Shopping can be a long decision process. Not only because it takes a long time to find a style you like but because with every piece you buy you have to account for how it fits into your entire wardrobe and aesthetic. 

Given the state of the economy in (current year), it’s hard to navigate what might actually be worth the money. Fashion is one of those things where most of the cost of the item is marked up due to marketing. I don’t have much experience as a buyer (wholesale pricing or getting a clothing line manufactured) but the listed price of an item is often DOUBLE or more the actual cost of the item. 

Sales are nearly constant so it can be difficult to decide at what point to purchase the thing you want. However, fashion is also seasonal. Spring and Summer clothing is cheapest during Winter (usually leading up to Christmas) while Fall and Winter clothing is cheapest around April. 

When it comes to consignment or thrifting there will often only be 1 of that piece so it’s a lot more important to act quickly. On consignment sites items will be continuously marked down until eventually someone buys it. This can take a long time as the seller usually manually approves when that happens, 10% per instance. The most you will typically see before it gets purchased quickly  is 40% off, past that things get bought quickly. 

Knowing this you can plan out when you should buy the thing you’ve been eyeing! Sometimes people will try to flip clothes by reselling them online right after the season ends because maybe they live next to an ‘outlet mall’ (a place where brands send excess stock to sell at a discount, or make identical items made of cheaper materials). 

Otherwise keep an eye out for things for about 1 year or 2 since after that point the value of an item will fall off significantly in terms of ‘trend value’ (how desirable is the trend right now). It will be more difficult to find specific pieces after 2 years of being sold as new.

The biggest question to ask yourself is what are you actually willing to spend on what you’re buying? If you plan on wearing something nearly everyday it can be worth it to buy the item immediately at full price. If you know the brand does special event discounts or never runs out of stock for things prior to sales (because they do the previously mentioned mark up), it’s best to wait. 

Speaking of waiting, for the first year or 2 of buying things into your transition, I highly advise to never purchase things at a full price unless you desperately need them right away such as for a work uniform. Finding out the trends of brands you like in terms of how their pricing typically goes is one of the best ways to get good deals. 

The best example I can give is with my skirts. If the weather allows it, and I shaved my legs, I’m wearing one of them for sure. Because I get a lot of use from my skirts, I don’t mind spending $200 on a skirt. Without a sale some of them go for $500, but because I will either buy them consigned or wait for the sale I know is coming, I get them for less! 

However there have been times where I was planning on buying an item but was too slow to just pull the trigger, and I didn’t end up with it. It is sad, but that’s life.

To be honest, the most important thing to consider is how often you wear the item. If you think of it as a subscription, if you bought a 100$ sweater, and wore it 4 times, then it’s really a 25$ sweater (please don’t buy things and only wear it 4 times, but you get the point). 

Thinking of it this way can create a vicious cycle of a shopping addiction but it is a helpful tip for more expensive things.

How an item fits into your existing wardrobe and style is also something to strongly consider. While you may be working your way into a more fleshed out wardrobe, try to stick with pieces that you can wear more immediately. It’s much easier to wear skirts/pants immediately since they don’t involve layering like tops. But if you know what you’re working towards with your wardrobe don’t be afraid to make an investment into your future.

Speaking of more expensive things, investing your money on “basic” items, things that work with many styles and are very versatile (like a black turtleneck, blue jeans, black leather boots, etc.) should be your priority once you “locked in” your sizes. Even if you have a more alternative style, core pieces like below always come in handy for anything.

Do not buy things that do not fit you currently! If you buy something that doesn’t fit right now, even with your best intentions it doesn’t mean it will in the future either. While it’s ok to leave a bit of room for your chest if you are still early on HRT or scheduled a BA, most of the time the sizing won’t look right until the changes show up on your body! I have plenty of leggings I bought when starting HRT thinking my hips would grow to match the size that was currently my waist, while retaining my muscle but that didn’t happen and as a result I don’t wear them often because they’re a size too big.

Understanding the distribution curve of sizing also helps a lot to gauge how fast an item is moving. If it’s something really popular and you see that some sizes are already selling out it can be a good time to just order what you’ve wanted.

Sizing on both ends, xxs or xxl is typically what will sell out first. If you have a common size like medium, your size will probably stay in stock the longest. 

Try and wait as long as you can to order anything when it comes to sales.

If you want an expert tip to check the stock of an item while it’s on sale (and there’s probably not many left) add as many as you can to your cart! There will typically be a message that pops up saying there’s insufficient stock for your order.

Looking at reviews is also an important part in buying online. With ‘dropshipping’ (buying cheap items overseas in bulk and reselling in current country at regular prices) being incredibly common and knock-offs out of control, it should go without saying that you should ignore any ads that look too good to be true. Looking for customer pictures is a must, there not being any (if it’s an unknown brand to you) should be a massive red flag.

If the “”model”” in the pictures also has THE EXACT SAME POSE in every picture of all the colors of the item or doesn’t look like a real human, the item will almost certainly not look like the picture. It will probably fit differently at the very least. 

Research the company a bit if you’ve never heard of them. A great tool that lets you look up the age of a website is: https://lookup.icann.org/en/lookup . This can be super helpful for finding popup scam sites which are incredibly common for ads on platforms like TikTok. If it seems too new (like 1 year), don’t buy from there! 

It also helps to copy the name of the item and just search for it on google, if there’s a lot of duplicate sellers then it is probably not high quality as it is being ‘drop shipped’ (purchased in bulk from places like china, and resold for a high markup). 

1. Determine what you’re willing to pay at most

2. Think about how often you will be wearing this, the more you wear it, the more you should be willing to spend
   • DO NOT buy things with the intention of wearing it once, capitalist hyper-consumerism is kinda cringe!

3. Consider how it fits in your current wardrobe, as well as future style.
   • If your item doesn’t go with anything you own, you won’t be able to wear it as much as you want to.

4. Consignment and thrifting can be a great way to find better deals
   • The more specific of a piece you’re looking for, the harder it will be to find so don’t be afraid it spend more on it

5. Keep any eye on the current stock of what you want to buy and purchase it when your size is close to gone

6. Don’t buy things for the size you plan to be!
   • Once you are at a stable body shape that makes you happy, start investing in pieces that suit that shape.