All The Clothes I Bought This Year

As mentioned in my spending update, I have undertaken a complete clothing overhaul. Stylistically, not much has changed. But I wanted to replace pieces were just stretched, faded, stained, shrunken and generally worn. Also chuck all my blouses with breast pockets because they’re useless, saggy, and the flaps are a pain to iron.

Below I’ve summarized all my clothing purchases for this year plus some of the remaining items in my closet. Together, these pieces comprise my new “capsule wardrobe.”

I am a big fan of silk shirts. They can be styled for work and casual wear and are great for body heat regulation year round. My go-to brands are Equipment (wonderful quality fabric) and Everlane (quality is only so-so but is cheaper, has better cuts for petites). Both brands have a lot of pieces with terrible boob pockets (avoid these!). I can generally find these in “EUC” aka “excellent used condition” for around $50 on the secondhand market.

The Hugo Boss silk blouse was a steal for $23. The back panel is just slightly too sheer, so I need to find a camisole or tank to wear underneath. But it is so well made and the button placket is just so delightfully luxe. I don’t know why, but when I wear it I feel very Young Pope, but in a good way?

Also, I bought a couple athletic tees. They are a bit more fitted since my usual T-shirts were falling all over my face during fitness classes.

Obviously, I love my neutrals: black, white, grey, cream, and blue. This round, though, I may have gone a little overboard. I do like color!– I was on the lookout for nice golden, brick red, forest green, and blush pink for more variety– but it was just easier to find pieces that met my criteria in, well, neutrals.

As a petite lady, buying bottoms is a fraught experience. And in the secondhand market, you don’t always have the option to return ill-fitting pieces. The best way I’ve found to find pants without trying on in-person is to buy cropped (wearing them as ankle or full-length) and insist on double-checking inseam lengths.

Before now, I’ve never really been a jeans person. Like, I wore jeans. They were comfortable. But these J Brand jeans are something else. I feel comfortable, they actually fit, and they actually retain their shape through multiple days of wear!? Be still my heart. And they are so, so soft. I’ve been putting off washing them because I’m afraid of wearing them out, but about a month in we may be hitting the limits of that approach.

In addition to the jeans, I got some slacks for work to replace my stretched-out old ones and workout leggings from Lululemon, at full price no less. The range of motion I have in these is pretty great. And, yes, they pass the squat test. As far as I’m concerned, they’re definitely worth the premium.

It took me a good three years at my male-dominated workplace before I felt comfortable enough to wear dresses. The red and cream lace dresses are not exactly like the ones I have– mine have something closer to an empire waist. I tend to like knee length since it transitions well between work, semiformal events, and casual day wear. Empire waists tend to be more flattering for my personal shape, elongating my (short) torso.

My new Cara Hansen faux wrap is the softest, most flattering dress I’ve ever worn. The model photo really doesn’t do it justice. I managed to find it at a local shop that sells independent designers and does minor tailoring in house for free!

I’ve added a couple blazers into my rotation to snazz up some of my outfits (also as part of my search for a three piece suit). They’re not perfect by any means– some day I’d like to splurge on a custom suit– but they are nice, versatile pieces to have.

The real winner here, though, is my new Theory sweater. I get compliments every time I wear it. Plus it’s thick, soft, cozy, and adds much-needed texture to my otherwise flat and boring wardrobe.

No new jackets or coats, my current collection can get me through most weather. In an ideal world, I’d like to add a leather bomber jacket and trench coat, though.

This category is pretty uninteresting (read: I’m slightly embarrassed to be talking about my underwear).

The Hanes are shaped well enough, breathable, and have never given me issues.

I tend toward wire-free bras because life is too short to be constantly poked in the rib cage.

As for the hosiery, we’ll see if these Wolford tights live up to the hype. They are quite a bit slimmer than my old tights, and definitely smoother. I just worry about accidentally putting a run in them, though. For $50 a piece, I hope they last me a good long while.

I was inspired by Sherry from Save Spend Splurge and decided to get myself an obi belt to add a little interest to my skirt/dress. In the above picture you only see the cream side of the belt, but in fact it’s reversible; the other side is a lovely powder pink.

