Why I won’t listen to ANY store clerk in 2024… How to Dress Like an Adult with SHANE WATSON

The best fashion resolution you can make for the coming year is to learn from last year’s mistakes.

We no longer buy the shoes we can’t walk in, the skirt that’s too tight to sit in, or the dress that requires you to do a Houdini to get in and out.

But there are still mistakes you keep making if you don’t take stock of what went wrong. These are the blunders I made last year that I won’t make again in 2024:

Buying jeans without finding out what for

If you love jeans (me), finding the next perfect pair is one of life’s joys, but you have to figure out where they fit – when and how you’re going to wear them.

If you just buy a nice pair of baggy, dark jeans without thinking about it, they will become the ones you don’t wear because the previous pair performs better.

And don’t make the mistake of buying them too loose on the hips. Jeans stretch.

Listening to a store clerk or customer

They may think it suits you, but they don’t know where you work, whether your friends ever dress up or never, what kind of parties you go to (kitchen or fancy rental room).

In their eyes the yellow suit may seem like a no-brainer, but for your life it may be too chic, too precious, too ‘outfit’ (a very good word my husband said recently when I appeared before him in a color-blocked outfit , matching shoes and belt). It went right back because sometimes they’re right.

Buy a must-have in a color you don’t like

I was so determined to get the right tank top in the shape that suits me best that I bought the last one, in orange, and not a bright tangerine but a hard easyJet.

It was okay behind closed doors, but not a huge success. The year before I got a very good blouse in blue-green, a color I can’t ignore. Lesson finally learned.

Forgetting your weaknesses

Furry collars, in my case. Corduroy and velvet jackets. Ankle boots and lately tank tops. You don’t need more than two, maybe you only need one.

And it pays, if possible, to buy the more expensive one you love and then move on, rather than continuing to buy the same almost great thing over and over again.

Deviating from your ideal hemline

In my case, the anomaly was the almost long denim skirt.

I like an almost long hemline, but since it was a denim skirt I always felt like I wanted it to be shorter and more practical. Where do you go in a denim skirt of this length was the question I never quite answered.

Everyone has an ideal hem length, one that suits their proportions and lifestyle, and deviating from it is at your own risk.

Don’t ask, “Where am I going in this situation?”

You might look great, it might be a great piece of clothing that you’re glad you have, but there’s no point if you’ll never find the time or place to wear a pink dress with pumpkin sleeves.

Never check the weight of things

I can’t quite believe it, but last year I was enchanted by a black coat with a thick fur collar and somehow ignored its thinness.

Eleven months later, I have never worn it because it looks like a cold weather coat but has the warmth of a spring coat.

Does it have heat, is the question you may forget to ask, just like me.

Shopping in just-in-case mode

People think the worst thing you can do is shop in revenge mode (I’ll show him), or in panic mode (the wedding is next week), or with a hangover (who am I?), or in fear mode (go on vacation with the woman who resembles a goddess in everything).

The truth is that you will outgrow most of the above, but the danger that is still a clear and present danger is shopping in a state of mind that could come in handy.

We all succumb to it sometimes, but useful is something you don’t really want to wear.

The dress that can be useful in the summer? You don’t wear it, you wear it ‘Oh! Where did you get that?’ dress.

Buy too early in the season

You don’t know what’s what yet and you don’t know what’s coming, so who’s to say if this choice is the right one? This year I will try to wait a little longer.