Old Clothes That Come Back Into Fashion

Something a little bit exciting happened to me the other day. I saw that pastels and citrus colours are making their way back in to fashion this Spring! No, I’m not a weird pastel-obsessed person with a wardrobe full of icy blue suiting separates, rather I happen to have one very cute lemon yellow cardigan. “So what?”, I hear you say. Well, that means I don’t actually need to buy anything to be in fashion this season and that, dear reader, appeals to inner cheapskate as much as my inner fashionista.

If you’re not interested in fashion, good for you! No doubt you’re already saving plenty of money on unnecessary clothes. For hopeless garb-junkies like me who find the allure of Vogue irresistible however, shopping is a non-stop occupation. Once a new season heralds its colours and styles, I am on the prowl to find one key piece that will tie all my existing clothes together in a stylish capsule wardrobe that says, “I’m cool, classy and I know what’s going on”. I scour the internet daily and walking around town, looking at all the new designs is my favourite weekend activity.

Fashion has a devious way of releasing obscure things (embellished shoulders anyone?) to ensure the contents of your cupboards can’t be recycled, but just like mum used to say, if you hang on to it for long enough, it’ll come back into fashion. And that’s just what’s happened to my cardi.

It’s a joy to discover you don’t need to buy something because you already have it, which is why I am all in a tizz over my new favourite past-time, shopping in my own wardrobe. Here are the principles:

 

Get inspiration

Have a look at some fashion mags (in the library to save extra $$$!) or look at fashion websites like Lookbook or The Sartorialist.

Think!

Make a mental note of what colours, shapes and features you saw that you really liked. What would work with your shape? What do you normally wear and what would work well with that?

Get Ready…

Get yourself gussied up, just like you would to go to the mall. You want to look nice in the mirror or you won’t like anything!

Now, Shop!

This is the fun bit! Start rummaging through your drawers, your cupboards, your storage boxes, those bags stuffed under the bed. Try anything on that you haven’t worn for a while. Try to wear it a different way than before. Try mixing things with tights, belts, scarves, always thinking about the look you want to achieve.

Once you start looking at what you have in a new light, you’ll find long-forgotten pieces you can fall in love with all over again. And if you don’t find anything? Well then, it may be time to cull that wardrobe and sell some of that surplus. Just like real shopping except it saves you money. It can even ending up making you money and you can’t beat that for a weekend (or any time!) activity.