Really loved this, especially the way you describe the familiar feelings brought on by finding a great deal. I relate a lot to looking forward to sale season as a way to potentially buy something that would be hard to justify at full price but also failing to break a cycle of buying things that contribute to wardrobe clutter. There are some things that I feel I can buy online and have a pretty good idea of what they'll be like when they arrive, but it's so disappointing to have high hopes (or Pinterest-picture hopes) for a piece to fill a necessary gap in your wardrobe only to receive it and realize that it's just another average pair of pants you've foolishly ordered on the quest to find "the one." (I write this as I nervously await my sale buy, a pair of wool trousers that hopefully doesn't fall into the latter category!)
Thank you! I think the frequency of the sales makes it harder to think straight, and online shopping offers so much choice -- SSENSE uploads 3000 to 4000 products every week! To process that while parsing our motivations for wanting something is a lot.
I think the secondhand market (online and off) has been a great resource for making expensive pieces more accessible, but I wonder if the commercialisation of resale (even brands have launched their own resale portals) will distort that eventually...
I saved this read until I could pay it full attention because I really appreciate your perspective on consumption/shopping. I have found this BF to feel particularly dizzying and I think it’s because (1) sales began up to a week ago (2) the content cycle of BF is everywhere you look (3) I actually do have a wishlist of items I have been able to successfully find on sale. Where it has become problematic for me, is that I have found items that I genuinely want and feel grateful to get them on sale but I still feel the itch to shop more and take advantage of sale pricing. Your description of “gnawing feeling that I SHOULD buy something” has been me the last few days.
Thank you. Honestly I’m in the same place, I need grounding which is why I wrote the newsletter. The content cycle is intense, possibly making the urge to shop worse actually! I’ll be staying off IG this weekend cos the ads are relentless but it feels like I need to stay off Substack too! I’m undecided as to whether I enjoy living vicariously through others who are shopping, or is it unhealthy...
Lin I actually decided last night to do a 6-8 week no spend inspired by you. I went back last night and reread your posts chronicling your time and I identify so much with your first post. Thank you.
as recently as the 00s, Black Friday was like a quirky all-American-type event to us non-Americans, in many ways it's absolutely bizarre to me to find BF sales local to me now. Globalisation and its discontents, etc.....
It's funny because I grew up shopping sales and 'rejects' aka items that were effectively discarded for flaws that included something like a size tag sewn on wrong or wrongly, and to this day I balk at paying full price on expensive clothes (my solution so far is I let someone else do the paying and mostly buy them secondhand) but I'm also of the category for whom end of season sales might make a luxury piece just about affordable. In a way I'm fortunate that my profession has a relatively conservative attitude towards dress so there are immediate guardrails forming an idea of what I can get most use out of - some flair or personal touches are acceptable, 2020s Fashion Week-style peacocking would never be.
I do understand why brands would prefer to avoid markdowns and I've had some "it's on sale!!" dud firsthand purchases too (a Shushu/Tong baroque pearl hairband, a cotton dress with a lining that turned out to be polyester, multiple pairs of trousers aka the ultimate tricky bastard of online buys). That said, having a modest amount of money to spend on something of good quality is useful at sale time as long as I know my tastes and what flatters me, with absolute ruthless certainty, and also have some idea of garment measurements (MatchesFashion was very good at this - they provided measurements the different sizes of every garment they stocked, I really wish more retailers did this. At least part of the reason why I prefer to online shop secondhand is because ebay sellers are more likely to provide you with actual measurements of a garment they've listed).
Oh, if I made a list of sale mistakes, it would be looooong. I remember buying a "cotton" APC sweater 10 years ago in an online sale that turned out to be cotton TERRY, and it wasn't comfortable for me at all. This year, I bought a Toteme shirt because it was crazily discounted on Matches, and I don't wear it much. It's a perfectly lovely piece and looks nice on me, but it's more tunic than shirt and it just feels off to me. Online shopping is not ideal, but I still can't quit it because I don't always find what I want IRL.
Great newsletter, Lin! I'm no stranger to having done my share of the sale hunt over the years, and yeah, I still love a thrift store bargain and the notification on Vestiaire that the price of an item on my wishlist has been reduced. But the sale season really is out of control these days. It feels like it's getting crazier every year. I just try to opt out the best I can... but having said that, if I were to magically come across my dream winter boots and the price was discounted... hmm. Maybe there is no escape from the madness.
Not to be an enabler, but I suppose knowing exactly what you would buy in a sale is a solid place to start; I remember first Black Friday buy was a vacuum cleaner, lol.
One reason I felt ok going ahead with the Studio Nicholson jeans was because I had dozens of close-but-not-quite items saved on TRR and Vestiaire, and they would have been less expensive, but I didn't still want them.
