An Analysis of My Past Winter Purchases
I’m back with my final sartorial purchase analysis! I previously analyzed my past spring purchases, past summer purchases, and past fall purchases, and now it’s time for winter. I’ve been budgeting my clothing purchases almost as long as I’ve been blogging, so there are many years of past purchases to analyze! I enjoy discovering 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.
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 winters past and still own for the images for this post (I left out the jewelry, some accessories, items I received as gifts, and items I received from brand collaborations, plus two other items I bought that I accidentally skipped over when frantically grabbing everything to photograph before the sun went down, lol).
Because winter spans two years here in the Northern Hemisphere, I consider each winter to start with December (following climatology, of course). For example, winter 2014 consists of December 2014 and January and February 2015 and so on for the other years!
I have been tracking my purchases almost as long as I’ve been blogging, so there’s a lot to discuss! 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!).
WINTER 2014
As you can see, my early budget posts were a whole mess! I included gifts in their own collages back in the day, so the top two collages are from my December budget posts with gifts on the right. The bottom three collages are from January and February 2015, and the middle collage is of gifts I received in January after my December budget post went live.
Of the 24 items I added to my wardrobe in winter 2014 (six of which were gifts), I still own 10 items:
Both pairs of earrings (December)
Both tees (grey from December and white from February)
Plaid scarf (December)
Black sweatshirt (January)
Cashmere sweater (January)
Brown belt (January)
Black flats (January)
Grey jeans (February)
Note: There are a few things shown here and in future years that I technically still own, but they’re currently listed on Poshmark (or will be listed soon) so I am pretending that I don’t own them anymore since I don’t have plans to re-introduce them to my wardrobe.
WINTER 2015
Of the 23 items I added to my wardrobe in winter 2015 (two of which were gifts), I still own 8 items:
All pairs of socks (January)
Gloves (December)
Longchamp tote (December)
Sunglasses (December)
Ivory cardigan (October)
Black oxfords (October)
Burgundy coat (November)
WINTER 2016
I successfully completed a shopping freeze in January 2017, which is why I only have two collages here instead of three! Of the 16 items I added to my wardrobe in winter 2016 (six of which were gifted as part of two brand collaborations and two of which were gifts), I still own 9 items:
All three sweaters (December)
Black parka (December)
Navy vest (December)
Grey joggers (December)
Camel cardigan (December)
Leather gloves (December)
Ankle boots (February)
WINTER 2017
In 2018, I started sharing one budget post per quarter instead of one per month, so the collage on the left features my December 2017 purchases and the collage on the right features my January and February 2018 purchases. Of the 9 items I added to my wardrobe in winter 2017, I still own 8 items…everything except for the peplum top!
WINTER 2018 & 2019
Of the 8 items I added to my wardrobe in winter 2018, I still own everything! And of the 15 items I added in winter 2019 (two of which were gifted as part of a brand collaboration), I still own everything! (Except I misplaced the sunglasses recently. I’m very sad. I know that as soon as I buy a replacement pair, I’ll find my original pair, lol.)
As I predicted in my fall analysis post, I have more winter purchases than fall purchases thanks to the holiday season sales that always get me! Over the years, though, I’ve been decreasing the number of items I add over the winter season (except for last winter which saw a bit of a bump!).
Here’s a breakdown of everything I still own by item type:
Tops and tees: 11 out of 26 total (42%)
Sweaters and cardigans: 9 out of 12 total (75%)
Shorts: none purchased
Skirts: none purchased
Pants: 2 out of 2 total (100%)
Jeans: 4 out of 5 total (80%)
Dresses: 0 out of 4 total (0%)
Blazers and outerwear: 5 out of 10 total (50%)
Shoes: 5 out of 8 total (63%)
Bags: 1 out of 1 total (100%)
Jewelry: 5 out of 6 total (83%)
Accessories: 16 out of 20 total (80%)
My best winter purchases were pants, bags, jewelry, jeans, and accessories, but note that the sample sizes are pretty small for everything except accessories. Accessories consist of hats/beanies, scarves, gloves, scrunchies, belts, and sunglasses. Winter is always heavy on the cold weather accessories so it’s no wonder that number is so high! The two pants I added and still own are loungewear—they’ve been seeing quite a bit of year these past few months. I’ve also kept the majority of my sweaters and cardigans, which make up a large portion of my wardrobe and outfits, especially in the winter months. Tops and tees make up the largest portion of purchases (just ahead of accessories), and just like with spring, summer, and fall, I’ve kept about half of those items over the past six years. It’s interesting that it’s the same for each season!
I’m a little surprised that I only own half of the outerwear I bought, but looking back, I passed on a few items that weren’t warm enough and were prone to collect cat hair and thus were not worn enough to warrant taking up closet space. Clearly I have a tough time finding dresses I like and that work for my lifestyle. Of note, I tended to purchase off-season dress styles during the winter months. I’m paring down my silk garments because, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, they’re a little bit too delicate for me and my laziness.
Everything I added to my closet has held up well over time, which is good and much appreciated! I mentioned above that I misplaced a pair of sunglasses I purchased last winter. Of course that would happen when I’m barely leaving the house these days, lol. I had to run into the office to pick something up, and on the way home I got takeout lunch, and I haven’t seen those sunglasses since. I’m worried they are gone forever. Sigh. I will likely repurchase them but I’m holding out hope that I’ll find them somewhere!
Don’t forget to read my spring analysis, summer analysis, and fall analysis if you haven’t already! 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/Sheets or MS Word/Excel!)