Other than that, I’ve been spending an annoying amount of money repeatedly replacing the lock on my Cambridge Satchel cross-body. The purse itself is wonderful– after two years of daily and rough use, the leather is still in great condition– but the push locks are complete garbage. After breaking three separate locks, my plan now is to go to a cobbler to see if they have better hardware I can use instead.

Each year, I buy one to two pairs of Mizuno Wave Paradox shoes for running. Since it’s starting to get chilly, I probably won’t be outside too often. and I regularly go shoeless in my fitness classes, so I may be able to get away with just the one pair this year.

My tried and true everyday shoe is my pair of Merrell Juncle Mocs. They are comfortable, resistant to pretty much any type of weather, and, uh, gorpcore is in, right? Once I get to the office, though, I switch to my Everlane loafers.

The other shoes in my closet are most activity-specific: the wedge sandals are great for cocktail parties, flat sandals for summertime strolls, and the nubuck when I want to feel my bunions. Just kidding, though I do still need to stretch those out for a more comfortable fit.

Duds

There are a few pieces I bought this year that I’ll be giving away in the near future including:

• Elie Tahari silk dress ($31.50) – While a beautiful pattern, the cut was supremely unflattering on me. It made me look both formless and bulky on top– not a great combination.
• Ann Taylor black silk knit short sleeve ($16.50) – Bad, bad quality. Dye faded almost immediately.
• Madewell dark navy patterned pants ($26) – I actually quite liked these pants, except they were 100% with no elastane which means they stretched out a lot after a single day of wear. I got a few months of mileage out of these, though, so it wasn’t a complete waste.
• Return fees ($28.50) – Various shipping and return/restocking fees for items I didn’t end up keeping.
• Amanda Uprichard cream silk blouse ($49) – Remember the blouse for my suit outfit? Well, I accidentally put it through the wash (because I’m terribly lazy with my silks I just throw them in the machine as “delicates”) with a cheap bright red scarf I got as an “extra” in one of my Poshmark purchases. Bad move! The dye from the scarf ran and now there are bright red stains on the back and sleeve that, after two rounds with the OxiClean, I can’t seem to get out. Whoops.

Total amount wasted on duds? $151.50

Total Spent

I think the graph/table more or less speak for themselves. I clearly have an average item price I stick to and it’s around $40 a piece. As I’ve mentioned before, in previous years I spent around $200-300 on clothes, so this is 4 to 5 times what is normal for me. I don’t plan on repeating next year though; I don’t think I could justify another re-haul so soon.

Just for the record, these are not all of my clothes. Of course there are a number of items I wear that are not included in the above photos like: shorts I wear only in summer or indoors, all my cotton T-shirts, various undergarments I bought prior to 2017, and jewelry including my statement piece necklace and engagement ring.

What Do I Still Need?

Unfortunately, every time I jump down this rabbit hole, I realize something’s missing from my collection. Right now, my wish list includes the following:

• Nude silk tank top – to wear with my cream Hugo Boss shirt or by itself
• Leather bomber jacket – classic look for a classic lady
• Collection of Anvil T-shirts – five years ago I bought a batch of Gildan tees that haven’t aged a day. Which is kind of a bummer because they all are neck-strangling crew cuts that I want to switch out for a more flattering, softer V-neck look.
• Trench coat – not sure when I’d actually wear a trench, but they look nice? (this is obviously low on the priority list)
• Leather tote purse – sometimes I want to carry things bigger than my purse without breaking out my company-logo’d backpack
• Real belt – something to sit at my hips, ideally in an interesting print. Possibly snakeskin.
• Streamlined socks – I may still be wearing some of my parents’ old castaways
• Jewelry – I have some good classic pieces now, but I want to funk it up a little bit. You know, do with the accessories what I can’t with the base layers.

There are also things I need to do to take care of my current clothing items, like:

• Basic shoe maintenance, resoling, stretching
• Get my Everlane silk shirts tailored for slightly better fit (adding darts)
• Relining my pea coat, which is currently torn. Maybe I can put in something funky / upgrade from polyester.

Once all that’s completed though, I’ll be done clothes shopping.

Probably.

I hope.

What clothes did you buy in 2017?

Advertisement