As it turns out, my 2022 Winter Wardrobe Update is a tale of two sides of a coin – had to buy more than expected, but enjoyed in-person shopping.
And I’m glad winter is almost over, because I’ll need to get more warm bottoms next year.
2022 Winter Wardrobe Recap
Bascially, I slimmed down a lot, got tired of cheap stretchy/shrinky clothes, and wanted a lot of WARM clothing for $1,000. I broke open my skinny clothes and decided I more or less had enough to be going on with.
So the plan was to get:
- Bras – at least two good ones, and a sports bra say $500
- Warm cardigans, say $300
- New sneakers, say $200
Snort!
2022 Winter Wardrobe Update
What I bought:
- Two high quality bras $390.00
- A bunch of socks and undies $255.41
- Two lovely warm Norwegian cardigans $550.67
- One beautiful wool and silk scarf $117.25
- New sneakers $219.99
- Another pair of new sneakers, and two pairs of boots $876.16
- Ugg boots $186.17
Total $2,577.65
So. Two and a half times my budget.
A bit horrifying – everything seemed way more expensive (I suppose that’s inflation for you), so I’ll need to think carefully when it comes to Summer’s purchasing.
But the overspend was mainly about the shoes.
The width of my feet has increased over the pandemic years of mostly not wearing shoes around the house. The nice child at the sport shoe shop suggested wider sneakers. But it turns out, you can’t just wear sneakers the next size up because all the padding is in the wrong place, and they’re bloody uncomfortable.
So I bought some “barefoot” sneakers, and they’re the first pair of shoes I’ve worn that didn’t require painful blister filled breaking in. Nice!
But, the next time I went to a clinic visit… Well, it turns out my existing shoes are also too small, I didn’t want to force my feet into them, and I didn’t want to wear sneakers either.
So I bought some Chelsea style barefoot boots (also incredible comfortable), but with a mix up in sizes and postage, I had to get another pair to wear in the meantime (the joys of shops using just-in-time delivery).
Having said all that, I really enjoyed shopping in person. Touching the clothes, examining the construction, trying them on and constulting with sales staff.
Doing it all early enough in the season to get a good selection, I did have to pay full price, but it was worth the extra time spent enjoying my new clothes.
2022 Winter Wardrobe Learnings
As I mentioned, everything was more expensive, even before the media started reporting the inflation figures. Though that might also be because I’ve been a cheapskate clothinwise for a couple of years.
I suppose that unlike tins of beans, clothing can’t get smaller, but like toilet paper, it can get thinner. I wore my long johns a bit because I like everything else, the cost of heating has been going up.
It was nice to get back to in-store shopping, though there wasn’t a lot of “colour.” Lots of “neutrals” like black, grey, navy and beige. Nothing in the way of bold and strong colours like red, yellow or even blue, but quite a bit of pastel. Plus, the range of shapes and sizes were quite limited. Especially the more fitted clothes I prefer.
It felt a lot like the shops weren’t willing to take a gamble on anything out of the ordinary. And I suppose I can’t blame them with the world in turmoil, inflation running rampant, rents and mortgages escalating, and people generally trying not to spend any money.
Despite that, it really felt good not to shop on sale.
I had hoped to wear more coloured and patterened clothing over winter. I exclusively wore black after the stroke because it was less distracting. But as the season progressed, I found it colurs and patterns harder to deal with – perhaps due to the cogntive load of the ongoing pandemic and subsequent economic hardships.
Might be something else to take into summer.
How did your Winter 2022 plan turn out?
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