1. Avoid impulse buys at bricks'n'mortar stores if they are not returnable, especially when I am with DD and/or DH. Both are enablers.

2. If I am trying too hard to make something work or am having any doubts, it means my gut is telling me to return it.

3. If a pair of footwear is making my feet hurt, that means my feet are a little swollen and it's the perfect time to try on that newly purchased pair. If they hurt at all, they need to be returned even if they are gorgeous and I am in love with them. Donna, you have too many pairs of one- and two-hour shoes. (The red pair went back today; the buttery soft booties will be returned later this week.)

4. Drapey blouses make me look lumpy; I'm much happier in shirts.

5. Too much polyester and/or lycra/spandex make me uncomfortable except in a narrow range of temperatures, so I am better off avoiding such garments. So glad that I spent only $10 for my $220+ MiH jeans.

6. My tolerance for color seems to be diminishing, so I need to be very careful when I buy anything that is not a neutral.

7. Never say never; at least keep an open mind. It is possible that some trends haven't worked because you haven't found your best fit. But chasing around to find it might lead to settling, so don't get caught in that trap.

All my fashion mistakes tend to fall into one category: buying things I like to look at (beautiful painterly prints, ultra-feminine clothes designed for curvy bodies, high-contrast graphics, new silhouettes with 'interesting' proportions) instead of what looks good on me. The hard-learned truth is that I am best served by quiet clothing; luckily, that's mostly what's in my closet now.

The mistakes I make are almost always compromises of some sort, usually because I'm buying something last minute to get through the season, or to make something I already own work for a specific event. The top three are probably:

1) Uncomfortable footwear that I purge after one season. I've had this happen with everything from sneakers to dressy boots. These days, if I can't try them on in person, I order from zZappos and think long and hard before cutting the tags.
2) Colors I love in theory but not in practice. These I may hang onto for a long time, and sometimes I manage to build a capsule around them. Going forward I'm trying to be more focused with my palette; it's just easier.
3) Cheap synthetics or synthetic-blends that serve as placeholders when I can't find a higher quality natural fiber version of a specific item. My wardrobe is pretty casual and flexible, so I don't have a lot of "high-need" items; this was a bigger problem when I was working mostly in more formal/classroom settings.

This was an instructional post. Thank you for the topic.

This is a really useful post -- thanks for starting it! It's interesting to hear about the things everyone else has learned to avoid. There's lots of overlap.

I'm completely with you on the idea of going for quality where it matters. Buy nice or buy twice, as they say. This is particularly true of footwear, I find.

Sooooo let's see...what mistakes have I learned from? Here are some reminders I give myself while shopping:

*Elisabeth, don't buy [insert item] in pale lavender or cobalt blue, no matter how cute it is. It'll make you look like you've got plague.
*Stay away from cropped tops. They will make your boobs look like they're sitting on your waistband.
*Don't buy anything that doesn't "go" with at least one thing you already have, or it will end up orphaned.
*Think hard before you buy that skirt, even if it makes your bum look great. You know that nine times out of ten, when you get dressed, you reach for pants.
*Do not succumb to heels higher than 3". You have nowhere to wear them.