I'm a personal stylist and there are 7 shopping mistakes I see women make.
Loving a good shopping spree isn't a crime, right? But it might be why you struggle to decide what to wear in the mornings. Enter: the seven deadly shopping sins.
Kim Crowley, is a stylist and colour expert and after years of experience working with clients she has identified these seven sins to help us shop smarter and save money.
From shopping the same outfits, buying the wrong size and the work horse theory that will change the way you view the items in your wardrobe.
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CREDITS:
Host: Leigh Campbell
Guest: Kim Crowley
Producer: Grace Rouvray
Audio Producer: Tegan Sadler
Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
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Mama Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast is recorded on.
Whoever said orange is a new pink with seriously disturved laurels for spraying groundbreaking? Oh my god, you have to do it. You live for fashion.
Hello, and welcome to Nothing to Wear, the podcast that solves fashion problems and levels up your wardrobe. I'm Lee Campbell, and every week I talk to an expert who is going to help us work out how to get more out of the clothes we already own and tell us exactly what is and isn't worth adding to our wardrobe. Now, if you could see inside my wardrobe, you'd see ten chambracious probably fifteen trench coats, and way too much denim. I absolutely love shopping, That's why I host this podcast, but sometimes I do find myself a bit overwhelmed with what to wear in the mornings. Maybe you're the same, because, regardless of how many items you own, putting an outfit together can be tricky. Well, it turns out I have committed some shopping sins. Now, this isn't my phrase, it's the phrase of today's guest Kim Crowley is a stylist, color expert and former fashion designer based in Sydney. After years of working with her clients, taking them shopping, styling them, going through their wardrobe, she has come up with what she calls the seven Deadly shopping Sins and they help us shop smarter and save money. Kim, Welcome to the show. So you're here today to warn us about the seven Deadly fashion sins. That sounds very dramatic, but seven mistakes women or men might be making when they're shopping in trying to get dressed. How did you narrow it down to just seven? Was it easy?
Was it hard?
All?
That's good question. Actually, yeah, it was quite hard to narrow it down. But they're kind of all interactive really, So although I've done seven Deadly shopping sins for you, they all kind of lean on each other, relate. And that's why we need to talk about it, because I think it's so we think we should be good at shopping, and we go out and we're like, oh my god, to get overwhelmed and we come back depressed with nothing. We're in the fitting room. It's overwhelming. It's intimidating.
Yes, So there's the difference between good at spending money and good at shopping, and I've had periods of both absolutely, because everyone can buy stuff, yay, but no one needs more stuff. Yes, what we need is versatile, flattering outfits you can dress up and down.
That suit your life, Yes, but they also suit the woman you want to be. Yeah, that's where the skill comes in.
Yeah, Okay, let's get started. The first one you have given me, and we haven't discussed these prior. I'm just looking at the list and you're going to fill me in buying items, not outfits.
Yes, buy in an outfit. I was guilty of this even when I was designing. I was still buying items and I come home and those four pieces that I'd bought, those items didn't outfit together. Okay, So I've spent five hundred bucks and I have got no outfit. So I'd have to go back out shopping. Right. So we have to think about buying in outfits. It's the biggest game changer you can make when you purchase think in full outfits. So my advice is don't walk out of the shop if you've only got an item. Stay in the shop and say to them what goes with this and lean on them because when I was designing, basically that's how we design. We design in outfits, buy exactly or you know, not everyone has the funds or the need for a full look. But say you've gone out with the girls, You've got some jeans, you need the top, you take the Janes with you, Yes, try them on with it absolutely, because when we think, oh, this should look good with the genes, sometimes the genes are a bit too low and the top is high and we're I'm not happy, sure I my midrift at this particular event. So we want to make sure that the two connect. So rather than leaving it to chance, so much of actually what we want to do is edit whilst we're in the shop so that when we go home, so much of that is all done for you and it becomes so so much easier. But even with the dress, I still want you to think about the outfit, because I want you to think about the shoe totally. Will my little boot work with this dress? Will cut me off at the end? Call if that's what I'm worrying about exactly? Or will mine little leather jacket that I'm living in will that work with this dress, So think about the full outfit, how you're going to leave the house.
