My Wardrobe, Myself

In my last post, I reviewed what I consider to be my best purchases of 2023, including both my at-home and out-and-about items. It was fun and encouraging for me to realize that I had a lot of successes with my wardrobe-related shopping last year. It was also surprising to see so many pairs of pants included within my best purchases, especially since that’s an area of my closet that has traditionally been challenging.

Today’s post won’t be as much fun to write, but it will perhaps be more enlightening and beneficial in the long run. I’m going to share what I consider to be my worst sartorial purchases of 2023. Most of the items reviewed are in the out-and-about category, but there are a few crossover pieces in the mix, too. I’ll show photos of my less-than-successful buys and outline why they didn’t work out for me. I’ll close out the post with an encapsulation of my lessons learned, some of which I’ve had to re-learn multiple times over the years!

An Overview

To start out, here’s a look at the ten garments that I’ve designated as my worst 2023 purchases:

Types of Items

By category, here’s how they break down:

• 5 short-sleeved tops
• 2 sleeveless tops
• 1 topper
• 2 pairs of pants

Where the Items Were Purchased

I also thought it would be interesting to review where I purchased the items in question:

• Athleta: 5 items (3 online, 2 in-store)
• Talbots: 3 items (all online)
• Amazon: 2 items (online, of course)

This doesn’t necessarily mean that I should stop buying clothing from the above retailers, as I’ve also experienced multiple successes in my purchases from them, especially in terms of Athleta. I think the issue may have more to do with the circumstances under which the purchases were made, which I look at in the next section.

Types of Purchases

Before I move on to reviewing the individual items, I want to do one more breakdown, that is of the type of purchases my mistake buys were:

• Full Price: 1 item (the cardigan)
• On Sale: 5 items
• Final Sale: 4 items! (3 tops and 1 pair of pants)

I’m actually embarrassed to admit that I bought four items on final sale! Even though the prices were very low for all those purchases, it still adds up to money that was virtually wasted. But since a big purpose of this blog is to help facilitate my own learning and that of others, I’m willing to expose the “egg on my face” of having made multiple ill-advised purchases.

I’ll cover each individual worst purchase below, but suffice it to say that I’m going to be extremely wary of final-sale buys moving forward, and I intend to avoid them except under very special and rare circumstances (i.e., buying something that I’ve tried on previously that I know fits me well).

The Individual Items:  Numbers 1-3

Now that I’ve shared some of the characteristics of my 2023 mistake purchases, I will cover them one by one. To avoid your needing to scroll back up to the image at the top of the post showing my ten worst purchases, I’ll review them in sections and include photos in each.

Cobalt Talbots Cinched-Shoulder Tee

If you’ve been following me for a while, you probably know that my main reason for buying this top was the color. Cobalt remains one of my favorite colors, and it’s been difficult to find good tops in this shade in recent years. But I should have returned this particular top to the store when I had the chance. The shoulder detailing only served to accentuate my quite broad shoulders, which I usually don’t like to do, but the main issue was with the fabrication of the top. It was a linen blend that had no stretch to it, and it was also a bit itchy/scratchy. The top cost just $22 during Talbots end-of-summer sale, but no one really wants to throw any amount of money away! After all, I could have bought myself a restaurant meal or a few coffees with that money.

Floral Medallion Print Talbots Tee

I hadn’t shopped much at Talbots for many years until last summer, when I decided to check out the brand again after seeing it touted by several style influencers. What I learned is that their tops tend to run large and I almost always need to buy a size extra-small. However, I hadn’t tried on their “classic crewneck tees” prior to buying this one on final sale. Big mistake! The top was too snug in the shoulder area, plus the base color of the tee was too warm-toned (more cream than white) for my complexion.  Another $16 down the drain…

Light Wash Talbots Cropped Straight Jeans

Although I did experience some successful Talbots purchases last year, I have another mistake buy from that retailer to review here. I loved the idea of a lightweight, loose-fitting pair of jeans to wear during the summer with both tanks and tees. These jeans were great in theory, but it was so tough to get the sizing right!

Unlike with the tops, I don’t usually find Talbots pants to run all that large, but these jeans were an exception. In fact, I had to size down two sizes to get a fit that was loose but not overly baggy. Unfortunately, however, the jeans only “grew” as I wore them, which caused them to look sloppy rather than slouchy. Fortunately, I later found the Cabi cropped jeans that I highlighted in my last post, but that wasn’t until after I had experienced the big fail with the Talbots jeans.

