This coming year I'll have a real, actual money clothing budget for the first time in several years. I'm very excited! I've shopped thrift stores almost exclusively for the past couple of years, for fun and necessity. I wanted to see if I could go for a year buying only secondhand (except for underwear. 'Nuf said.) and one year turned into two. It really wasn't hard, except that the complicating factor was a complete lifestyle change from business attire to casual uni clothes which rendered much of my wardrobe obsolete to start with. There are some things that I've found really difficult to find secondhand, such as shoes, casual trousers and good knits. These are big gaps for me and have made it hard to get dressed sometimes, because things won't work without the right x piece.
On planning out how I should allocate the budget, I found that with all the shoes I want that I'd be spending close to half on shoes. I want oxfords, loafers, ballet or light loafer flats, tan boots and a pair of combat boots for fun. I already bought some Birkenstock sandals for summer. On reading the advice here, I'm thinking that's okay to spend so much on shoes, because footwear, bags and good hair seem to be the top things that pull an outfit together.
I've figured out that my look is 'individual classic' with a bit of a polished edge. I've worked out my colours to be blues of all types, tan and camel (never had these before, so experimenting here), grey, brown, touches of red, pink and orange. I have lots of black too, so I'm not buying any more black at the moment.
This is the plan:
- A good haircut is the first priority
- Gradual shoe purchases throughout the year as the seasons change
- Knits (have some on the way from Woolovers). Pictured below are ones that are similar or that I already have.
- Several pairs of casual trousers such as the ones below. I love these and am also thinking of a couple of pairs of cotton and ponte pants.
- I bought three tote bags recently, one tan, one red and one black, for carrying stuff to uni and back.
- A couple of fun purchases of unknown pieces through the year
