UNF**KING MY F**K-UPS

The Three-Month Clothes Buying Sabbatical

I need a reset from buying duds that turn out to be duds

Photo by Amanda Canas on Unsplash

I’ve been on a tear these past few weeks, buying clothes and footwear for the new season. Tops. Bottoms. Dresses. Shoes. Sandals. Handbags. It all started a few weeks ago. Ahead of the approaching spring season, I culled through the winter wear and put a pile of reject-but-still-wearables in the donation bag. I relocated the surviving colder-weather clothes into garment bags at the back of my closet. Then it was time for the season change. Excited, I checked behind the bags I’d just hung for what should have been my spring and summer wardrobe from last year and found… nothing. No cheery summer outfits.

Only the few neutral classics that stay in circulation year-round survived last fall’s wardrobe review.

Fortunately, I had bits left over from our Caribbean cruise. A couple of rayon tops. A few pairs of pants. Casual Friday jeans. These, a couple of sheath dresses, and my year-round collection of pumps and Friday sneakers, went into heavy rotation.

I clearly needed more. So, I started shopping. Box after box showed up on the doorstep, each one announced by an explosion of barking from one, two, or three ferocious mini-guard dogs hell-bent on…