A Shopping Pause
Some of my own getting dressed, clothes, personal style & closet goals for this year, my reasons for starting 2025 with a no-buy month (again), and how it's going so far
It’s a new year, which means an open slate for resolutions, goals, vision boarding and setting intentions for the year. A planner’s dream!! In my professional life, a huge part of my role is planning - for the short and long-term, strategic and tactical, and across a variety of different areas of the business. I like it, and I’m pretty good at it (no joke that this year in a leadership retreat I literally quoted Mike Tyson & President Eisenhower to psych people up for a planning workshop). But sometimes I feel like I use all that planning energy for my work life, and the well is dried up for my personal life. It’s not something that always gives me a ton of energy — too much overhead, too boring, many competing priorities, and it just feels like its something on my list is draining me.
That said, I like direction. I like vision. I like achieving goals. But I don’t really love writing them down and making a plan for how I’m going to get there…I imagine that I must feel about planning for my own life the same way my peers at work feel when I talk about our annual planning cycles.
Anywhooo.
That said, it is impossible to not think a bit about the year behind and how the year ahead might look. I’ve slowly been working my way through an annual goal-setting paradigm, but I’ve given myself the full month to get through it (both because I don’t love it and because that feels realistic given the amount of free time that I have available right now).
When I consider the year ahead, through the lens of style and clothes and getting dressed — which, is something that I love and care personally about for myself, and for others, as well as the subject of this newsletter and little side passion project, there are a lot of things I can imagine! Welcoming more readers, improving my own writing, authoring more personal essays, connecting and collaborating with other writers on Substack, helping more people edit their closets and refine their personal style 1:1, are just a few that I can name off the bat.
When I think about my own closet, and my own habits around getting dressed, I want to:
continue to wear things that make me feel great,
invest in things that I will actually use (eg: nothing too precious that it just sits in my closet!),
stay within my budget,
reduce my contribution to overconsumption & clothes waste (by returning less, focusing on fabrication, and avoiding fast fashion),
become a better secondhand shopper
be honest with myself about what I will actually wear (in other words - buy things that actually fit my life!),
discover and support smaller brands
and ensure that my closet is a space in my home that makes me feel grounded, calm, & comfortable (not overstuffed, disorganized or messy).
These things, my own “personal style” resolutions, are the things that are motivating me to kick my year off with another no-buy month. This is the third official year that I’ve tracked the exercise - but I’ve been doing (or attempting!) to do something like it for awhile. In the beginning, it was a way to curb spending after going all out in the Black Friday - post holiday sales season. I needed an extreme rule to get my spending back on track and stick to my budget again.
These days, and this year, specifically, the shopping pause is for:
taking stock of what I have
being a little more creative with my closet
noticing what I actually wish that I had to make getting dressed and going about my life easier (vs. what catches my eye in a scroll!)
and taking the time to be more aware of and appreciate the things that I already have
Peripheral benefits do, of course, include saving some money, and taking a break from the noise of marketing/sales/new arrivals (I am still looking at these things, just a little less!)
So far? Besides January being freezing cold and that grueling stretch of winter where the end of the tunnel still feels very far away, which can make you not want to wear anything you own, it’s been easy-peasy! I’ve noticed immediately that I want a second wool coat. I head into my office most weekdays, which means I leave my house every single day, and I wear a coat everyday - and I need it to be warm! When it’s extra cold (for me, this is mid-20s and below), I typically reach for a down jacket, of which I have several options, collected over the years. When it’s (slightly) warmer, I prefer to wear a wool coat, with a more refined/sophisticated look — a great coat like this makes me feel super put together, even when I’m wearing the most basic winter outfits, and serves as a disguise if I’m just hopping out for a quick errand (eg: I put it on and belt it up and no one know what I’m wearing underneath!). This is a bigger-ticket item, but I know it will be worth the investment, and it’s been added to my list. Maybe I will get lucky and find something on discount in the next month or two.
I’ve had a bag of things that need to go to the tailor for MONTHS now — most of the pieces in the bag are summer items that I set aside over the summer, but I finally got my act together and took a few pairs of jeans that need altering to the tailor. It took literally 15 minutes, and I’m so excited to get them back, and it was a good reminder that a tailor can extend the wear of so many items in your closet, and make things fit you exactly the way you want them too! I prioritized a couple things that I know I will wear this season (including these jeans that I love and wear all the time, but am excited to have fit me a little bit better!), but am planning on doing a better job of bringing things every few months in the future.
Other things that I have noticed so far — I have room in my closet for a interesting brown belt, as well as another pair of boots - something that I can dress up and down, and (something I’ve known for awhile), I need a few more pairs of pants that are work-friendly, but non-jeans. Plus, I’m dying to change out the bag that I use for work, but just haven’t quite found the right thing that meets my requirements (mostly that my work laptop is annoyingly & restrictively large) and is unique or interesting in some way. None of these things are urgent purchases, just things that I’ve wished I could reach for as I’ve been getting dressed.
