What kind of shopper are you?
Do Working Parents Have Time for Fashion?
by Sara Schaefer Muñoz
by Sara Schaefer Muñoz
The other day, I bumped into a colleague who commented on a sweater-jacket I was wearing. You look very mom-ish today, she said. I wasnt quite sure how to take that. But it made me realize that in the midst of my busy life, the latest fashions are no longer a priority (if they ever were.)
Of course, I want to look professional, and at least like my clothes were purchased sometime this decade. But unless you can afford a personal shopper, piecing together ultra-chic outfits on a budget takes a lot of poking around stores and trying on and returning. Working parents just dont have the spare time, or at least in my case dont want to spend it that way.
So what to do? I have several approaches for getting myself appropriately attired without hiring a weekend babysitter or spending Saturdays dragging my daughter around a mall.
The Online Extravaganza: Shopping online is one of the easiest ways to go. But items arent always as they appear and sending them back can be a pain.
The Grab n Dash: This involves dashing into one of two stores where I know my sizes, grabbing things off the rack without trying them on, paying and dashing out again, with my daughter in tow. Ive gotten so good I can often do this without needing to return anything.
Operation Lunch Break: Popping into a nearby store during the workday can be convenient, but its often hard to get away from my desk and awkward to come back to work with a bulging shopping bag.
The Clothing Diet: Every now and then, I decide its ridiculous to spend any more time or money on clothes and I put myself on a several month-long clothing fast. But what I spend during the re-bound can cancel this out.
!