Okay, and I guess if you don't want to shop all in one shop, I've done this before. You can go to the shopping center and say, look, I think I really love that top. Can you just hold that for me for half an hour? Shop around, check out all the gray tops if that's what you're looking for, and then.
Go back and buy the right one.
Absolutely your second shopping clothing sin buying clothes that are too big, particularly when buying online, and then not returning them. Oh my gosh, my sin. Pile of shame at the back of my wardrobe.
We all do it. When this is not to shame people, it's just to make you think about it. Because the trouble is when we're buying clothes, it at too big, right. It kind of works in two ways. We often buy what we think our size is in a number ranks, so we're like, right, I am a size fourteen, I'm going to go and buy size fallteen. But the troub is size fourteen's will so considerably throughout different stores, ran more and more. I don't know about you, but in vanity sizing, you know they're actually making it bigger than it is. Yes, that's gone to a whole another level. It's ridiculous.
It isn't like some of the and this is not to shame them, but the some of the witcheries in the country roads. I can't shop online anymore because I do get it and it's too big, and it's like, I don't really care what the numbers is.
I just want it to fit me exactly. We don't care what the number is, right, So never be put off or be put on buying a garment because of a number label. Always think of yourself as a size range, right. So the way we fix this is that we take two garments into the fitting room, the size you think you are, and one size smaller and most generally smaller, because women tend to think think they're bigger than they are, and that's part of the problem. We are often wearing clothes are too big for us, and it's fascinating. The garments we rotate all the time and we throw in our body, right, because once they're too big, you can't throw them on your body with any bottom of the tops too big. If you've got that bigger, oversized, silover on top, you're really are going to wear a slimmer on the bottom. But the other size of buying clothes that are too big, I call it the size spiral. Okay, I've seen this so much more due to COVID. So we've put on a little weight during COVID.
Yeah, perimenopausal, you've just had a baby, whatever.
Absolutely, so so many reasons, right, but it's how we feel. So we wear looser clothes because we think, oh, we've put on a little bit of weight. So then we look in the mirror and then we see ourselves in bigger clothes, which confirms that we've put on a bit of weight, because it's like a self fulfilling prophecy. Right, So then we go to store and then we buy a bigger size because we're scared that we've put on weight and we need bigger clothes. Yeah, and we want to kind of hide exactly, And then we hide and we actually lose all sight of what size we are and we forget our little actual body is in here, and we just keep buying bigger and bigger, and it is a self fulfilling prophecy. You look at yourself, Oh, I'm definitely got.
Bigger it's more about don't worry about the number. Just make sure you feel good in it. If fits too comfortably, not too big, not too tight, take away the number.
It's awful to obviously start somewhere, yes, but then forget about it. Absolutely. It has to be the garment that fits you in the way that you.
Want, correct you say, particularly when buying online, and then not return them.
So how do we avoid that The time we take for shopping, we think it's about bringing garments into our wardrobe, but we have to allocate some time to take things back. Whenever I buy anything, it's almost like it's on loan, right, I'm borrowing it for the moment. I'm going to work it out in my wardrobe. As long as it's got three or five, and often I'm pushing it even more outfits to go with, then I'm keeping it.
Yeah, Otherwise it's going back, going back on loan. That's really cool way to think about.
Think about it like that. Don't commit to it, fully, test it out, try it out and workshop it, and if you love it, keep it. But if you don't, you have to have the time to go back.
Oh dear, the number three is just I think you should just call it lee. It says buying emotionally when you need to shop strategically.
Yes, shopping strategically. I cannot tell you how much of a game changer this is. Right, So you have a little list and you stick to it, and you create that list by workshopping in your wardrobe. You play with a few things and you think to yourself, right, I need a coat that is maybe warm and is going to cover my bottom. So don't come back with another crop biker jacket. Right, We've got to satisfy those things. All we're doing when we're shopping is problem solving. Yes, okay, so stick to your list.
