I am like Kayeby, although I can’t afford to spend $300 on any one item (although I have been dreaming about $230.00 Juicy cargos lately…). I solve my problem by shopping at Winners and sometimes even Wal-Mart. I’d never buy a whole outfit there, but if you trawl there are sometimes unique items and pretty convincing knockoffs (note: does NOT apply to denim). One year, I got this great floor-length olive-green jumper that looks as though it was made by Snug. I love that thing. And last year I bought a gorgeous black velvet top with bell sleeves. The fabric drapes so beautifully. You’d never know it was Wal-Mart.
Anyway, back on topic, I am a parallel buyer who sometimes completely disregards the matching factor.
I’m noticing a trend in this thread though; series shoppers balk at clothes shopping because they don’t like spending money/aren’t clotheshorses (unlike me!)/hate shopping in general.
I could probably save money if I became a series wearer, but the whole idea of having set “outfits” is just too banal. It makes me think of conservative middle-aged ladies living in suburbia.
I’m definitely a serial clothes wearer. I despise shopping. I have 3 pairs of pants, some dressier t-shirts that I’ve had for about 4 or 5 years, and a couple of dresses that I wear to work. I also have a bunch of t-shirts, 3 pairs of shorts and 2 pairs of jeans for weekend wear.
My husband’s even worse–he still has shirts he wore in high school (he’s 44 years old). Our toddler has a better selection of clothes than we do.
But I seem to have enough clothes to be a parallel. I have so many clothes that I forget what I have. That doesn’t keep me away from wearing my favorites over and over again.
Oh my goodness, yes. our toddler has vast amounts of clothing, in many different styles. For which I’m glad, since they were all presents I don’t have to spend any cash.
I only own a couple of each item of clothing, so I’m serial by lack of options.
My wife is serial too, I think, but she also has vast amounts of clothing.
kung fu lola, technically I couldn’t afford it either. It’s still on the credit card, but I have around 50 interest free days to pay it off. Boyfriend has indicated that he likes the skirt enough to pay for a substantial part, or else he might get me a pashmina to keep me warm when he’s not there. I think I might go for the baby pink …
I think you’re onto something there, lola. I am fairly conservative with my money (cheap is such an ugly word :D), although I do like shopping. I just don’t particularly like buying. I suspect that even if I had enough money to buy tons of clothes, I would still settle on a couple of favourites and wear them out like I do now with the lesser-quality items. I’m also not much of an accessorizer - I’m doing pretty well if I manage to remember to put earrings on.
With shoes, series. Buy a pair, wear them into the ground, buy another pair, repeat.
With clothes, I’m not sure. I don’t own “outfits” (I wear jeans and shirts/sweaters). So, it’s buy two pair of jeans, rotate them until they’re dead, continue to wear them for another month or so because the prospect of buying new jeans fills me with horror, and then replace them.
Right now, I’m out of long sleeve black t-shirts. As soon as I find some, I’ll probably buy one or two as replacements for the ones that are now no longer wearable.
But the regular seasonal change of wardrobe (where people buy replacements of the basics, plus a few new stylish pieces?) I don’t do that.
Parallel for work, serial for leisure. My work clothes get updated and changed reasonably often, but I have knocking-around clothes that date back to the '80s, and I have no intention of getting rid of them until I find something even more comfortable.
I have about 20 short-sleeved shirts, and 20 long-sleeved shirts. I start at one end, and work my way to the other. Simple, simple, simple.
And although I’m not color-blind at all, I’m definitely color coordination-blind. I have no eye for what “goes with” what. So, for pants, I have about a half-dozen black or navy blue pants and three khakis. Same thing there, sorta. If the shirt has some color, I wear the next pair of pants out of the first group. If it’s mainly whitish or tannish, I wear the next pair out of the khakis.
I don’t recall the last time I bought shirts or pants–probably '99 at the latest–and the shirt I’m wearing today is from '97 or '98. The last pants I received I inherited from my gal’s father after he died. That was '98.
