Aisling asked:
Many bloggers talk about investment dressing - I'm not sure I agree with the term "investment" for clothes which are disposable items which mostly have little resale value unless they are very expensive - but I digress... I do believe in quality over quantity - where do you shop? There is so little choice in New Zealand. For example, you wore a beautiful DVF dress a while ago in a photo on the blog - did you buy it online?
I personally don’t feel comfortable spending large amounts of money on clothing, Aisling, for all the reasons you have listed. However I have upgraded myself over the years from only buying cheap clothing or clothing that is on sale. I still find it hard paying full price for anything, but now I look beyond the cost to ask myself:
Is the quality good?
Will I wear it a lot?
Do I look amazing in it?
Will it add to my wardrobe or is it a duplicate?
Then make my choices based on those types of questions. I’ve never bought clothing online, I prefer to shop in stores. I bought my DVF dress when we stayed in Hawaii the Christmas before last. It came from the DVF store at the Ala Moana shopping centre. I gave myself permission to buy whichever dress I wanted, since I’d coveted a wrap dress for ages and knew it would be something I’d keep for a long time, being such a classic. But they had a great selection on the half price rack so I got a good deal.
I don’t often shop, and when I do I tend to buy a few pieces at a time, that way I can go a long stretch between purchases. Even though I’m mostly at home and rarely travel, I shopped in Hawaii and also at Zara, in Sydney last month. Zara is an inexpensive store but it felt quite different to other big chains - very European, elegant and sexy. In Auckland I’ve bought a few things at David Lawrence - an LBD and a leather jacket as soft as a cardigan, that I love. I used to shop at Country Road but haven't in ages now.
I’ve not checked out many New Zealand designers but it is something I’m keen to have a look into. Juliette Hogan’s store is absolutely beautiful and the clothing looks wearable and feminine whilst still having simplicity. I think the problem I have with most designer’s ranges it that they are just too weird for me. I’m not into avant garde fashion, I just want clothing that is classic-ish and looks good on. Plus well made. Is that too much to ask?
A fantasy dream of mine is to design the perfect capsule collection and, if I had all the money in the world, it would be housed in the boutique I describe in this post. It’s quite a fun thing to doodle when you’re waiting somewhere (make sure you keep a small notebook in your bag for just such an exercise, geeky me). Imagine what your ten perfect pieces would be and draw or list them. Something like this would be quite helpful in finding out the gaps in your wardrobe too.