Test driving items in my wardrobe that I’ve never actually worn

Plus: Sweet Valley High memories, a (slightly revolting?) skincare hack & summer's best cocktail

Do you ever buy clothes and then just… don’t wear them? In the past I’ve been quite bad at this and it is always the result of buying things in the sale, lured in and made giddy by heavily discounted prices before ultimately deciding that they’re not really me. I have a number of such pieces in my wardrobe.

This wasteful pastime has led me to change how I shop in the sales. I now follow the old rule: would you still want this if it was full price? I’ve added another of my own: if this item was at the same price in Mango, would you buy it? For over a year I’ve stuck to these rules and no longer make ill-advised purchases just because things are 60% off. I am still a committed and enthusiastic sales shopper, just a much more discerning one now, and I tend to stick to classics: a camel jumper from Dries Van Noten and a white t-shirt from The Row are two purchases of mine from the last year that were heavily marked down but I wear all the time. Since realising that bargains can lead me sartorially astray, I haven’t tripped up again. 

I’m currently trying to buy less so this week I thought I’d take out some of those never-worn sales pieces for a spin and see how they made me feel. Has ignoring them been an oversight? Or are they really just not for me? So from never-worn Ganni shirts to Reformation and Dôen dresses, here’s how I got on.