An Analysis of My Past Fall Purchases (2014-2019)
This year, I’ve been going back through all of my past budget posts (all the way back to 2014!), making note of the items that I still own (and the items I don’t), and analyzing the types of items I tend to purchase the most vs. the least and the types of items I’ve held onto the most over all these years. I previously analyzed my past spring purchases and my past summer purchases, and now I’m back with an analysis of my past fall purchases!
The goal is to make note of the items that have had longevity versus the items that have not…and hopefully it’ll give me some insight into how long I keep certain items in my wardrobe and help guide my future purchases. I collected every item that I purchased in falls past and still own for the images for this post (I left out most of the jewelry, some accessories, items I received as gifts, and items I received from brand collaborations). I ran out of room on my clothing rack again and made my vanity chair useful this time. The coats took up a lot of real estate!
I’ve been tracking my purchases for almost as long as I’ve been blogging, so there’s a lot to look through! Hope you enjoy the flashback to old posts (and if you click on any of the collages below, you’ll be taken to the original budget post!).
FALL 2014
If you’ve read my spring and/or summer analyses, you already know that 2014 was messy when it came to tracking my wardrobe additions, haha. It was my first year writing budget posts, so I was all over the place! The top two collages above are from September 2014; the collage on the top right is actually of gifts I had received for my birthday that year. None of those items are featured in the photos for this post because I forgot I split them out like that. Oops. The bottom two images are my October and November purchases.
Out of the 14 items I purchased in fall 2014 (17 including items I received as gifts), I still own 8 (11) items:
Both pairs of pants (September and October)
White shirt (September)
Red loafers (September)
Black belt (October)
Black earrings (October)
Grey cardigan (October)
Cream and orange scarf (November)
Plus all three gifts: black sweater, boots, necklace (September)
Note: There are a few things shown here and in future years that I technically still own, but they’re currently listed on Poshmark so I am pretending that I don’t own them anymore since I don’t have plans to re-introduce them to my wardrobe.
FALL 2015
Out of the 14 items I added to my wardrobe in fall 2015, I still own 7 items:
Both striped tees (September and October)
Pink sweater (September)
Cream wallet (September)
Ivory cardigan (October)
Black oxfords (October)
Burgundy coat (November)
FALL 2016
Out of the 15 items I added to my wardrobe in fall 2016 (two of which were gifted as part of a brand collaboration), I still own 7 items:
Brown flats, Bean boots, and Kitty flats (September and October)
Red sweater (September)
Black dress (October)
Plaid flannel shirt (November)
Black clutch bag (November)
FALL 2017
Out of the 17 items I added to my wardrobe in fall 2017 (two of which was gifted as part of a brand collaboration), I still own 12 items:
Both pairs of shoes (September)
Both bags (September and October)
Both hats and the headband (October and November)
Both sweaters (October and November)
Striped dress (October)
Grey blazer (November)
Necklace (November)
FALL 2018 & 2019
2018 marked the first year that I started blogging my budget every quarter instead of every month. It just made sense to do so because I have a quarterly budget! Plus, blogging my budget every quarter allows time for returns if necessary.
Out of the 14 items I added to my wardrobe in fall 2018 (two of which were gifted as part of a brand collaboration), I still own 13 items…everything except for the pinstripe silk tank.
Similarly, out of the 14 items I added to my wardrobe in fall 2019 (three of which were gifted as part of a brand collaboration), I still own 13 items…everything except for the brandy leather boots.
Compared to spring and summer, I haven’t purchased nearly as many items in the fall. I’m not sure why that is; fall fashion is typically my favorite! I do tend to wait for sales, though, and since Black Friday/Cyber Monday is such a huge sale weekend, I try to hold off for those sales, which puts those purchases squarely in the winter budget camp. It’ll be interesting to see those numbers when I analyze my winter purchases in a few months.
Here’s a breakdown of everything I still own by item type:
Tops and tees: 9 out of 15 total (60%)
Sweaters and cardigans: 10 out of 14 total (71%)
Shorts: none purchased
Skirts: 1 out of 3 total (33%)
Pants: 4 out of 4 total (100%)
Jeans: 2 out of 5 total (40%)
Dresses: 3 out of 4 total (75%)
Blazers and outerwear: 6 out of 9 total (67%)
Shoes: 15 out of 19 total (79%)
Bags: 4 out of 4 total (100%)
Jewelry: 4 out of 7 total (57%)
Accessories: 5 out of 7 total (71%)
My best fall purchases were pants, bags, shoes, and dresses—and oddly enough, most (if not all) of the dresses are more on the summery side. I’ve also done a pretty good job purchasing sweater and cardigans that last and that I still love as well as accessories like hats. Though I will say that there are a couple of accessories that made the cut simply because I haven’t listed them for sale on Poshmark or donated them yet (haven’t decided what I’m going to do with them yet but will likely donate).
My jeans and skirts took the biggest hit over the years. I used to buy jeans from a variety of different retailers, but now that I have my favorites narrowed done (or current favorites, at least), I’m much better at purchasing jeans that fit well and that last for multiple seasons. I haven’t purchased many skirts in the fall, but of the ones I have, only one has stuck around (and I only purchased it a couple of years ago). Skirts are similar to dresses in that I don’t wear them as much as I used to, and I used to own a lot of mini skirts and few midi skirts. Now my midi skirt collection is building up a little more and my mini skirt collection is slowly dwindling.
None of the items I parted with fell apart or broke in any way. I realized that I’m not a huge fan of silk; it’s just too delicate of a fabric for me and my lifestyle. I was constantly worried about spilling on it and dealing with dry cleaning was annoying so I’ve sold most of my silk pieces. I also ended up returning the gorgeous brandy Amalia boots I purchased from Nisolo last year. I just could not wear them comfortably—even just around the house. It felt like the right shoe had some sort of construction flaw where it pressed against the top of my foot and made it go numb. Thank goodness Nisolo has amazing customer service and let me return them for credit a year later!
Three seasons down, one more to go! Woo! Have you done an analysis like this on your closet? (You can track your purchases with an app like Stylebook or use a program like Google Docs or Excel!)