If you have been reading my recent posts, you will know that I am freelancing a few days a week at Glamour magazine. It is a nice place to work with lovely people so what is the problem? The problem is I have been working in a light industrial office or at home in very casual clothing aka pj’s. Now that I am working in the (cough) Fashion Department, I need to smarten up, pronto.
I am not a big shopper, actually I am a women that doesn’t really like to shop if you can believe it. I prefer to work from a capsule wardrobe, a few pieces that integrate well. If you want to put together a capsule wardrobe, may I suggest you buy the best quality pieces you can afford.
The last thing you want is one of your key items to fall apart.A capsule is a slightly tricky thing to organize the first consideration is your colour palette. If you know what colours suit your skin tone then you are less likely to make basic mistakes. I stick to black, navy, caramel (beige makes me look dead) with touches of red and white.
Avoid prints in you clothing, save them for accessorizing. When you wear prints people are more likely to remember you repeating an item which won’t happen with a classic black dress that you change the look of with a coloured cardigan, a scarf, or jewelry.
I have taken stock of what I have and thanks to clever shopping on eBay, I have a few designer pieces to make my basics look ‘fashiony’. I do need a new pair of boots, I am thinking about a wedge from Office and maybe a new dress or two.
My game plan is to hit the shops, after leisurely viewing their websites to pin point my favourites then make a list of the items I want to buy. But don’t buy when you are in the store, note what you like and what size fits you then go home make a cup of tea and fire up your computer again.
There are a few reasons for not buying in the shop – you are giving yourself a cooling off period so you don’t buy in haste, and you can save more money buy shopping on line. Before buying a single item, I go to Google and look for vouchers or cash back from the site I am looking to buy from. Not all sites are affiliated with vouchers but you would be surprised how many are.
I am a fan of All Saints, who frequently give cash back via Quidco, as do Office, Boden, Debenhams, New Look and even the high fashion site MyWardrobe. I do not make Quidco my only stop when looking for discounts – I will compare voucher sites to see if I can get a better deal. I also look at MyVoucherCodes and any other sites that pop up.
I have been through the websites and now I am going to hit the shops, wish me luck. Also if you have any capsule wardrobe tips or how to get fashion discounts drop me a comment.
my capsule wardrobe is based around a colour way of black, dark blue grey, dark grey and a tiny bit of brown / natural tan. And my colour is pink. I can’t reliquish pink. I have a pink coat, a bright pink scarf and a pair of pink converse. I dyed a lot of clothes prussian blue or black. to make them all match. now I only buy things that will go with the rest – and that not very often. I buy very good shoes – ideally classic things. I have a pair of Frye boots which are awesome and worth every penny. And accessorise boldy – a big scarf, or a big necklace. I am a bit of sucker for interesting jewellery and scarves. But never the less I buy a lot less than I used to. I would like a new pair of the leather Ugg boots to wear all winter. And some new statement high heels. Apart from that I just want scarves and jewellery.
Hi Moyra, you and I think alike when it comes to dressing. Your colour palette sounds beautiful. Vxx