Leisure clothes are a similar story. I have about 10 pairs of “summer shorts” and 6 pairs of “winter shorts.” I go thru them one after another. All are neutral colors, so I don’t have to worry about color-coordination with my t-shirts–of which I have about 100 (seriously!). I have one chest of drawers full of nothing but t-shirts. I just grab the next one, whatever it is. T-shirts are the one item that I am always buying, but only as vacation souvenirs.
During the three-or-four weeks of cooler weather each year, I have 6 pairs of blue jeans, all with different pocket arrangements so that I can more easily tell them apart. But I rotate thru them the same as all the other clothes.
I typically have 5-6 outfits that are OK for work at any given time - that lets me not repeat during the week. I own one pair of jeans and a bunch of T-shirts that date back to high school for the weekends.
Serial. I use a similar system to the one employed by Earl Snake-Hips Tucker , because I’m colour-coordination blind too. I’m also a college student who values sleep over chic, so it’s called the “Max Convenience” school of fashion.
Ideally, following the “Max Convenience” school of fashion should mean that you can get dressed in the dark, in thirty seconds, and still match. Unfortunately, even though I’ve restricted myself to clothing in four colors (blue, black, denim and tan), I still haven’t perfected this method.
Hm, I think I’m more series. I used to wear jeans and a tshirt (same 3 pairs of jeans, too) every day, till I lost a lot of weight and had to buy new clothes (the jeans were worn out anyway!). Now I wear yoga pants and a built-in bra tanktop every day (3 pants, 6 tops). Of course, some days I dress up.
I’d be a “parallel” clothes wearer if everything in my closet fit me all at the same time, but alas, they don’t.
I’ve got three sizes of clothes: normal size, after vacation size and little ditties i like to call hopeful or f’ing woot!
Within the first two sizes are where i become a “series” clothes wearer out of necessity alone. The hopefuls get worn rarely, but they are so damn cute i can’t give them away besides, i do eventually get back down to that size, i just don’t stay there for long (I like to indulge, life is short!).
I’m parallel above the waist and series below. I buy far too many shirts and wear them in fairly random order (mostly as I’m digging through my wardrobe and unearth one I haven’t worn in a while) but I have very few pairs of pants and tend to wear them until they’re worn out. And I not only wear the same shoes every day but I almost always have a replacement pair of the same shoes on-hand because I get them at the “buy one get one half off” sale at Payless.
The pants thing is mostly because I have lost a lot of weight and am trying to lose some more so I don’t want to invest heavily in pants of my current waist size since it will I hope be changing. I don’t think I’ll be wearing shirts any smaller than I am now (I’ve gone from a XXL shirt to an L) so that’s where I’m spending my clothing money right now.
About shoes: If I had shopping, I hate shopping for shoes is at the top of the list. For years, I would own two pair of shoes: one for work and a pair of sneakers. I always said if I came into any money, I would buy 100 pair of shoes so I’d never have to buy any again.
Well, I came into some money, and the thrift store had a $2 for shoes, $4 for boots sale. I now own 10 pair of shoes and 4 pair of boots. I still need new sneakers, the purple pair I bought four years ago are literally falling off my feet.
It amazed people at work to see that I now own more than one pair of shoes.
I’m a college student, so most of my wardrobe is pretty casual. I’m mostly a series. Especially in pants. I have two pairs of jeans and one pair of black casual-ish pants. I’m mostly serial in pants because honestly, I could easily stand to lose about 50-60 pounds, so they tend to wear out very quickly on the inner thighs. Very frustrating - one great reason to lose weight right there - jeans never last longer than 4-5 months because I only have 2 pairs on a short rotation (I wash them both about twice a week).
I’m mostly serial, tending to parallel, in other clothing. I have three casual skirts, and four nice. I’m more serial in t-shirts and casual shirts, and parallel in blouses and dress shirts. I almost never wear dresses (haven’t for a couple years), so I’m not sure what I’d be there.
It’s still on the credit card, but I have around 50 interest free days to pay it off. Boyfriend has indicated that he likes the skirt enough to pay for a substantial part, or else he might get me a pashmina to keep me warm when he’s not there. I think I might go for the baby pink …