Really loved this, especially the way you describe the familiar feelings brought on by finding a great deal. I relate a lot to looking forward to sale season as a way to potentially buy something that would be hard to justify at full price but also failing to break a cycle of buying things that contribute to wardrobe clutter. There are some things that I feel I can buy online and have a pretty good idea of what they'll be like when they arrive, but it's so disappointing to have high hopes (or Pinterest-picture hopes) for a piece to fill a necessary gap in your wardrobe only to receive it and realize that it's just another average pair of pants you've foolishly ordered on the quest to find "the one." (I write this as I nervously await my sale buy, a pair of wool trousers that hopefully doesn't fall into the latter category!)
Thank you! I think the frequency of the sales makes it harder to think straight, and online shopping offers so much choice -- SSENSE uploads 3000 to 4000 products every week! To process that while parsing our motivations for wanting something is a lot.
I think the secondhand market (online and off) has been a great resource for making expensive pieces more accessible, but I wonder if the commercialisation of resale (even brands have launched their own resale portals) will distort that eventually...
I saved this read until I could pay it full attention because I really appreciate your perspective on consumption/shopping. I have found this BF to feel particularly dizzying and I think it’s because (1) sales began up to a week ago (2) the content cycle of BF is everywhere you look (3) I actually do have a wishlist of items I have been able to successfully find on sale. Where it has become problematic for me, is that I have found items that I genuinely want and feel grateful to get them on sale but I still feel the itch to shop more and take advantage of sale pricing. Your description of “gnawing feeling that I SHOULD buy something” has been me the last few days.
Thanks for grounding me!
Thank you. Honestly I’m in the same place, I need grounding which is why I wrote the newsletter. The content cycle is intense, possibly making the urge to shop worse actually! I’ll be staying off IG this weekend cos the ads are relentless but it feels like I need to stay off Substack too! I’m undecided as to whether I enjoy living vicariously through others who are shopping, or is it unhealthy...
Lin I actually decided last night to do a 6-8 week no spend inspired by you. I went back last night and reread your posts chronicling your time and I identify so much with your first post. Thank you.
as recently as the 00s, Black Friday was like a quirky all-American-type event to us non-Americans, in many ways it's absolutely bizarre to me to find BF sales local to me now. Globalisation and its discontents, etc.....
It's funny because I grew up shopping sales and 'rejects' aka items that were effectively discarded for flaws that included something like a size tag sewn on wrong or wrongly, and to this day I balk at paying full price on expensive clothes (my solution so far is I let someone else do the paying and mostly buy them secondhand) but I'm also of the category for whom end of season sales might make a luxury piece just about affordable. In a way I'm fortunate that my profession has a relatively conservative attitude towards dress so there are immediate guardrails forming an idea of what I can get most use out of - some flair or personal touches are acceptable, 2020s Fashion Week-style peacocking would never be.
I do understand why brands would prefer to avoid markdowns and I've had some "it's on sale!!" dud firsthand purchases too (a Shushu/Tong baroque pearl hairband, a cotton dress with a lining that turned out to be polyester, multiple pairs of trousers aka the ultimate tricky bastard of online buys). That said, having a modest amount of money to spend on something of good quality is useful at sale time as long as I know my tastes and what flatters me, with absolute ruthless certainty, and also have some idea of garment measurements (MatchesFashion was very good at this - they provided measurements the different sizes of every garment they stocked, I really wish more retailers did this. At least part of the reason why I prefer to online shop secondhand is because ebay sellers are more likely to provide you with actual measurements of a garment they've listed).
Oh, if I made a list of sale mistakes, it would be looooong. I remember buying a "cotton" APC sweater 10 years ago in an online sale that turned out to be cotton TERRY, and it wasn't comfortable for me at all. This year, I bought a Toteme shirt because it was crazily discounted on Matches, and I don't wear it much. It's a perfectly lovely piece and looks nice on me, but it's more tunic than shirt and it just feels off to me. Online shopping is not ideal, but I still can't quit it because I don't always find what I want IRL.
Great newsletter, Lin! I'm no stranger to having done my share of the sale hunt over the years, and yeah, I still love a thrift store bargain and the notification on Vestiaire that the price of an item on my wishlist has been reduced. But the sale season really is out of control these days. It feels like it's getting crazier every year. I just try to opt out the best I can... but having said that, if I were to magically come across my dream winter boots and the price was discounted... hmm. Maybe there is no escape from the madness.
Not to be an enabler, but I suppose knowing exactly what you would buy in a sale is a solid place to start; I remember first Black Friday buy was a vacuum cleaner, lol.
One reason I felt ok going ahead with the Studio Nicholson jeans was because I had dozens of close-but-not-quite items saved on TRR and Vestiaire, and they would have been less expensive, but I didn't still want them.