It’s the middle of January, everyone is broke and the shops are a depressing site, full of the end of sale rails. As a personal stylist I avoid shopping in the sales like a plague and I definitely don’t take any clients personal shopping during this week. Strange how things have changed, before I became a Personal Stylist I loved the sales. I was always looking for a bargain especially if it was a designer piece! Just seeing a significant price drop was enough for me to feel like I just had to buy it. These are the items that pretty much made there way into my wardrobe and very quickly ended up in the back of my wardrobe, still with the price tag on, never worn and not such a bargain after all!

Don’t get me wrong I still love a bargain but I shop much more wisely now. I of course own a capsule wardrobe and I know exactly what colours are most flattering and exactly what suits my body shape. So now if something is in my right colour and the right shape and it’s been marked down I’m delighted and most often than not I’ll buy it but you won’t see me in the shops rummaging through rails of stock instead I’ll be shopping online, especially this week as many items have been reduced by nearly 70%!

The items that generally go to 70% off are the past seasons trend pieces, stores need to make room for the next season’s trends so out with the old in with the new. My advise to you would be only buy that piece if it’s in both the right colour and the right shape for you because if it is, it will always be on trend for you.

January is the perfect time to do a wardrobe edit either with or without a personal stylist. My advice would be to assess what you already own, you’ll probably be surprised to see how many similar items you keep buying so before you buy that bargain ask yourself do you really need it? If however if it’s a great piece and it will work well with your existing wardrobe then buy it. The key is to know what pieces are missing in your capsule wardrobe and then go look for them rather than shopping on impulse and feeling guilty every time you see that item that you’ve never or hardly worn!

Probably the most important bit of advice is only buy something that fits you now! Don’t buy it in the hope of loosing or gaining weight for that reason shopping for shoe bargains will never disappoint you and surely that’s what credit cards are for? J