Finding Clothes Online

Where To Start

I wouldn’t say that I’m an expert at buying clothes online. In some ways, I still feel like a novice. However, over the last year I’ve spent quite a bit of time shopping online for clothing and I’ve learned a lot about how to approach it, and I wanted to share those lessons in hopes that others can avoid the mistakes I’ve made.

For those of you starting out, this post is meant to support you in finding more success in choosing the right sizes, fabrics, colors, and so forth, that will suit your style and shopping needs.

Creating a plan

The first thing to consider when shopping for clothing online is to have a plan. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed, or worse, shop impulsively.

When online shopping, having a simple plan is best. There is so much information out there about how to shop, what to buy, minimalism, fast fashion, etc. Don’t get sucked into thinking you have to follow any of it.

How, where, why, and what you shop for is entirely up to you, and you shouldn’t feel guilty or socially bullied into spending your money in any way you’re not comfortable with.

If minimalism and capsule wardrobes suit your personality and style, great! If you don’t approve of fast fashion and prefer to support smaller boutiques, that is your choice. However each person’s circumstances and perspectives are different, and so is their online shopping style.

What should you include in your online shopping plan?

Here are a few things I’ve learned to and would invite you to consider before online shopping:

• Determine your style and only shop for items that fit your aesthetic

• Know what colors suit you best and decide on a few key colors for the basics of your wardrobe

• Consider the cut, fit, and fabric content that works best for your body type

• Measure your body and only buy clothing that meets your body’s proportions. You can use the worksheets I provided below.

• Plan ahead of time which items you will search for and purchase. What are your current wardrobe’s needs? If you’re not sure, check out my free closet inventory handbook, and get a quick but in-depth look at what’s in your closet, what you need, and what to get rid of to make room for what you really want.

• Check return policies prior to buying anything online. If there is a no return policy, make sure you are comfortable with the possibility that any purchases you make on that site may be a waste of money. If there is a return policy, how long do you have to return an item and will you be responsible to pay for return shipping?

• Check reviews both on the items you are interested in buying and the online shop you are purchasing from to see what others are saying. Is it a legitimate site? How is their customer service? Is there a phone number or only an email?

• Look at the sizing charts for each item. At times, even the clothing sizes on a particular site will change. A size small for one item may not be the same as a small for another item

• Clear out your closet so you’re not just adding to the piles. Know what you are specifically looking for. If you’re ready to clear out the old to make way for the new, check out my Make Room For Bliss 7 day challenge.

• Never assume the picture of an item is a perfect representation of the product that will be mailed to you. I find this especially true shopping on sites like Amazon.

• Find people on Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube for online shopping suggestions. I follow a few women whose style I love and recommendations I trust.

• Find customer images of the items you’re interested in buying. Higher end clothing sites like Lafayette 148, Massimo Dutti, Everlane, Ralph Lauren, as well as luxury brands, do tend to show more accurate depictions of the clothing on their sites. However, the models they use may not give an accurate depiction of how the clothing will fall on your individual body type, so be sure to see what size the model is wearing and what the measurements are for that particular item.

• Check shipping times and prices. Sometimes online stores take weeks to ship, while others are only a few days. If you need an item by a certain date, be sure to check that in advance.

• When shopping second hand or vintage, make sure you check the stores policies. Online shops like Poshmark have a no return policy even if an item doesn’t fit. They will, however, allow you to return damaged, stained, or overly worn items if the seller did not disclose the issues up front.

What is your overall goal when buying clothing online? Are you hoping to save money? Are there stores that you can’t access anywhere but online? Do you just prefer shopping in the comfort of your own home and you don’t mind waiting for items to be shipped?

Whatever your reasons for shopping online, be sure and have a plan ahead of time.

Your Style

Knowing your style is an important factor in online shopping, especially since you can’t try things on and it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all of the choices out there. I suggest getting familiar with what you know looks nice on your body, what colors are a good fit, and what style aesthetic you are shopping for prior to making serious purchases online.

One way I’ve shored up my bets is by getting a body analysis and custom color palette. Although knowing the shape of your body and what colors look good on you isn’t style advice, per se, and won’t help you choose between two items you really like, it will narrow down your search by quite a bit.

Other ways I’ve focused my online shopping options is to create style Pinterest boards, follow people on social media who like the same fashion trends that I do and get tips and suggestions from them, as well as by going to stores and trying clothing on I think I might like regardless of whether or not I choose to buy those items or not.

I’ll be honest, years ago I was so timid and afraid to go into nice outlet stores because I felt like a fraud walking into them. There are still stores I’m nervous to enter because I don’t want to be judged unworthy by the store associates, maybe I’ve watched Pretty Woman one too many times, but the more I get out there and try new things, the easier it has been to find my style.

Online shopping has made it easier to high end shop, but getting out of my comfort zone and stepping into a store I was afraid to enter, trying on their clothes, and eventually purchasing something from them changed my perspective on fashion, quality, and style. And, consequently, I’ve never had a sales associate be rude to me.

Get out there and figure out what works and what you like first, then online shopping will be easier.

Measuring Your Body

This is clearly the most important aspect of online clothing shopping and I wish I would have known how and what to measure when I started.

There are a few key areas you will need to measure, like rise, waist, inseam, etc. Here are a few common measurements to consider when shopping online for pants:

Rise—from crotch to top of waistband

Inseam—from crotch to end of pant length

Waist—the circumference of the smallest point around your midsection or the circumference of your midsection at the top of the rise of the item you would like to buy

To make measuring your body a much easier process and to give you a good solid list of the areas to measure with illustrations to help, I created a free downloadable pdf guide below to help you out with all of the most commonly used measurements, and even those you don’t think you’ll need but do, so you can make better online shopping decisions.

