Jennifer Mackey-Mary: Hello Gorgeous! 

It’s still hot outside, which means another episode of The Everyday Style School: Summer Shorts–our weekly summer series sharing a quick style thought or tip to help you save money, save time, and get the wardrobe you’ve always wanted.

I’m your host, Jennifer Mackey-Mary. I’ve been dressing women for 25 years, and I’m on a mission to help you love the way you look every day.

If you’ve ever found yourself panicking in a fitting room because you had nothing to wear for an event taking place the next day, or worse, in a few hours, today’s tip is for you! Here it is: Last-minute clothes never become long-term favorites.

If you’re lucky, you’ve never known the panic or stress of having to find something to wear for a wedding, or a holiday party, or even a dinner with friends at a restaurant that’s nicer and cooler than the ones you usually go to. If that’s the case, I envy you. I truly do. But most of us know the feeling of being in a fitting room at 9:00 at night, sweating, stressing, willing to pay anything to not be naked at said social event. If you’re in that camp, with me, I might add…I want you to think about what you bought. 

Can you remember it? Can you remember what you paid for it? Can you remember how you felt in it? And, finally, can you remember how many times you wore it AFTER that event? Decades of experience working with women and their clothes tell me you probably spent way too much on it, you probably didn’t feel great in it, and you probably didn’t wear it very often after that event, if at all. Most likely, it was an expensive single-use outfit that didn’t make you feel fabulous. 

Today I want to talk about why these last-minute purchases don’t become long-term favorites, and share a couple of ideas on what you can do instead.

But first, let’s talk about why we do this to ourselves. Maybe your someone who has had to emergency shop once in your life, and if that’s you, you get a pass. But most of us, again, me included, have found ourselves in the fitting room of doom more than once in our lives. It’s terrible every time, so why don’t we learn our lesson?

Here are just a few simple reasons:

First, you just forget about it. You know the event is coming, but you’ve got other things on your mind and on your plate, so you don’t even think about what to wear until suddenly, it’s tomorrow, and you have nothing.

Second, optimistic thinking about weight. A high school reunion in 3 months? I could drop at least a size by then. I’ll go to the gym everyday, maybe twice a day! Yeah, been there, done that, and then had to find something in my same size last minute

Third-Hoping something will magically appear. You know it’s coming up, and you know you have nothing to wear, but you just think “oh, I’ll find something”. It’s like it’s on your radar, but you don’t take action until you’re out of time, and the right thing didn’t just show up in your closet. 

But I think there’s a deeper reason too, and that is, a lot of women feel guilty, or shallow, or superficial for caring about clothes. These feelings cause us to downplay how much it matters–like “it’s just clothes, I’ll figure something out” or even “What I wear doesn’t matter”. But then the event is tomorrow and suddenly you realize you actually DO care about looking appropriate, and feeling confident

I guess in the end it doesn’t matter how you ended up in that Macy’s fitting room at 9 pm–and it’s always a Macy’s, but if you find yourself emergency shopping frequently, it’s worth understanding why that’s happening over and over. 

Let’s dive into why these purchases don’t become favorites, and it really comes down to a couple of things, 

First-You’re shopping from a place of panic, not preference. When you buy things last minute, you are at the mercy of what’s available to you. And the effects of this are that:

The fit is usually off. You’ll deal with a skirt that’s a little snug in the waist for one evening, but you’re never going to choose it again if you don’t have to.

Also, It doesn’t match your style. I’ve shared on this show that my style guideposts are polished, current, and fun. If I had to buy a suit for a job interview tomorrow, I know I could find a boring black suit in the mall today. Now, are there suits that more closely align with my style? Absolutely, but they might take a little more time and effort to find than I can do today. I’d probably have to order online, and wait 7-10 business days to look the way I want. In our real lives, we want to wear things that align with how we want to look, instead of putting on something that feels like a costume.

The other big reason these last-minute purchases don’t become forever favorites is that you’re shopping for a moment, instead of building a wardrobe. You’re shopping with tunnel vision, focusing on solving one specific problem, rather than thinking about what will work with the pieces you already have, for the way you really live. You end up putting one-off pieces into your closet that simply can’t be worn frequently, and when you’re trying to get dressed for your real life, you get frustrated because you can’t put outfits together. Now that’s not to say that every purchase needs to work for every part of your life. Obviously, if you need a formal gown, that’s not going to become a part of your everyday wardrobe that can be worn lots of ways, but the more one-off, occasion-specific items you add, the harder it will be to have a cohesive wardrobe that doesn’t require you to shop every time you go somewhere different or special. It becomes a cycle that perpetuates itself. 

