I hate fashion shopping, I really do. Trawling around numerous clothing shops, not finding what you want in your size, queuing for changing rooms, carrying shopping bags and spending more than you need to. There has to be a better way!
Shop Online Avoiding Changing Room Horrors
I am all for shopping locally if I can, however, I really struggle with the selection of clothing shops we have locally. Thankfully online clothing shopping is accessible to all as I really hate the horrors of the clothes shop changing room.
- The Sweaty Smell: It doesn’t matter how many plugins you use or how often the changing room attendant sprays a floral air freshener around, changing rooms are always going to be the confined places where people take their shoes off. Shoes that have walked in heat around numerous stores and are naturally a tad pongy.
- Those Mirrors: Do they have to be so big? So clear? So…. Honest? I understand that it is important to see what you’re buying, however, I’ve never met a changing room mirror I’ve liked so go to great lengths to avoid them.
- That Lighting: Goodness me. You may choose between weird strobe lighting (unless it’s only me who always gets the cubicle with the flickering bulb?) and bright fluorescent light that offers far too much clarity.
If you hate fashion shopping but want lovely new clothes don’t be browbeaten by The Changing Room, buy online. Check before you buy what the return policy is, often returns may be free which means you may try to try on and return if not right.
Finding Clothing Via a Fashion Aggregator
There are a number of fashion aggregator sites out there. The one I’ve heard more about recently is Lyst. In simple terms Lyst pulls together fashion items from a wide range of online stores for you to choose from. Basically, they use magic.
Now, I’ve used a fashion aggregator site in the past and the results have always been from very high end- high fashion stores. These stores often come with high price tags and that’s fine when I’m looking for something to wear to a wedding but less so when what I need is a comfy pair of jeans for around the house. Imagine my glee when I found that Lyst offers results for all budgets, from high street stores to more exclusive boutique types. I may choose to shop via my budget or to splash out and treat myself with ease.
Jeans are actually a great way to test Lyst out. The site looks good, it’s easy to navigate however can it beat my shopping nemesis, the elusive pair of jeans for someone with short legs and size 18 bod?
Let’s see….
They can, and they did! I had a browse of the results and it took me through to another site (that I hadn’t used before yet will again) in order to complete my purchase.
- Saves time
- Introduces users to new brands
- Saves money
- No impulse buying
- Filter results to choose from retailer, price, size and more
- Results for male and female fashion lines
- Plus size clothing (I’ve never understood why sites would choose to miss out on listing big brands, big is beautiful)
- Discover designers
- Create and save a wish list
- Shop the sales (a bargain always pleases me).
Fashion Shopping Inspiration
If I want to know what the top models are wearing right now I’ll pick up a magazine. If I want to find inspiration for outfits for me, you’ll find me on Pinterest! There are some brilliant fashion-related post on there. I even have my own board which features outfit layouts from Polyvore.
The Future of Fashion Shopping?
We live in a busy world and a digital time. It makes perfect sense to use sites like Lyst and Pinterest for those of us who either really dislike physical clothes shopping or simply don’t have the time.
Have you used curated fashion collections? What did you think of them? If you have your own fashion Pinterest boards I’d love to see those too. Have shopping!