Well, if we're being strategic. But for me, I shop emotionally. So it's when i'm getting my period or I you know, got good news at work, or I got bad news at work, or I'm happy or I'm sad.
But you're right, that's.
When I'm not thinking clearly and end up with stuff that's not outfits exactly and things that you're only going to wear very little.
And I really want you to buy strategically because although when I tell people, you know, we're going to shop strategically, it doesn't sound very sexy. Yeah, the things you come out with and take home, Oh my god, so much more exciting and sexy.
Because then it solves the problem and that brings you joy. So it's less about the shopping bringing joy and more about the wardrobeing joy. When you put it all together, I just had a light bulb moment because I love shopping. That's that dopamine neat of something new. But it's not always a joy getting dressed because I haven't been.
Strategic correctly exactly. You just have to be good editingly. That's all you have to be.
Can you do this for a living? The next one buying things you like but they don't like you.
There's a few ways I see this happening all the time in people's wardrobes. So buying for your kind of alter ego if you like, not your reality. So you know when we see a celebrity and they've got heels on and Instagram and we've got Pinterest board full of like sixty outfits and forty five of them have got heels on, Like, right, that's the look I want. But the reality is we're not wearing heels the same way as we used to, particularly post COVID, but also just a lot of us have grown up with really bad feet. Yeah, and so it's a huge problem.
And I think you know, five ten years ago, there wasn't super stylish flats. It was like, oh, you're just wearing flats. And now look, I'm in a kitten heel. But this is as high as I go today. For me, that's like a nightclubing still at Oh and it's a tiny kittenhill.
But loafers, I mean, there's so many different flatshe which are available now, but it's like the real world, real women are generally running for us or jumping on a train or something, running after kids, so exactly, and we're not going to teeto around in something like a heel. So they're beautiful to look at, but our feet don't really kind of like them. And it's the same with the influencer culture as well. We see these influences in maybe you know, a beautiful bright red dress, or it could be a best friend bright red dress. Oh my god, she looks amazing. Where did you get it from? Very next day you get up and you go and buy that bright red dress. But that bright red color might be too overwhelming for you. And the proportions of it might not suit you as a petitepe, so you've got to find your version of it. It likes you as much.
As you like it, wow, and then you like wearing it because if you don't reach for it exactly.
Yeah.
The shoe analogy is good for me because I've got a bunch of shoes I love to look at I'd love to wear if I didn't, but then I just go if we didn't all time, well, yeah, I'm oh next time because I always go for comfort. Yeah exactly. You and the artem need to like each other exactly exactly. God, Okay, I've got another one I'm not great at, but I'm getting better at this.
Okay.
Good buying on sale, because nothing is a bargain if you don't wear it.
E eat. Tell me about sale shopping. So so many clients, and again I'm not shaming them. I used to do exactly this too, right, sell garments that are in our wardrobe, but we don't love them. So we've got to calculate our purchases by cost per wear. It's the only way to do girl math. Okay, right, So sayah top costs you thirty bucks in the sale and you only wear it twice, it's fifteen dollars per week. So to me, that's an expensive purchase. Whereas if you purchase for one hundred dollars and wear it weekly for three months, that's around eight dollars a ware. Nearly half okay, but like.
A classic coat that you wear three months of the year, but it's like your coach.
Absolutely and you're literally wearing it daily. So I see so many clients have brand new clothes still with tags or never worn in their wardrobe. Right, we have all got it okay, and they often don't love the item, but they loved the idea of a bargain.
But it comes back to the emotional shopping exactly exactly.
So a bargain is only a short dopamin hit that just satisfies for a moment. Where is the strategically bought piece that's more expensive that you'll wear much more frequently and for longer. That's a much more smug, long lived dopamine hit.
I think that rings true with you know, like the half early sales and the boxing day sales. But I feel like the way the climate is at the moment, you know, cost of living is that poor retailers are always on sale, always having sales. So is there a way to still get those strategic items on sale?
Is it adding them?
Do you wish list online or just keeping an eye on it? You know, I was in Country Road the other day and got chatting to this woman and she tried on a bunch of things, and she said, I'm going to wait for spend and save, so she knew what she wanted, but she also knew Country Road often does spend and save.
