Welcome back to my blog - a place for overly wordy introspection that nobody asked for.
American Thanksgiving is coming up, which also means Black Friday is around the corner.
Black Friday has historically been a difficult day for my bank account. I am a sucker for sales and I always fall into the mental trap of feeling like I'm saving something. The reality is that I'm still spending money, and likely more of it than I intended to thanks to the false sense of savings created by a discount.
The financial repercussions of falling into the trap of sales is obvious, but recently I've been thinking about the other ways that discount-induced overconsumption can negatively impact a fashion fanatic.
When shopping sales, I used to have a tendency to buy a lot of stuff at once. Discount shopping created the feeling that I was purchasing more with the same budget and I wanted to feel like I had taken full advantage of how far my dollar would stretch.
Years of shopping mega-corporate-holiday sales with this mindset led to the accumulation of a vast amount of clothing. It was almost impossible to objectively look at a garment and ask myself, do I really want this? In the rush to make the best of a time-limited offer, I didn't critically think about each and every item I purchased. As a result, I had a lot of clothing that didn't really reflect my style, wasn't worn that often, and was primarily collecting dust.
By contrast, when I was shopping full priced clothing, I was much more intentional about my selections. Rarely would I purchase more than one thing at a time, and I would give a lot more consideration to why I wanted to buy it. This more purposeful process is the way I've purchased my most worn, favourite pieces of clothing.
It was this revelation that made me realize that Black Friday (and other sales like it) is bad for personal style: the dopamine hit of feeling like we're scoring a deal overpowers the intentionality required to develop a uniquely personal sense of fashion.
Adding a piece of clothing to your collection requires self-reflection and questioning. Does it mirror your personality and vibe? Does it fit well with the other clothes in your collection? Would you need to buy more things to make an outfit with it? Could you wear it in multiple ways? It's hard to think about all of this when there's only one item left and it's 50% off and it happens to be in your size so it's a sign that you should get it and what if you don't get it and it sells out and you regret it forever and so on...
Being intentional with our purchasing is so difficult because corporations use every psychological tool in the box to manipulate us into buying as much as possible. They play into our fear of missing out and our desire to feel like we thwarted the system by finding a bargain. There's a reason stores and websites use massive red fonts and exclamation marks to highlight the HUGE SAVINGS... it's an effective tool to make us feel like we're getting an exclusive deal and it creates a sense of urgency that we need to make the most of this discount before it's gone. We only need to ponder a little to realize that:
The original cost of the item is probably inflated to make the discount seem better than it is.
Even with the discount, it still costs some amount of money to buy.
The markdown is often objectively not as great as the advertising makes it out to be.
There will always be other sales.
The initial regret you might feel when you miss out on buying something you sort of liked during a sale will rapidly be replaced by some other emotion, because life goes on and you pretty quickly forget about that one shirt you didn't end up getting because there are things to do and bills to pay and people to meet and a life to live!
The concepts I touched on in this article are not new ideas; financial experts give the same advice when trying to help people stick to a budget and curb overspending. What's different in my approach now is the fundamental motivation behind the intentionality: saving money versus crafting style.
When I approach shopping with the mindset of wanting to save money and stick to a budget, it feels limiting because it comes from a place of restriction. I see something outside of my budget and find myself wanting it simply because I've told myself can't have it, even if it doesn't speak to me stylistically.
When I reframe my approach into thinking about curating my personal style, I feel freed. I'm selective with what I bring into my collection which naturally limits impulse shopping and overspending. It means I buy things which I'm confident I will wear over and over again because I truly like it, not because I'm indulging in the overconsumption of a fashion world that focuses on rapidly cycling micro-trends.
I still love sales season and I plan on buying some things, but this year, I'm trying something new in the lead up to Black Friday. Instead of browsing through hundreds of pages of all the items on sale, I have one thing I am looking for: a white belt. It's something I've wanted to buy for a while and would complement my style well. I'm hoping that having a goal in mind for my shopping forces me to be intentional in selecting something that I really love, because true style embodies personality and intentionality in everything we wear (even if it's as simple as a belt). Hopefully my wardrobe AND my bank account will be grateful.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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