Items 4 through 6

Light Green Athleta Vital 2.0 Tank

I love the soft fabric of this top, which I also purchased in burgundy last year. I thought the light green would be a nice icy, cool tone, so I snapped up the top on final sale for just over twelve dollars. I felt confident about the fit of the top since I owned it in another color, so I didn’t think the risk was too high to buy a final-sale item. Unfortunately, however, the green ended up being more of a warm, neon shade that’s just not flattering on my skin tone or in line with my style aesthetic. So, this was still a risky and ill-advised purchase even though I was sure about the sizing.

Mauve Athleta Ascent Seamless Tee

I actually tried this top on in person and liked the way it looked and felt, but I just wasn’t able to find anything in my closet that worked well with it. I felt that the length was a bit too long to pair with skirts and too short to wear with pants. I think it looks great with pants on the model in the photo, but I’m self-conscious of my lower half and don’t like to wear tops that hit just below my waistline with pants. Since the top was final-sale, I was unable to return it. I plan to sell this top, as well as the light green tank, as they’re both “new with tags” and can likely be sold for more than what I paid for them.

Navy Auselily Long Cardigan

I bought this cardigan as a replacement for a much-loved garment that had gotten past its prime. The cardigan I had was more of a cobalt color, but the navy in this cardigan was lighter and brighter than most navies and I liked it. The fit of the cardigan was also good, but it ended up being of poor quality and didn’t last long at all!

Like most clothing on Amazon, the cardigan wasn’t expensive, but it wasn’t so cheap that I would expect it to deteriorate as fast as it did. I’ve had some good luck with clothing purchases on Amazon (like the tees I mentioned last week), but it’s definitely a “buyer beware” situation (as all purchases are, but some more than others). Looking back, the fabric type for the cardigan was polyethylene, which I had never heard of but plan to avoid in the future.

Items 7 through 10

Navy Print Athleta Vienna Cargo Pants

I bought these pants in black in 2022 and I like the style and the fit of them. They’re fitted at the top but more relaxed in the legs, and the cargo pockets are low enough so as not to add volume in the hip area. When I saw this printed version on sale, I thought the pants might be a nice addition to my closet. However, I just couldn’t get on board with the combination of the print and the style for some reason. While I like the cargo pants in black and find them to be flattering, I didn’t feel the same way about the same style in the bold print. Unfortunately, I was unable to return this final-sale item, so I plan to sell them online soon.

Navy Twist-Knot Top

In a post last summer, I mentioned that I’ve found alternate ways to improve outfit proportions as someone who doesn’t like to tuck in my tops. One of these methods involves wearing tops that include a twist-hem in the front to visually shorten the top and lengthen the leg line. I found some low-priced tops of this type on Amazon last year and purchased more of them than I should have prior to coming to understand how well the style might work for me.

It turned out that I didn’t love the twist-hem style as much as I’d hoped, at least not in the way it was translated by Amazon. The tops were still a few inches longer than I would ideally want, but I didn’t realize that at the time when I purchased them. Another issue with the navy version of the top is that it fit snugger than the other versions, perhaps because the fabric felt somewhat different.

I mentioned in my late December post that I’ve gained a small amount of weight since my big weight drop in 2022. Well, that was enough weight to make me feel uncomfortable wearing the navy twist-knot top, as I felt it looked too tight and unflattering in the upper-hip area. I ended up passing this top on, but I may still want to wear the red and camo versions of the tee in the summer.

Off-White Athleta Organic Daily Tee

I always think I want a white t-shirt, as it seems to be a versatile piece to have in one’s wardrobe, but I’ve struggled to find one that isn’t too thin and see-through. This tee was on deep sale early in the year, so I decided to give it a try. I ended up keeping it when I probably should have returned it, as it was both too long and too off-white. I don’t necessarily want an optic white tee, but if a top skews closer to cream, it’s not the right color for me. I still have the top with its tags on, so I may opt to sell it along with some of the other mistake items covered in this post.

Peach Athleta Breezy Ruched Tank

This tank may still end up working out for me, but I included it on this list because it has yet to be worn. Yes, I bought it towards the end of the summer, but I still could have worn it and didn’t. It was again a situation in which I purchased multiple colors of the same style garment. I also bought this on-sale top in black, and no matter how many black tops I have in my wardrobe, they usually end up being worn regularly.