Absolutely, so you can do both. But that's the strategy party, isn't it, rather than going, oh my god, I need this now. Actually you probably don't need it now. You might be buying it now and not wearing it three weeks. Yes, so wait the three weeks and see what happened exactly. Cyberstraal kit.
Second last in buying too many one trick ponies when you actually need more work courses in your wardrobe.
I think I know what you mean by this because this was my old life. Tell me, yes, one trip ponies. So they're those items a bit like a magpie item, Albert, I'm going to do this much.
Well, you know, pretty things nice, but you don't always have to buy them exactly, try them on.
Exactly exactly, trying them on and feeling a bit satisfied that maybe you take a photo and you walk away from them, and then you think about it a bit more strategically, and you know, this is kind of those magpie pieces like sequins or color blocking things that aren't going to work with lots in your wardrobe. So I'm not saying that everything has to be a versatile workhorse, but the ratio of workhorses needs to be higher than you want trip ponies.
Yes, yeah, and then it'll all fall into play exactly because you can put.
All your work hourses together, right. And I talk about kind of the ratio of what people are buying a lot, because we often don't think like that in terms of choice and variety within our wardrobe.
Can I ask with that for me my old life back in magazines, when I was in print, I did have that life where it was, you know, a lot of events, and so I had a lot of event dressing and in a regular person and with the corporate career on, you know, a stay at home mom, they might only have a few fancy dresses that they wed a wedding. So that's a proper ratio. But for me, when I became a mom and then covid here, I was like, what am I going to do with all these dresses and these heels. And when I had that light bulb moment because shopping for a white T shirt isn't exciting, I really did it. But when I filled in the gaps with well fitting jeans, a really great white tea or whatever it might.
Be, the staples, things went together, yes, and so ow fit becomes so so much easier. So we still want those like, oh my god, must have pieces that are must have for you, not a trend, but must have that you just look at and go, oh my god, that needs to be in my wardrobe. Brings me joy. Yes, but we need to be really careful about the amount that we're bringing of those into our wardrobe because the reality is you're just not going to wear them day to day and that you know, the clothes in the color capsule that I put together for clients is all about the clothes they live their life in. First. We've got to get that right first. So everything's mixing and matching, and then you throw in a few one trip.
Pa like the cake, and then the sprinkles or that I see exactly.
That's actually how I took a boat.
There you go, And the workhorses for each person would differ, right, Like, it's not so much a capture wardrobe that you and I and producer Grace would all have the same things. It's still your person, but our personal style.
Yes, every woman needs, for example, a danim jacket in their wardrobe, right, but I love op shopping, so mine is vintage. Okay, it's the vintage Levi's I bought for five pounds in England twenty odd years ago. Yes, and I still love it. Yees, okay, because it is a workhorse. But that's my version of the And it's funny you just said that.
I've got a girlfriend whos hyper feminine, wears lots of florals, and she does have one, but it's like a beautiful cream color, so it kind of goes with her colourways more. It's not you know, you might automatically think blue denim, but there's a denim jacket for everyone has an.
Examsolutely, so you know, yours might be a boyfriend fit. Yeah, you know, a petit person would have maybe a cropped one. So we've all got our own version of it. And it's not about copying an influencer or your bestie. It's about finding your version of it and having that smug, long dopamine here that every time you put it on your body you love it. Look at this, I feel really great. Yeah. The whole point I do what I do is to make when and feel better in their clothes. Yes, So the more we can get it right and feel better, and the more we've got those in our wardrobe, we're only going to feel good.
The last one speaks to me, but it's something I've been actively working on getting better at. Its back to the emotional shopping, buying the same thing over and over again.
That was me with Sembracious. Yes, I thought, I just love them.
And then you find one that's a bit softer, and then you find one cute pockets, but you do not need eleven.
No two is nice.
Yes, I think it's just if you kind of have an idea of your personal style, or you're just drawn to something, you think, well, that's the thing I buy, But have.
You got it at home?
How do we stop ourselves buying a version of the same thing over and over again.
