Caution: navel-gazing post ahead.

I read MsMaven's post about not needing anything right when I was feeling much the same way myself. I've done some closet culling, and I've sold and given away some items (with more to go). I have some new purchases that are waiting for cooler temps to come out and play, and I've put away the very lightest, thinnest of my summer stuff in a sort of pre- pre-fall closet season switch (including all of my shorts shorter than the knee, considering my crazy bike tan has made them unwearable for the latter part of the summer anyway!). I've been getting a really good look at what I have, what is useful to me, and what makes a closet orphan.

However, I've caught myself surfing around shopping and fashion sites, looking at things that I don't need like culottes, ponchos/capes, jackets, booties, handbags, and sweaters. If you're interested in style and fashion, you're bombarded with messages every season that there are "must haves" and instant style refreshers, and it can be challenging for a recreational shopper like me to resist the idea that the newest *whatever* will make me feel that much more fab. The truth is that I have plenty of items in my wardrobe that are current enough for me to get dressed every day and feel pretty satisfied with how I look (at least clothes-wise, we'll ignore the extra 10 lbs for now).

So, I looked and thought and considered, and I feel like culottes embody everything that is a pitfall to me, stylewise. They tick all of the boxes for shopping mistakes I talked about in my recent thread about painful closet cleaning lessons: 1) They are a big new trend with a lot of visibility at the moment, 2) they are better suited to a less casual lifestyle than mine, 3) they are not as easy to style as jeans and pants, and 4) they are not inherently terribly flattering on my body type. I would have to work to find the right culottes for me, and then to make them work for my style, my body, and my life.

So, no, it is likely I won't partake in the culotte trend. It actually feels pretty liberating to say that. It's a little symbol of my breaking the habit of chasing the latest best thing. I know, never say never and all of that. If I stumble upon the perfect pair while out shopping and try them on and find them easier to work with than I expect they will be, then I'll consider it. But I'm not going to chase it.

Is anyone else feeling this way? Less inclined to chase a trend and wanting more to be satisfied with what you have?