It’s Not a Bargain If You Won’t Wear It

The holidays may be past, but for fashion mavens there’s still time to celebrate--with mid-winter sales.

Before you hit the stores, make a list of your wardrobe’s missing links. Before you buy, ask yourself if you’d want it if it weren’t marked down and factor in any alteration costs.

“Ask if your bargain is really a bargain,” says Elaine Stone, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. “If I’m going to have to pay for a lot of alterations, it loses its aura.”

Eschew the outlandish. Stone says you should consider whether, when you get it home, you will say, “That’s still not me.”

“If you’re not the kind of person who would normally feel comfortable wearing it,” she says, “I don’t care what the price is.”

Also steer clear of any item whose best attribute is “sensible.”

“The worst thing you can do is get hypnotized by stuff that is absolutely rainy-day wear,” says Bud Konheim, CEO of Nicole Miller.