Have a little photo of your wardrobe on your phone, like every item what you could just literally stand back from it, open a drawer, open a cupboard, and pay a wardrobe. And that's why I do Instagram a lot of the time is to remember what I've got so that I don't duplicate. But also I don't have to then think about my outfits because I'm just going to wear what I wore last Thursday or yeah, two months ago. So having a picture of what your wardrobe looks like, because as soon as we walk away from it, forget forgotten. Yeah, it's like just a cuple full of stuff again. But often it becomes we've got this item we buy in bulk so many times because like you said, it might have a little difference point of the difference on it. But sometimes we can create that point of difference we thought you already own. Yeah, so say one of your Schanber shirts, you love the color, but the length is a bit long. So buy another one that's short, slightly different color that you don't love as much. Shorten the one in the color, or whatever it may be, alter it. Yes, So rather than spending maybe a hundred bucks on a new shirt, spend thirty bucks altering the one that you almost love, yes, but to generally mean to be shorter, and then you can tick that box. You're like, I am done. I love that shirt and it's only when it wears out. I'm going to replace it so that you can slow down your consumption, because if we keep duplicating all the time, we're not giving ourself choice. In the case of color, we often my black, white and gray. We wear it over and over and like, oh, and now I need to give myself choice. I'm going to go out and buy something in color. And we go to completely the other end of the extreme. We go into Gormant and we buy the most colorful larry patterned with all the things on it that's quote unquote gap in the wardrobe. Well, it goes really binary. We go from one extreme to the other because it's easier to shop because we know what that looks like. Yes, but the bit in the middle of so say, for example, yes, it could be a colorful pattern, but it might have more sophisticated colors that you'll wear exactly, more easy to wear. You'll actually wear once a fortnight, rather than the one Gorman and you wear once and you go, oh, my God, what was they thinking? Because we've gone to extreme. So you've gone too far away, like two steps away from who you are with the Gorman for example. And I'm not shaming the band. I love it.
It's very you know what it is, then that might be your style. But if you get at home and you can't wear it with anything.
Exactly, and if it's two steps too far away from your natural personal style, we only need to go one step, okay, and for some people it's half a step, and that's what Obviously each of us are different. But if we've gone way too extreme, it ain't gonna it ain't give nobody.
And I guess, you know, buying the same thing over and over again, or your other tips lead into that. If you're strategic, if you've studied your order at first, if you've taken the genes with you, all of that stuff, absolutely, then you won't keep us buying absolutely, That's.
What I mean. It's kind of to your point at the beginning. It's really interesting when you asked, was it hard to just get seven? Once it starts revolving all kind of one? Yeah, yeah, it's all kind of one. Oh, fascinating. It's very expensive, how world. Are these so bougie and budget?
I guess with the seven Sins of shopping, we've kind of brought items that we don't regret buying.
What do you want to go with? It's your boogie or your budget by bougie? Yes? Please exciting. Both of these are bags, and I do have a bit of a thing for a more expensive bag, a bit of a designer bag, because I really firmly believe and I live this formula that I can often wear quite cheap clothes and you know they're often not shops there third hand. Sometimes you know they sample se you know, twenty dollars knitted skirt the other day which I bought one of their jumpers. Oh did You've never had so many comments? It's so interesting. But that's the good editing part. And you're right, what you pair it with exactly help me. Then I pair it with my Chloe bag, which I love. And so that Chloe bag, the Woody was about fourteen hundred, which is quite a lot to spend on a bag, to be honest, but I knew it is going to go with ninety percent of my WARDO. So costperwaar absolutely cost per wear because it really does outfit holds the right size? You know, so I really interrogated it before I purchased it. Love it and still now I open up my wardrobe and I'm just give myself a little smug. Oh you love her. I love it. That's so good.
My bougie is something I never regret.
I've got a few.
