mfad•9mo ago

building out my wardrobe

After sitting down and gathering inspiration through waywt and other social media sources over the months, I can say I have built a pretty solid list of things I wanna buy/try out I guess and how I wanna look.

So my question basically is to the ones who are more experienced in their style and already have built a solid wardrobe, what is the best way to approach my list without overspending on something I might not end up liking—focus on one item at a time from the list or a few things at a time?

Thank you!

kewlpinguino•4/3/25, 4:39 PM

Want to follow this thread bc I’m in a similar boat—my approach has been thrifting and buying used clothes and patching stuff together which is fun but can come with some guilt abt making bad purchases (especially online where it’s inevitably more expensive)

NotDisliked•4/3/25, 4:43 PM

you've done the hard part at this point, so kudos on that. I think going slow is definitely the way to go, buying one item at a time, particularly if they are on the more expensive end.

I'd also really recommend starting with more budget options if you can, since it sounds like this is still pretty early for you, you probably aren't gonna bat 100 on things you actually end up liking wearing. better to minimize costs while you're still experimenting, so whiffs don't hurt as bad. thrifting and used marketplaces are good ways to do that, and you can usually find some more budget options or hunt for sales on items bought new.

NotDisliked•4/3/25, 4:45 PM

hope you enjoy exploring your inspo, and come back to post fit in waywt if ya feel like it

NNotDisliked hope you enjoy exploring your inspo, and come back to post fit in waywt if ya fe...

elijahOP•4/3/25, 4:56 PM

Thank you and also appreciate the detailed response! Would you say aside from thrifting and marketplaces, are fast fashion places like uniqlo, zara etc okay? especially in the experimental phase

NotDisliked•4/3/25, 4:57 PM

uniqlo is a brand that many people still wear plenty in here. you may get some adverse reactions because many people in here strongly dislike the ethical implications of fast fashion, but I think experimentation is the perfect time to be buying from brands like them

NotDisliked•4/3/25, 4:58 PM

once you lock in more, you'll probably feel safer spending a bit more for clothes created with more thought and ethical practices, and that will likely last longer for the money.

kewlpinguino•4/3/25, 4:59 PM

Without passing moral judgement, you can get better quality clothes secondhand for about the same prices. The advantage to places like Zara and especially uniqlo are having fewer questions, being able to return, being able to try on irl, etc

kewlpinguino•4/3/25, 5:01 PM

(Fwiw my feelings on Uniqlo have changed bc unless I’m just misremembering their US prices used to be lower)

elijahOP•4/3/25, 5:05 PM

@kewlpinguino & @NotDisliked (yes) thank you very much for both your response, i actually can’t wait to start trying things out it’s an exciting time

elijahOP•4/3/25, 5:06 PM

the initial gathering of inspo and making the list was a bit overwhelming since there were many directions to go in but finally got there in the end

NotDisliked•4/3/25, 5:08 PM

excited for you, hope you have fun with it

sharloy•4/3/25, 5:15 PM

Agree with starting off slow! And agree with starting with basics at the lower end so you know which ones you will like and can upgrade accordingly.

Statement pieces are fun but when I was starting out, I bought a bunch of statement pieces of different styles and I would never wear them because I ended up converging to a sense of style I liked and those pieces were outside what I wanted

raisinpie•4/3/25, 5:29 PM

There's no right or wrong way! Besides taking it slow and not spending your money at once. It never hurts to figure out what the basics are for your style, and buy those first. For me, I like old military uniforms, so green fatigue pants are my go-to basics. If you're into workwear, a denim jacket is a good basic, etc.

beans•4/3/25, 5:38 PM

Buy slow
Buy cheap
Iterate and consider carefully whether you gotta have the expensive version or not

adte•4/3/25, 9:44 PM

Yeah I started by buying stuff on ebay, some of it i ended up getting rid of or replacing with other things I like better, but it was a good place to start.