If you’re feeling a little flat in the style department it may be time to take yourself out on a shopping safari.
Going on a shopping safari could involve exploring a neighbourhood or store you’ve never visited before. Sometimes the store you think is too young, too old, or too skanky or sporty for you is where a hidden gem can be found. A great piece can be found just about anywhere so do as Kendall Farr advises in her book, The Pocket Stylist, and “look under every rock”.
Tim Gunn also advocates shopping safaris as the outing encourages you to focus on yourself and not on who you’re wearing. As no one clothing line can do it all for us, and nor should it, going on safari and shopping a few pieces at a time enables your personality to come together and creates a wardrobe built with care.
Going on safari doesn’t necessarily need to lead to a new purchase either. By exploring, looking, copying and tweaking the looks you see out in the stores and bringing those ideas back to try out in your wardrobe, it creates the space, as Amanda Brooks says so well in I Heart Your Style, “to be inspired by your own past triumphs and be amused by your mistakes”.
A note of warning though from Mr Gunn, “never buy something on sale that you wouldn’t buy at full price”. So even though you may find something ridiculously cheap on safari, keep your head on your shoulders and consider ‘will I actually use this when I return home?’ If the answer is no, explore what it was that made you want to own that item and take that away as your souvenir instead.