Maybe starting off a year with a “no-buy,” or even making a resolution to spend less over the course of the year might feel a little trendy right now - which, is probably an okay thing in the grand scheme of things. I don’t think doing something like this has to mean that you’re not going to go on and buy nothing forever, or that there is anything wrong with buying things — I love things. Instead, maybe it’s a way to just take a state of the state of what you have to make sure there isn’t anything lurking in the back of your closet that you’ve completely forgotten about, or things that would be better passed off to someone else that you just aren’t going to wear anymore. It might help shake off that feeling (that I sometimes get) that you have to get something new, even if you actually have something you love and could wear in your closet. It’s kind of fun to do a little challenge like this, and you might just learn something along the way - so, why not, you know?
So, what have I been wearing? Let’s take a look!
We were extremely fortunate to go away after Christmas for a warm weather escape with my family. I was extremely proud of myself for not really buying anything for this trip. Not that long ago, the norm for me was ton of panic orders in the days leading up to a trip. It was my first time wearing this bathing suit, the Flora One Piece from Follow Suit, which was a thoughtful purchase that I am obsessed with. I’ve had my eyes on it since the beginning of last summer, but the navy was never available. I got it during a Black Friday sale (via Tuckernuck, where it’s not currently available but I’m sure they will restock!), and I’m obsessed. It’s the right amount of coverage for me (medium in the butt!), does not budge, but still feels feminine and fun (It is TTS for me - wearing a Medium, if you are bustier, you might consider sizing up). I wore it almost every day. I love the baby blue color available exclusively via Over the Moon.
This was a very casual vacation - most days I was wearing a bathing suit and an oversized button down. I spent a lot of time luxuriating in the fact that my youngest took a full body nap on me either by the pool or ocean every afternoon. It was incredible (sigh!).
On our trip home, I wore an iteration of my trusty travel uniform. I have my travel outfit down to a science, and I’ve worn an iteration of this every trip I’ve taken in the past few years. You can read the full breakdown of what went into this outfit here!
My husband and I were incredibly grateful for our past selves who insisted we return home on a Friday, even though it meant we got home around midnight, because it gave us the full weekend to decompress, recover, unpack and prepare to re-enter our routine on Monday. Not much getting dressed over the weekend, although we did have our neighbors over for Thai food one night and I managed to put on some real clothes for a few hours (I don’t think this socks + flats combo worked, but I couldn’t find my grey socks, and it was too cold for no socks!)
Just like that, we were back at it! These jeans (the wash is called Rosie Posie) are go-to’s for me, especially in the winter-time, because they work for so many occasions. I’m wearing them with a low boot here, but sometimes cuff them and wear with a flat into work. I can wear them with sneakers and t-shirts on the weekends, or with a little heel or fun shoe and a simple blouse for a dinner or night out.
These pants (size down, they run QUITE large!) were a nice color change-up for the frigid days of January, especially when the vast majority of my winter wardrobe is filled with neutrals. The color called my name for the holiday season, but I am determined to make sure they don’t just become an item I wear a few times a year. This was a simple look that I was super comfortable in!
In my first week back, I took advantage of more WFH days than I typically do because a lot of people were still streaming back in from our holiday shutdown and various vacations, but on Friday I pulled this on for the second half of my workday, and then for a dinner at a friend’s house in Boston, where a bunch of my girlfriends got together to celebrate the new year and do a Favorite Things gift exchange. I really love these jeans so much, and especially love pairing them with a ballet flat because I think it balances the relaxed style of the jeans and gives a touch of femininity to the whole look!
These jeans were a Black Friday purchase, and I’m fully obsessed with the style - it had been on my radar for awhile, and they don’t disappoint. I am hyperfixated on them right now, and wore them essentially for a whole weekend. Above, for a morning of ski lessons for my kids, and below, for a casual dinner party with some friends at our house.
The washed black is just really speaking to me right now - I love how I can wear something that is true black on top and it feels tonal and not monochrome. Good for me because I reach for black a lot!
Even though January can be one of the hardest months to get dressed, because it’s so cold, there is often snow, and it’s right when the realization that we are only through the beginning part of the winter hit… having something to keep my focused on how much I have and being creative with it is really helpful. It’s keeping me motivated, and, as always, it’s when I feel the least motivated to get dressed that I need it the most. (Don’t worry though, still doing a little browsing to find things that are inspiring me, and I will be sure to share all those things soon!)
If you are doing a no or low-shop January, or longer, or even just focusing on wearing what you have, I’d love to hear from you below? How’s it going? What have you learned? Any wisdom to share with me?
ICYMI
Thanks for reading!
If you like what you’re reading, please consider:
📱 Screenshotting your favorite part of this newsletter and sharing it on Instagram. Be sure to tag @ct_shopguide and I’d love for you to follow!
💌 Forwarding this email to a friend
👩💻 Commenting and liking this post on Substack!
All products highlighted are chosen by me, and some may be affiliate links. Your support is appreciated!
I'm still so impressed you can commit to a whole month. I love the idea but find it hard to hold back especially this time of year with so many deals happening and that feeling of getting what you actually wanted for Christmas!
How is the JM hat??? Would you recommend for actual sun protection? Thinking of adding one to my ebay saved searches lol