I Have Been Very, Very Bad-- Plus, My New Rules of Fashion

My name is Dianne, and I have a problem.

During the summer, I develop a serious shopping addiction.

And for the entire month of July or so, I did terrible damage to my budget by shopping nearly every day.

There are two categories that my bingeing can fall into: FASHION and SCHOOL.  They are the two reasons I love fall, and so of course, I must indulge them.

{found here}

 Today I'll address my fashion shopping addiction.

There were a lot of items in my closet that needed replacing because of my weight loss, or just because it was time to replace them.  Here are my detailed justifications:

-Most of my shoes were pretty worn out.  I generally wear my work shoes for "real life" too, and they work hard!  Plus, I didn't replace any before this school year, so they were going on two years of regular wear.  We're talking holes, stains, and I won't even mention the smell...

-My jeans were loose and looking distressed (when they weren't meant to be!) 

-My white button-front shirts, V-neck sweaters, and camisoles had also seen better days-- looking faded, dingy, pilled, and a bit stretched out.

I donated a lot of things and took stuff that was still in good condition to my local consignment store.

Because I knew I needed a lot of new things (and have been watching a lot more What Not to Wear during my summer vacay), I decided to institute new fashion rules for myself.

 {found here}

THE RULES

1) More patterns.  I wear a lot of solid on solid.  It's very boring looking, especially given that I don't:

2) Accessorize.  Sometimes I feel like it looks like I'm trying too hard when I wear accessories, but I'm going to make myself get over that.

3) High heels.  I feel more confident in them and they make my body look better-- so no more all-flats-all-the-time.  I've bought a lot of great heels that are very comfortable.  The problem is that my feet are two different sizes-- about a half a size apart-- so I need to invest in some insoles for left feet only!

4) Tailoring.  I got a great pair of jeans and black pants for work hemmed to go with heels.  And I lose more weight, I have to get things taken in instead of replacing them like I've done in the past.

5) Different clothes for "real life."  While I know having clothes that can be worn to both work and school makes for a good wardrobe, I've pretty much made my work wardrobe into my "real life" clothes.  There's very little difference in what I wear to work and what I wear out on Saturday night.  I don't particularly like dressing in a tren dy way (even though I'm expected to at my age, I feel like most trends don't flatter me), but I do realize that I need younger-feeling clothes for going out with my friends.  No more teacher clothes at the bar!

I only feel like I've done well with Rules 3 and 4.  I have a hard time buying patterns, accessories, and "real life" clothes because I feel like I won't get enough use out of them-- they don't "go" with everything else in my closet.  

Perhaps with my new and improved wardrobe will come some OOTD posts.  Maybe not though, because that would require me to clean my mirror.

So tell me:  

What are your fashion sins?  

Do you have fashion rules for yourself?  

Any hints and tips on how to overcome my aversion to accessories/prints/trends?  

I'm all ears!