Three Questions To Ask Before Purchasing a Specialty Piece For Your Wardrobe

During my hiatus from fashion at the end of last year, I did purchase one new piece: a blue chiffon dress with a pattern of angels. It’s a lovely piece in its own right, cost me very little, and will be a great addition to my wardrobe.

Then, while I was swooshing around in the dress and wishing it was warm enough to wear it, I was struck with a bolt-from-the-blue idea: pairing it with a Robe al’Anglaise. I love a good rococo style outfit, and I especially love the idea of pairing the soft blue chiffon dress with a structured overdress in a gold or ivory hue.

It would certainly be a specialty addition to my wardrobe. It would also be a fairly costly piece at the onset, so I needed to do some thinking about what I would do. In thinking about this, I came up with three questions that helped me to decide whether or not the addition of this particular specialty piece would be a good idea at this point in time.

How Often Will You Wear This? (Be Honest…)

I know this can be a challenge when you’re faced with something very pretty, but it’s still important to consider. In my case, I’d not wear the dress as often as I would like, no matter how excited I was at the idea of the outfit I could make with it.

How Many Outfits Can You Make With it Without Adding New Wardrobe Pieces?

This is huge for me because sometimes you simply can’t use a piece without adding something new to your wardrobe. If you are getting your first few Lolita pieces, this might not be an issue, but I have a wardrobe. In my wardrobe, the rococo jacket simply wouldn’t work with many pieces. I might be able to pair it with a skirt or two, but other than that it would require the purchase of new pieces to really get the number of outfits out of it that I would like.

How Many Other Pieces Could I Purchase for the Price?

This is the biggest party pooper question, but it’s important to me. In order to get a nice rococo style jacket/overdress, I would have to spend a good deal of money or time. If I were to spend that money on other pieces, I could expand my wardrobe in ways that would better suit my lifestyle. More importantly, I could spend less on a single piece, leaving more money for other things I wanted or needed.

So what did I choose? I chose to forego the pretty but impractical and instead purchased a dress that I can dress down a bit for the office and dress up for something frillier.

Am I terribly disappointed? No, not really. I have a lovely piece coming soon that I will be able to wear in the office (a prospect that I am quite excited by) and I have money left over that I can use for craft supplies, student loan payments, or other important purchases.

That, to me, is worth more than this particular specialty piece.