Fabric Content

Along with measuring your body, you’ll also want to determine what fabrics to choose that will suit your shape and size. Not all cottons, polyesters, wools, and so forth, are created equally.

Although my shape isn’t considered a plus size, I am quite curvy in the bottom half of my body, especially when I’m carrying a bit of extra weight.

When I consider fabrics for my pants, especially jeans, I’m careful to look for those that contain a bit of stretch without being so stretchy that they become loose after wearing the item for an hour or don’t hold their shape enough to keep everything nice and tailored looking.

If there’s too much stretch they tend to look dumpy and cheap, if there’s not enough stretch they won’t fit well near the waist or hip area.

I have found that for my jeans, and some of my pants, a good mixture of cotton, polyester, and some type of stretchier fabric, like elastane, fit well and hold everything in, cover my curves, and still bend and stretch with me throughout the day without losing their shape.

The fabric content is as important as the overall measurements of a garment. However, bodies and fabric needs are so diverse, it’s really important to do some individual research to find those that suit your shape, your style choices, as well as other considerations like weather, breathability, texture and feel, and so forth.

As a general rule, I stay away from 100% polyester, especially in tops because it doesn’t breath as nicely as a blend. My personal choices for fabrics tend to be linens, cottons, polyester blends, wool, or linen blends that include some form of stretch like 2-4% elastane (especially for pants), cashmere, rayons, and merino wool (a nice, soft, and more affordable wool).

I’m still doing some experimenting as I go. I would like to, one day, purchase more higher end, quality fabrics. However, those fabrics do tend to need a bit more care and finding the right fabric in the right shape is an art that takes time. Just because a garment is higher end, doesn’t mean it is going to fit your body shape well.

The goal is to do some experimenting with fabric content, as well as shape and size, until you find those that work for you whether they are high end of not.

Where to shop

Here are a few places I shop online for clothing quite often. As a quick disclaimer, I have checked out the return policies for all of them. Some policies I really like, and others not so much.

When I’m shopping on sites with poor return policies I am more careful about how much I spend and I do my best to get every measurement and check the fabric content carefully.

I still purchase things occasionally I can’t return and that didn’t work out. It can be really frustrating, for sure, but it has also helped me to hone my online shopping skills a little more.

If your budget doesn’t allow for mistakes, only shop with online stores that have the best return policies. That will take the risk out of buying online completely.

Some online shops I have tried and/or frequent:

Amazon—can be hit and miss but with Prime the returns are super easy and free

Poshmark—an online second hand/vintage shop that has a fairly affordable variety of high to low end items. Just keep in mind that their return policy is terrible.

Banana Republic (both department and outlet)—if this is your aesthetic, they have reasonable prices, decent quality, forgiving sizing (petit, regular, curvy, and plus), and a good return policy.

Ann Taylor—Their quality is overall pretty good, the sizing is forgiving (petit, regular, curvy, and plus), and the offer returns, but I felt like their return shipping could be more affordable.

Etsy—new, vintage, and second hand items. Return policy, sizing, quality, and so forth vary by Etsy seller. Overall, I’ve had good luck with them.

Lafayette 148 (outlet)—Good quality, modern/classic aesthetic, sizing is accurate to what they say on their website, and you can call and chat with a stylist for free. However, they are a little spendy and the online outlet has a no return policy which makes a $100+ purchase risky.

I’m really looking to broaden my online shopping horizons and have been making a list of shops I’d like to try. Here they are:

Arket
Everlane
Madewell
Massimo Dutti
Mango (I just purchased a item from them, but I haven’t received it yet)
Sézane
Rouje
ThredUp (similar to Poshmark with a better return policy)
Thrifted

Final things to consider

Sizing—

Sizing varies from brand to brand and even item to item. You may wear a small here and a large there.

European shop sizing is quite a bit smaller than US sizing. I love Sezanne and Rouje, but their sizing is quite different from Banana Republic and Ann Taylor. I have to size up, sometimes several sizes, when shopping European brands.

Color—

Shopping for specific colors online can be really tricky, especially if you are using a physical, not digital, color fan like I have.

To remedy the discrepancies in tone on my computer versus my custom palette, I will most often shop during the day when I can sit by a window and look at the color fan in mid morning light. The colors tend to be more accurate then. I will compare the overall palette, which is designed to be harmonious together, to the color on the screen.

One way I use my fan with a computer is to hold up the different strips in front of a piece of white paper and compare them to the color on the screen. The white paper helps to show the colors on your fan more accurately, but it will also reduce the glare from the device screen.

Regardless of how well something may match as you try and compare colors while online shopping, the color of the item you receive may not match the color of the item online. So, again, make sure their return policy is a good one before buying the item.

I’ve found that the more I get to know the subtleties of my color palette, the easier it is to see if a color is too saturated and bold, or too warm or cool, or too dark or light. But it does take some practice.

Reviews—

Quite a few years ago I found this beautiful green top on Pinterest. I followed the link and purchased it online. I hadn’t heard of the shop before, but it looked legitimate. Although they sent me a green shirt, it looked nothing like the top in the picture; nothing like it.

Did I return it? I tried, but their customer service email was a joke and I never heard from them even after several attempts.

Most likely you, like me, have had a similar experience. One way I’ve remedied this is to do a little research before buying. If you simply type into your browser address something to the effect of “reviews of this or that online shop,” you’ll often find someone, somewhere sharing their experience about it.

If there isn’t some kind of review out there, just know that you are choosing to buy at your own risk and you may end up with the Walmart version of what you thought was Ann Taylor type quality.

Now, more than ever, the internet is a great way to shop for clothing. It does require some due diligence from you as the consumer, but some simple planning can make your online shopping experience really good.

Let me know in the comments below your favorite online shopping boutiques and how you plan and execute your online shopping hauls.