I’ve been lurking on YLF for the last few months but posting almost nothing. I’ve spent all my fashion-related energy on doing a spring refresh, and it’s taken a LOT of time. I’ve written and re-written this posting many times and decided it was time to be done with it Now that I'm done I expect to be back on the forum more.

Being a very petite curvy pear at the high end of the petite size range, I have a lot of trouble finding clothes that fit. Petites are often too long especially in the torso. I alter a lot of things to shorten hems or sleeves. I’m also not overly fond of all the embellished details that are trending right now, and I’m not crazy about bright colors. The higher quality clothing lines usually do not fit me at all, and I have to be careful with the quality of the inexpensive stuff. All that means I have to paw through a lot of options.

(If you’d like a bit of a chuckle and missed my “ode to our embellished era” you might check it out here… https://youlookfab.com/welookf.....hion-era--)

For a variety of reasons, I needed a major refresh this spring. I have some things that will work but not enough. I set myself goals in January to look for somewhat polished casual items that could make up a capsule as opposed to being a bunch of separate items. I decided on a mostly neutral color palette of grey, white, navy. I did include some black but not black solids, and a little bit of color. Stuck with my usual silhouettes and overall esthetic. I started shopping slowly in January, and am finished as of end of March. I think I’ve accomplished my goals, but I’m TIRED Je suis fatigue!

I’m only covering basic tops, pants, toppers. Shoes, bags, and dresses I’m dealing with separately.

Here is what I got:

It surprised me that ALL my purchases were from B&M stores, including a new-to-me consignment shop. I do a lot of online shopping because petite selections are so l limited in stores, but clearly I find good things in stores too. The collection was purchased at the consignment store, a boutique, TJMaxx, Macys , Lord & Taylor, and Anthropologie. The short sleeved and sleeveless items will need to be worn under something else during spring.

6 cotton or blend pullover sweaters, including 4 duplicate ¾ sleeve cotton ones in diff colors
3 long sleeved knit tops/blouses in prints; rust, grey/peach/yellow, black/grey
1 shirt for wearing untucked, black/white checks
1 short sleeved T; black/white stripe and a floral print
1 sleeveless blouse; navy
1 knit jacket; black/grey stripe
2 prs of black jeans, more general refresh rather than specific for spring

The exact collection is here:
https://youlookfab.com/finds/c.....ction=5462

…and here is what I returned….ouch!

26 items from my “Feb Aha Moment”. Mostly sweaters and other tops. In the middle of February I realized I was buying and returning mindlessly (although it didn’t feel it at the time) at B&M stores and had completely lost track of my goals. I returned the last batch and stopped for a few weeks. I was not sleeping well and feeling down about a bunch of things during that time which I think contributed to this. Retail therapy was not working and it was leading me down a rabbit hole….
16 items from my wish list, bought online since I found none in stores that worked. These were olive pants, white jacket, and navy jacket. These remain HEWIs for now.
6 online poor fit and/or quality. Nothing I need to change here, this is to be expected with online shopping where you only see the item once it arrives.
5 too casual and 1 too classic. Not beating myself up over this, it’s part of my style journey.
6 Poor choice in store. After Feb I was much better but still making a few mistakes.
3 attempts at embroidered items. Trying the trend but not finding the right ones.

This is the first time I’ve every tried shopping for a season all at one, and I’m glad I did it, it feels good to be “done” and any shopping I do going forward will be either for summer where I don’t need much or random purchases. I would really like to find a way for it to take far less time and energy but I’m not sure I can “make a plan” for this, I suspect I just need to go with the flow and let it evolve.

I have just barely started wearing these items except the pants, because winter is way overstaying it’s welcome this year. The proof of how well I did will be in the pudding...

I’m hoping to focus more about happiness factor than metrics going forward.

Would love to hear your observations, comments, suggestions, as always!!