They're kind of i'd say designer white T shirts. So my two favorites Anine Bing. I've got two of the Anine Bing T shirts. I'm looking at one at David Jones at the moment. It's just a white crew neck tea with a small and nine being across the chest, and I have another similar one. Both one I got on sale at a random boutique in the country. The other one I got on a second hand website, so I only paid you know, This one's one ninety, which is a lot for a white tea, but their quality is amazing, but I think I paid less than that. The reason I love it is if I'm having a crazy morning with my four year old, like this morning, my husband woke up with a cold, you would have thought he was dying, so there was absolutely no time to think about getting dressed, and I just know, Okay, my fancy T shirt makes me feel good. Jeans, shoes off, I go. And that's not to say a plain white T shirt doesn't. But it just makes me feel a bit put together when I haven't had time to put together.
It's saying something, isn't it. It's saying something when you haven't got the time to say something.
Yes, And I'm not trying to say you know, oh, I'm head to toe design it, but it just it makes me feel good.
What's your budget? So it's still a bag, it's actually a straw bag from kmar Oh. I paid that success is a great really good at the moment. It was like fifteen dollars something like that a long long time ago. It's basically a big straw bag. I get compliments on it wherever I go.
I wonder if we've got the same one. Does it zip shut?
Though? No, it's like a big toe, a big toate that's open at the top and it's got a little off white handle. So I knew that would get a little bit dirty. I'm happy to clean that. That's no problem. Ob your hands are on that. But it goes again with everything, and it's just brilliant and it's so funny how it's so plain, but they're the piece is often that people are like, oh, that's what I want in my wardrobe, I can't find.
It, Yes, or I don't want to spend four hundred dollars on a straw bag exactly who does?
But it's not a magpie piece that one. No, And it's almost the other end of the spectrum.
Yes, it goes with everything. Yes, it's a classic. Okay, my budget is very boring. But I was looking at my wardrobe knowing I was going to talk to you, and I was like, what do I wear most of the day? And look, I love dressing up, but when you don't see my outfit on Instagram, I am wearing some leggings from Amazon. Oh yeah, I have seven pairs. They're called the Crazy Yoga Women's Butterlucks Workout Leggings. They're fifty five dollars butter Lucks.
That sounds like something I want my legs in.
You can get a pocket version or a non pocket version and the little pocket fits your phone or if you me, you know, Spider Man or Lego or whatever.
They come in.
I'm not kidding, like I was going to say one hundred colors but over twenty colors, and they're not shiny but not too matt to look cheap. I have checked them on with nice trainers and a trench and gone for coffee with women and girls, and you could even do a boot and a long jumper and no one would know that. They're all active wear legos.
So they're a bit thicker, thicker.
Great waistband that kind of holds everything in, but you don't want to rip them off. And I just thought that is not at all a stylish or chic item.
But you make it look chic. You make it look chic. I wear them NonStop.
I've got mostly black, but I've got a few colors, and I wear the black just running around, wear the colors and I'm quote unquote working out. But they're for fifty five dollars. And because a lot of active wear leggings are in the hundreds, hundreds, yeah, in the hundreds. Yeah. And so while it's not all that exciting, that's okay because.
It's functioned exactly exactly where Kim, you're a genius.
I feel like I want you to come over and play in my wardrobe. No judgment about the seventeen Shombrature.
No judgment, that's it, And this is not to judge anyone or to make anyone feel bad. It's to help them realize that shopping is actually a skill. It's not something we just we browse, we graize as women, and then we just buy items, we bring them home and then we'll like, I've still got no out er. But by actually thinking about this before you shop and really interrogating things, hopefully what you come home with will make you happy and your interaction with.
Clothes will be a possible look forward to getting dressed.
Im you are wonderful.
Thank you so much for sure, thank you for listening to Nothing to Wear. Don't forget to sign up to our Nothing to Wear newsletter. It's free and there's a link in the show notes. And if you loved this episode, you might want to check out one we did with Paula Joy. It's specifically about shopping the sales and how to make sure you take home items you actually love and want to wear. There is a link in the show notes. See you next week. This episode was produced by Grace Roubray with audio production by Lou Hill. This podcast is powered by our subscribers. If you believe in independent women's media and want to support us, a subscription to Mamma Mia costs less than the price of a coffee each month. There's a link in the show notes, and a big thank you to all our current subscribers.