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The Importance of Limiting Your Colors

 I've mentioned this in previous posts, but if you're going to buy used clothing, you want to limit your options.

Thanks to cheaper clothing overall, more and more of us are giving away clothing that doesn't feel or look just right on us. As a result, the quality choices available at your local Goodwill store are vast:

But having an explicit color palette does something else:  It gives you a reason to say no.

A group of friends and I used to take a trip every year to wineries in Temecula, California, and then to the Desert Hills outlet stores in Cabazon to shop the deals. We were trying on clothes at the Banana Republic outlet, and I tried on a beautiful chocolate brown coat dress that had been steeply discounted. It fit perfectly, and my friends were insisting that I had to buy it.

However, having previously absorbed the lessons of limiting my wardrobe colors (which didn't include brown), I knew I'd have to also purchase matching shoes and a matching blazer or sweater - all of a sudden, the low price of the dress didn't seem so low!

Planning in advance what colors I'd use to build my wardrobe was one of the best lessons I've ever applied. There are any number of ways to choose and limit your colors (try a quick Google search on wardrobe color guidelines and you'll see what I mean). I chose a base color of black complemented with white, then I chose accent colors that would go with black, white and my jeans, and that would be flattering on me. Here's how that translates in my current summer wardrobe:

Have you already established a color palette for yourself? If not, as an experiment, go to your closet and pull out the pieces you look best in. Are there colors that repeat themselves? If you hang all of your favorite pieces together, does a pattern emerge?

The best part about shopping at Goodwill is that you have some financial room to experiment with different colors and hone in on your own limited palette.


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