This peach color was more of a “wild card” that I probably should have passed on. The style of the tank is very flattering on my figure and looks good paired with skirts due to its shorter length, but I haven’t worn anything orange in years and it’s not my best color. This paler orange looks better on me than a saturated hue, but we’ll see if I end up reaching for the top in the coming summer or if I opt to pass it on.

Lessons Learned from My 2023 Worst Purchases

I’d like to end on a high note by sharing the lessons I learned from the worst purchases I made last year. Some of these lessons have already been mentioned above, but I want to recap them all here for the sake of clarity (my 2023 word – I’ll share my 2024 word soon). This way, I can easily come back and review what I learned through doing this purchase retrospective. I also hope that my encapsulating my lessons all in one section will be beneficial for readers.

1. Avoid final-sale purchases unless I’ve previously tried on both the style and color in question.

Colors can often look different online than they do in person, so it’s risky to buy garments sight unseen. And even if we usually wear a certain size in a given brand, that might vary with some of the styles that they offer. This was the case for me with the Talbot’s crewneck tee, which ran smaller than the other tops of theirs that I’ve tried on, which resulted in one of my mistake purchases.

2. Don’t buy “multiples” until I’m sure that a particular style is a “wardrobe workhorse.”

This is especially true with colors that are outside of what I typically love and wear. In general, it’s best to buy just one or two like items to avoid closet boredom and minimize purchasing mistakes. It’s also best to wear new items several times before buying a second color, as we won’t always know if a garment will work well for us until we’ve put it to the test of our day-to-day activities.

3. Don’t be so dazzled by a color that I overlook problematic aspects of an item.

A beautiful color will only take us so far. A garment also needs to fit well and we need to like the style and the fabrication. I loved the color of the cobalt Talbots tee, for example, but the feel of the top and the shoulder detailing made it a miss instead of a hit for me.

4. Beware of “sales goggles”!

Almost all of my 2023 mistake purchases were bought on sale, which can be dangerous territory for shoppers. We have a tendency to overlook potentially problematic details when we’re faced with what we consider to be a “great deal.” The rule of thumb to never buy something on sale that we wouldn’t purchase full-price is a good one. Sure, there are some exceptions, like for designer garments that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford, but it’s always a good idea to pause and ask yourself if you’d willingly buy the item at its regular price. And speaking of pausing, the “power pause” is always a helpful tool to use when shopping.

5. Pay close attention to return windows.

I could have returned a few of my 2023 mistake purchases had I paid close attention to the return deadline and done a second evaluation prior to that time. While I still wouldn’t have been able to return those final-sale items (hence a good reason to avoid those types of buys in the first place), I could have returned about half of my 2023 worst purchases, recouping more than $100.

6. Shop using a list!

If you maintain and regularly update a shopping priorities list and review it before you shop, it’s much easier to avoid the types of mistakes that I highlighted in today’s post. While I have regularly made it a practice to use such a list over the years, I’ve gotten out of the habit of doing so recently, which contributed to my purchasing mistakes. I don’t think some of the alternate colors and patterns represented among my 2023 worst purchases would have been on my list, nor would have I mentioned a too-short top or a top with shoulder detailing there. I will update and share my shopping priorities for 2024 soon, and fortunately, I don’t need a lot (but the wanting is often more of the problem!).

7. Shop less often!

Whenever I head out to the shops or peruse online offerings, I invariably find things that I want to buy. If we don’t put ourselves in temptation’s way, we’ll be less likely to overshop and make purchasing mistakes. I wasn’t specifically looking for most of the items that ended up becoming 2023 shopping mistakes.

The only real item on my list was a replacement for my blue cardigan that had bit the dust. The other nine items were bought because I either shopped a sale or saw something on an influencer that I liked (in the case of the cropped jeans). We can all save ourselves a lot of money and time by being more deliberate with our shopping – and doing it far less often. I hope I will do better with this in 2024 than I did last year!

Your Comments?

I’m sure I could come up with more lessons learned if I really tried, but I’ll stop there for today. I hope you found this post interesting and helpful. Now I’d love to hear from you!

Feel free to weigh in with what you view as your worst 2023 purchases – and why. Also, if you have lessons learned and/or shopping tips that you’d like to share, please do. We can all benefit from the collective wisdom that is often shared in the comments section of my posts.

Sometimes we need to hear or read things multiple times before it sinks in and becomes part of the way we view and do things. Clearly that’s the case for me, but the important thing is that I keep trying and continue growing. That is what I wish for you, too!