Here's my contribution to the year end/year to come conversation I love reading everyone else's thoughts on this topic!

2021 was ok, and better than 2020, but my wardrobe purchases were not all that great nor was my wardrobe overall. (When I think about it that's true for my entire life this year) Global Pandemic … need I say more?

Style Shift

Like many here, I went totally off skinny jeans sometime in late spring/early summer. I don’t mind wearing them at home where they are my version of “loungewear” but not otherwise. It took me a long time to replace them with other styles, and I'm still working at that.

Also, in the fall, I went completely off wearing simple, solid crewneck and tee sweaters in cashmere or merino. They are not interesting enough to wear alone. I used to like wearing them under an indoor jacket (sometimes denim) but don’t like those anymore either. Big bunch of holding zone candidates. I do occasionally like this type of sweater
with a lightweight vest.

My wardrobe is made up of lots of simple building blocks, so that’s what type of outfits I wear. This mostly classic and sporty style is fine about half the time, but a total boring energy-draining snooze the other half. I still sometimes add a scarf to bring some interest, but even that is feeling dated ....

Solution

I'd like to add more edgy and/or trendy to my style. Thinking tops, footwear ... A bit of more modern sporty would help too - less LLBean, more Athleta or something like that.

Look for a bit more detail, texture, etc to make items more interesting. Maybe color and pattern too, although I do like my mostly neutral palette

Mistakes and Bad Patterns

I had more mistakes than usual; usually either poor quality or poor fit. Not being PPP enough. I’ll chalk this up to stress-relief shopping where buying something/anything is part of the stress relief.

My number 1 issue is that I bought way more pieces than I needed. The quantity by itself is not the issue, it’s more that so many of them were the marginal players you’d could cut from the team and not miss. The biggest contributor to this pattern is buying duplicates in different colors when I find something that fit well. I’m so tired of the difficulty in finding things that fit that I’m over-compensating. The secondary colors are often ones I don’t want to wear as much. Example: Found a great ¾ sleeve black/white striped tee at Talbots, and immediately duplicated in orange/white. I’ve worn the b/w one a ton, but the o/w one hardly at all. (Duplicates, either exact or in multiple colors DO make sense sometimes, I’m just doing it way too much)

I also tend to do grab-anything-year-round shopping, it's not focused and contributes to the too many items issue.

My wardrobe is out of balance - too many essentials and not enough pieces with some interest.

Solutions:

Try to find more pieces that make me happy, not just " it works".

Try a buy-one-outfit-per-month plan like Anchie has used; and/or an ensemble/capsule per season, and make each one contain pieces that are more interesting, trendy, or statement-y. In other words build a good outfit, not just pieces that work together. (This is a lofty goal for me, if I even come close it'll be great)

Buy more for the season ahead of me. I tend to figure out what I want for a season only after the season is well underway so this could be a challenge.

I need to find at least a couple of new brands to try.

Would like to spend far less time shopping with much better results.