me, and awareness of changing trends didn't evolve much.

Now I think I'm leaning on both halves. Like Jenn says the right brain got active in the evolution of personal style and finding wildcards that sung to me and then became the focal point of new outfits. It's also the part of my brain that looks at blog posts and street style and runway shots and other people's WIW's and starts learning and creating visual road-maps or sketches, so when I chance across something out and about, I have mental pictures of how it could work in a variety of ways.

My left brain is the tracker and the budgeter. It sets inital goals and creates the shopping lists with holes to fill (including wardrobe holes for certain colors and shapes as well as functions) and asks before a purchase, how practical with your lifestyle, how many wears, what price, what longevity? The right brain says love or keep looking.

Anonymous

I must be very left-brained. Everything I do in life is based on a strategic plan. I quantitively evaluate success and failure by tracking number of times worn and cost per wear.

I feel that everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Identifying individual strengths and then playing to them leads to success for that person. Personally, if I tried to go through life without a plan, I would spin my wheels and accomplish nothing, or worse, I would make more mistakes than I could count. So I continue to lay out plans and track what needs to be tracked to evaluate progress (or lack thereof).

Staysfit

Veteran

Sadie, This is so astute! I never thought of my process as right brained before. I'm a bit surprised by this insight and need to do some thinking ( with my left brain ) I want to think that I have a balanced approach, although I don't know if that's true?! For example I definitely assessed the number of dresses I have already, the number of days I wear them, and the number I would need for the number of repeated wears I prefer and I have a target number in mind for purchase. I also looked at upcoming occasions, etc. I am sticking strictly to a budget, a color palette, my style adjectives, and keeping my wardrobe from ballooning in size. After that assessment I started to think about texture, color and pattern in my wardrobe. It was an overall feeling I had as I sat in my closet. The majority of the textiles were of a flat, smooth weave. My right brain fired up? While I try my best to plan, I am definitelysomeone who will see something that falls outside my plan, decide I love it and make the purchase impulsively. Often, those purchases turn out to be my favorite wardrobe items.

So, am I a right brain or left brain thinker? Would a left brain thinker refrain from that impulse purchase? Would they not get that overall sense of flat texture when sitting in their walk in closet?

One more thought, I have no idea how right brain thinking equates to personal style, but I have been asked many times if I am an artist. Is it my thought process? Is it the way I dress? My DD is an artist. I must be emanating some of that creative, emotional impulse aura to the world or it wouldn't happen so frequently.

rachylou

Veteran

This is a very very interesting way to look at things. Now I don't suppose I'm a right-brained decision maker that my left-brain tries to beat up into submission! Lol! I am, I feel, very analytical - but that it's something of an imposition and an afterthought because I've been formally trained that way. This may explain my quest/struggle to explain my style to myself and use such criteria to shop.

El Cee

Veteran

An interesting thread Sadie. I am a totally right-brained "emotional dresser". It somehow works for me. But I so admire the planning and discipline of others on this forum and am fascinated by "capsule wardrobes". I probably have capsules, but they are rather intuitive and naturally evolving… nothing I really planned. I am sort of an artistic eclectic type, so it is very hard to nail down a style persona and to plan accordingly. I am (joyfully) all over the place with what I like.

Marina

Personally, I buy mostly to attend specific needs but once in a while I shop something "to my heart content" as long as it's a reasonable purchase -meaning something I don't need but it is in the right shape, color and fitting for a reasonable price. When it comes to shopping for clothes I'm about 80% brain and 20% heart. But despite my tendency towards brain in this matter, I believe brain and heart (I'm calling left and right sides of brain and heart in homage to Heart and Brain comics ) are complimentary and should work together. A 100% brain wardrobe would be deadly boring where a 100% heart wardrobe would be terribly dysfunctional I guess

Anonymous

Interesting observations. I use both I suspect. Because on the one hand I enjoy the process of organizing and planning regarding my closet and purchases. However, there needs to be the element of joy for items to really work out!

Gigi

Veteran

Interesting post. For me, style is mostly an emotional activity, so when I want to shop, I generally start with the emotional side of things (what kinds of things am I feeling attracted to?) and then move to the analytical side (which of these items will get lots of use in my closet? which fit my budget? etc.). So I try to use both sides of my brain.

DonnaF

Veteran

Items I've purchased strictly from left brain thinking don't get worn nearly as often as those emotional right brain purchases -- which, I might add, were made with left brain considerations.

anne

Veteran

I actually think Staysfit is quite analytical - she's just analysing at a different level!

Summer

Veteran

Sadie, like you I am a left-brainer, but I suspect that mindset has been imposed on me by my limited budget. Of course, it would be a joy to shop entirely emotionally, but by doing so I would end up with a collection of beautiful clothes, but not necessarily a wardrobe that works hard for me.
A balance between the two is the ideal, I suppose.

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

My intuitive side chooses and my analytical side tries to understand why. Which informs my intuitive side and on and on in an ongoing feedback loop I go!

Ginger

Veteran

This is such a fascinating discussion! I was totally prepared to announce myself as a left-brain shopper. After all, I'm left brain in almost everything, including my sewing. (I even have a theory about two classes of those who sew: the Artists and the Engineers. Guess which I am?)

But... reading the discussion, particularly Donna's and Jenn's, it was immediately clear that my wardrobe aesthetic and goals are strongly right-brained. Instead of analytical, I'm very intuitive about shopping. I "feel" holes I need to fill, but I'm also very open to things that I just see. Budget and common sense shape that intuition, but don't define it. I'm okay with loving something and leaving it, if I can't see a way to work it into regular wear.

And it really seems to work. Much of my wardrobe might be "frosting" in one sense, but I DO wear it
regularly. My dresses are day dresses, not cocktail dresses or sun
dresses. (Cake vs. frosting discussion: http://sewaholic.net/too-much-.....ough-cake/).

But (with a few notable exceptions) the things I buy (or make) based solely on left-brained analysis don't tend to get regular wear. Partly because my intuition has kept me from getting too many separates to start with. Dresses are another story.

Last night I counted my solid blue dresses. I have 12. TWELVE. That includes knit, woven, pastel, denim, chambray, royal blue, periwinkle, and navy. (It doesn't count anything with a pattern, even if two-tone.) Some of them I might pass on, but I love blue, I love dresses, and they're (mostly) very individual. My left brain can't justify 12 blue dresses; but my right brain rejoices in them, and I wear them all the time.

(I still probably should pass on the less-loved before indulging in any more!)

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Great thread, Sadie.

Angie always talks about organized emotional shopping. That resonates for me, but then, according to those (somewhat silly) hemisphere dominance tests, I'm 57% right and 43% left, so relatively balanced. It makes sense I would approach fashion from that perspective as well.

My approach is pretty much like Gigi's and Shevia's -- and pretty true to my profile. But it's not unrelated to your approach, either. As Shevia also said, it's a kind of feedback loop. So, I might indeed make a list of the type of item I need (sleeveless top) but once in the store I might find myself wowed by a different kind of top instead. So I'll ask myself if it could fill the same functions. Because, like Jenn, I've learned that what I love is a truer guide to what I will wear than what I merely think I need.

Yet that is not to say that my thoughts about my needs are irrelevant. I might be shopping or online and notice an item or a designer that I love, but I won't buy the item until I've truly considered whether it fits my needs. Because that can be an equal mistake -- buying for a fantasy life.