“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” Henry Ford

I failed my 3 month shopping ban. There, I said it. Finally.

I’ve been trying to avoid writing this post. And it’s taken me 21 days to actually work up the courage. But I knew that it had to be done.

If your remember from this post, I set out to complete a 3 month shopping ban, as well as a 3 month summer capsule wardrobe project. And I failed, miserably, at both.

The Shopping Ban

First things first, the shopping ban. Back in June, I had felt myself slipping back into my old spending habits when it came to clothing. I thought that by restricting my clothing purchases for 3 months I could reset my mind to adopt better behavior.

Going into July, I was feeling pretty good. The capsule was great for getting my mind off of shopping and I also wasn’t checking out the websites of my favorite clothing brands. I was even able to resist the early July sales at a lot of them.

And, so it begins…

I think things started to go south for me when I decided to do the summer 10×10 challenge, which official started on July 27. It seemed like an acceptable excuse to take a break from the capsule.

I thought I’d use some of my capsule items but add in a few different items to make it feel fresh again. Well, halfway through the challenge I hit a wall which led me down a rabbit hole of wondering why I was being so restrictive.

Then somebody I follow on Instagram posted a review of a pair of jeans that looked like perfection. They were the Agolde Riley jeans but at $168 a pair, I wasn’t ready to dive in. So I went looking on eBay for a pair.

This search ended up in me ordering a pair of pre-owned Agolde Jamie jeans for less than half the price, $56 including shipping, to be exact.

I ordered them true to size and figured that if they didn’t work out, I could easily resell them and not lose money. So, that was the start. I was only 29 days in.

Well, I’d just broken the clothing ban, so then all of the Instagram posts from my favorite brands, the ones who were still having sales, started to break down the barrier I had built. This led to a few other purchase.

The Tally

Agolde Jamie jeans (pre-owned via eBay)

A robe from The Robe Lives

Alice & Olivia silk jumpsuit (pre-owned via theRealReal)

A snake necklace/bracelet set (vintage via Etsy)

Ozma pants (on sale)

Hackwith Top

Napier gold link necklace (vintage from antique shop)

Whew. Man. It hurts to write that all out. But, at the same time, it also feels good to finally have that all written down. Actually, figuring out what I had ordered was surprisingly better than I had thought it was going to be. In my mind, it was way more.

I may have broken the shopping ban by purchasing these items, but the saving grace is that they were all purchased under the umbrella of slow fashion (they were either secondhand or ethically made).

See how I just justified all of that ;).

Even though I didn’t make it the whole 3 months, I made it to a month without buying any new items and I feel okay about that.

Lesson learned

I’m not sure if I’ll ever attempt to do a 3 month shopping ban but I can definitely make it to 1 month without buying any clothing.

I would attempt to do this again in the fall for a month, probably October or November. Would anybody be up for joining me and we can support each other?

Project 333

Ah yes, 33 items of clothing for 3 months. Well, it started off strong and it was actually pretty nice and easy to get dressed with so few items. I felt like I was able to make a variety of outfits from the 33 items that I had included in the capsule.

However, by the time the 10×10 challenge came along, I was kind of tired of making outfits with just 23 garment pieces. I used the challenge as an excuse to take a break, and to ultimately, quit the Project 333 Challenge.

As I mentioned above, I started to question why I was being so restrictive. I don’t feel like I have a lot of clothing. The latest count reveals that I have 83 items of clothing in my entire wardrobe, for all seasons.

Lesson learned

I think the idea of a capsule wardrobe is great. And even one with as few as 23 articles of clothing, 4 pairs of shoes, and 5 accessories (this was the breakdown of the 33 items that I had chosen for 3 months).

I found getting dressed during the month of July to be quicker and less exhaustive than I ever had. However, the prospect of doing it for another 2 months was not for me.

I will definitely do another capsule wardrobe in the future, but it may be something that I do for a month at a time. For example, pick a select number of items at the beginning of each month and then change it up after the month is over.

Why do I care about this enough to write a post

You may be wondering why I want to put this failure out there for the masses to read.

It’s because sustainability and trying to live with less is important to me, and clothing is one area of all of our lives where we can do a little better. For a lot of people, myself included, it is one area where I can say that I spend too much money. 

So, I look at these experiments as a way for me to gauge what clothing I really need in my life and as a way to cut down on my clothing consumption. Do such experiments always work out for me? Definitely not, as this post shows, but I feel like they’re a step in the right direction.

And if you’re reading this and it makes you think about your own clothing consumption how you can be happier with a smaller number of clothing items, ones that you feel great in everyday, and you are inspired to start a little experiment of your own, then putting this out there is worth it.

Have you ever completed a shopping ban? Do you have any tips/tricks that might help me in a future shopping ban? Please let me know below.

Until next time,