In the end, last-minute purchases waste money and cause closet confusion, which then leads to wasted time every day, trying to make sense of all these one-off pieces. 

So, what should you do instead? 

Well, first, if you found yourself identifying with the idea of “what I wear doesn’t matter”, until you realize it actually does, skip the part where you tell yourself it doesn’t matter, and just acknowledge to yourself that things are more enjoyable when you like the way you look–when you feel comfortable in your skin, and in your clothes. If you feel like it’s frivolous to care about what you wear, let me ask you this–Imagine you go to a wedding, and you panic buy a dress you don’t love, and doesn’t fit quite right, so you sit self consciously at the table for the entirety of the reception, counting the minutes until you can leave and ditch the spanx that are cutting off yoru circulation. Now imagine you go to that same wedding in a dress you love and feel fabulous in–both physically and mentally. You have a blast at the reception and dance the night away, making memories with your friends and family. Is that dress frivolous? I don’t think it is. Remember what former Vogue editor Diana Vreeland said. It’s not about the dress-it’s about the life you live in the dress. If a better dress can help you live more fully, it’s not frivolous at all. So why not just admit that it matters? It doesn’t make you a shallow person. It makes you a person who is willing to do what it takes to live the life you want to live.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here are some practical tips.

First, As SOON as you know about something special coming up ask yourself, what am I going to wear? If you can’t come up with a good answer relatively quickly, make a plan to shop while there’s plenty of time to order or return things if you need to

The reality is, most special events are not last minute-impromptu things. You’ve got plenty of notice. 

Second, get in the habit of looking at your calendar for things you might want to dress for. This is a big one around the holidays. Maybe you don’t get an invitation to a fancy holiday party, you just want a pretty outfit for dinner with your family. With the craziness of the holidays, you might find yourself searching for one-day delivery options from Amazon, which I’m guessing aren't great. That doesn’t happen if you think about it, December 1, and give yourself plenty of time. In the Style Circle, we offer a Seasonal Planner that helps our members prepare for things like this, just by planning ahead. We know things are more enjoyable if you’re not stressed about what to wear, and the best way to avoid the stress is to not wait until the last minute.

Finally, prepare your closet for those last-minute but still special things. You do not need to stock your closet with a couple of ball gowns just in case…but you might make last-minute dinner plans with your friends, or go on an impromptu date night with your husband and find yourself scrambling for something to wear, running to Target to see what’s available. Think about the things you do, and the places you go occasionally that you struggle to dress for. For me, it is always things where I want to feel a little different than my everyday wardrobe allows–like a concert, or a nice brunch. I don’t want to wear the same clothes I could wear for work. I want to feel special. These things don’t happen weekly, but they absolutely do happen–so instead of scrambling to buy something, or feeling good, but not fabulous, in my everyday wardrobe, I make a point to put a few things in my closet. This summer, it’s dresses. Definitely not part of my usual Monday-Friday wardrobe, but I’m really glad I have things to grab when I need them. And because they weren’t bought out of necessity in a panic, I look forward to wearing them, which makes wherever I’m going a little bit more fun. 

I want to leave you with a quote from Benjamin Franklin who said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. With just a little forethought and planning, you can avoid wasting time and money on clothes you’ll never wear again, and instead, show up to these moments, no matter how big or small, feeling stylish and confident. It’s a strategy worth trying. 

That’s all for this episode of Summer Shorts. I want to encourage you to look at your calendar for the next month and see if there’s anything you might need an outfit for. Figure out what you’re going to wear, and if you don’t have anything, shop with plenty of time to find something you actually love. As always, your everyday matters, so you should get dressed for it–but don’t forget about the special things either. Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you next week.

Jennifer Mackey-Mary [outro]: And that's a wrap. Thank you for listening today. If you're loving the Everyday Style School podcast, I'd like to invite you to become a member of the Style Circle. It's our monthly all-access membership that gives you everything we create to make style easy, so you can save time and money, have easier mornings, and more confidence all day long. You get our seasonal capsule wardrobe guides, all of the masterclasses we offer, and our exclusive members-only podcast, The Everyday Style School Extra Credit. Plus, you're invited to the Facebook community, where you can get even more style support and inspiration. I would love to get to know you and support your style journey. It's just $19 a month, less than the cost of a clearance shirt you're never gonna wear. Come join me and make your everyday style easier.