JOANNE Watkinson
I WANT A WARDROBE FULL OF JOY
January is a hard sell. My son’s birthday this month means I’m back shopping earlier than I would like to be after Christmas.
I prefer to give the stores a wide berth early in the year. Seeing the stragglers left behind is a buzzkill after the thrill of the festive build-up. The sequins no one wanted piled high, the unsold decorations lying pitifully on the shelves.
Stores know that, unlike surplus soaps, they can’t be re-merchandised and sold as Mother’s Day gifts.
But just when you think there is nothing worse than the wasteful excess stock on the heaving sale rails, along come the presumptuous retailers, filling the shelves with the predictable ‘seasonal essentials’, making assumptions about our January state of mind, ergo our shopping habits.
It’s something they do all year round but in January it feels more passive aggressive – yoga mats and water bottles in place of crackers and Baileys.
How dare they declare the party officially over.
Then they drag the exercise clothes to the front of the store. Exercise, while good for our mental health, is more about post-excess necessity than showing off my new leggings at this time of year.
There is no financial benefit to buying gym clothes now, the good stuff is never included in the January sales, only the duds that no one bought full price.
Public service announcement: if there are racks and racks of an item heavily discounted, you haven’t stumbled on a gold mine. Chances are there is a good reason no one else has bought it.
If I sound like a sour puss I’m sorry, I assure you I’m not. I am hopeful and enthusiastic about the new year, I just don’t like being ushered towards clothes I neither want or need, especially stretchy ones.
I’m not against buying new things. This January I am concentrating on the clothes that bring me joy. My new dressing gown – towelling, bright geometric print and officially my new favourite thing, my raspberry beanie, bright, cosy and the colour makes me happy when I wear it, and my new bag, cross-body, pre-loved (aka second-hand) and something I’ve had my eye on for years.
I will use them all a lot, and not just in January.