In retail, January means sales - although with unseasonal weather last year, the influence of Black Friday on UK shopping and changes in the fashion landscape, dramatic sales periods are now happening across the year. There was a pre-Christmas sale, then a post-Christmas sale, and now the previously-manic January sales. Are they losing their former appeal? Possibly. But they’re still tempting.
If you love clothes (and a bargain), managing this sales period is tricky. It’s easy to splurge after Christmas, convincing yourself you bought plenty of presents for others and now it’s your turn. If you’re doing Dry January, or given up an expensive habit for 2015, it’s simple enough to think of that as ‘free’ cash you’ve saved - which can now be spent on clothes.
For all their pitfalls, sales are an opportunity to refresh your wardrobe and purchase items at - ideally - a pleasingly low price. But in a savings-focused culture, how do you avoid being sucked into ‘bargains’ and still getting what you want?
Invest in the classics
It’s an old bit of fashion advice but it’s seriously simple: don’t buy trends in the sales. Save your cash and spend it on classic garments that won’t look outdated in six months. The sales will be packed with last season’s not-so-popular trends; expunge them from your mind and focus on basics:
- White shirts
- Blue jeans
- Black well-cut trousers
- Simple heels
- Day dresses
An alternative is to look out for natural fibres like cashmere, wool and silk, which wear well, look fantastic and have plenty of longevity. Classics, unsurprisingly, don’t date, so the sales are an opportunity to add some pieces to your repertoire you know will keep working for you.
Refresh your favourites
If you have a particular silhouette, print or garment you love, use the sales as a chance to refresh those items in your wardrobe. If you love leopard print, hunt down new items with the pattern; if you’re a sequin skirt fanatic, sift through the racks to find your favourites.
Approaching the sales with a specific garment, texture, material, print or colour in mind helps you avoid picking items you’ll never wear by focusing on ones you do.
Buy seasonal
Hey…you know December 31st in the UK doesn’t mean the end of winter, right? We’ve still got January, February and probably March to go, so buying winter-appropriate clothing in the January sales is a frighteningly sensible idea. Boots, coats and high-quality accessories (like gloves) are all good items to have on your sales list. Stick to flexible styles and colours to get the most for your money - don’t succumb to last season’s pastel-coloured coat even if it is 50% off.
Shop indie and luxury
Take advantage of reduced prices to buy designer and independent. Often both types of fashion can feel expensive at full price, mostly due to our skewed sense of clothing value encouraged by super-low high street retailers.
Investing a little more in independent or designer clothing during the sale is worth it: your clothes will be well-made, well-designed and you’ll have experimented in your buying habits without high financial risks. I recently picked out my favourite sale items at Lambert’s Yard, Leeds - keep your eye out for a blog post by them soon.
Try something new
For all the sensible advice about classics, sales are the time to try a new style, form, colour or print. It’s a perfect time to play with fashion because the options are so wide-ranging, from bizarre ‘never made it out the stock room’ garments to those you liked but weren’t quite willing to bet money on.
For every sure-fire hit you try on, pick out something totally different - you might see a new you.
Buy one, give one
Last of all, eliminate Stuffed Wardrobe Syndrome with a space-saving trick: for every sale item you buy, donate an existing piece. Keep this in mind while shopping - if you had to give away something you already owned for what you want to buy, would you?
A ‘one in, one out’ policy keeps your closet manageable and supports other fashion retailers like charity shops, as well as making you think twice before buying.
I’ve shopped the sales over Christmas and New Year, and I wasn’t hugely impressed. But I did invest in two items: a vintage black Aquascutum trench coat for £65 from eBay (down from £75) and a pair of kick-ass black leather ankle boots from M&S at £28 down from £85.
More astonishingly, I followed my own rules: donated a heap of shoes, invested in classics and shopped designer. It’s part of my ongoing sartorial streamlining - but more of that in 2015. Enjoy the sales, spend wisely and remember: an intelligent sales purchase is for life, not just for Christmas.