What I Wanted, What I Needed, What I Bought
Sale Season 2026: A Bit of Excess After Some Moderation
I’ve had a fairly moderate shopping year in 2025, which I’m very proud of. At the same time, as a result of this moderation, I can feel some gaps forming in my wardrobe. I decided that this sale season is a great opportunity to fill those gaps and prepare for the coming year. There are several pieces I either genuinely need or simply want, and I’m sharing my thought process here in case any of it overlaps with yours.
Gray / Beige / Off-White Jeans
Top: Toteme, Toteme. Bottom: Citizens of Humanity, Not So Normal, Citizens of Humanity
The reality of my life is that every day I do a school run, and the school is outdoors - meaning it’s often extremely muddy, snowy, and everything in between. I have plenty of pants that can “puddle”, but in these situations there is a literal puddle on the ground. So I want to expand my collection of jeans or pants that are either straight or slightly tapered and, by and large, do not touch the ground.
The struggle is that I don’t want blue jeans. I find jeans much easier to style when they’re gray - but not dirty gray. That soft, clean gray is surprisingly rare. I’ve been wearing the Tibi Brancusi jeans in gray for a while (though they’re a bit too cropped for my proportions), and I’m manifesting that they’ll eventually make the Newman jean in this colorway.
I went down the rabbit hole searching for jeans in non-dirty gray or beige and even had some help from Monica from Overmycloset. This is the category I researched the most, so I’m sharing my findings with you.
Soeur jeans, Toteme jeans (ordered), Uniqlo jeans (ordered), Skall Studio, Still Here, Rachel Comey.
What I bought: Low risk this time - I went for the cheapest options: Uniqlo JW jeans (the color is quite “dirty,” though) and heavily discounted tapered jeans from Toteme. I haven’t received them yet, so I’ll report back.
Statement Pants
As I started my style evolution, I was initially very focused on not making mistakes, which meant I sometimes tamed my intuition. Now I make mistakes on purpose, and as a result my style has become much more interesting - at least to me. I finally feel mature enough for a truly statement pair of pants.
It also feels like we’re waking up from the quiet-luxury, neutrals-only era. The pure minimalist outfits are starting to feel a bit boring to me, and I really want to play. I went through quite a few brands, screenshotting different pants like the ones below.
Essentiel Antwerp, Stine Goya, Simon Miller, Simon Miller, Ganni, Ganni.
What I bought: nothing. This felt like a lower priority than jeans, so I’ll probably postpone it until the next sale season.
Non-Blazer Blazers and Cardigans
I work from home and my life is mostly casual, so I genuinely feel strange wearing a blazer at home. At the same time, I want to feel more elevated on a daily basis. That’s why I want to expand my collection of shirt-blazers and cardigan-blazers. Tibi excels at this, and this year I’m also discovering Bitte Kai Rand, which has all kinds of interesting pieces in jersey and similar materials.
Tibi, Bitte Kai Rand, Bitte Kai Rand, Bitte Kai Rand, Bitte Kai Rand, Salanida.
What I bought: Salanida sweater (a gift from friends), Tibi Relaxed blazer (my only Tibi sale purchase!). Bitte Kai Rand will have to wait for the next season!
Summer Shoes: Sandals and Closed-Toe Shoes
I’m almost out of summer shoes, as I’ve worn them to death, and I usually replace them during winter sales. For sandals, I opportunistically spotted a pair of slides I used to own in a different color from Gia Borghini and scored them for $40. (Side note: Gia Borghini shoes really don’t hold their value on TRR, despite being some of the best shoes I’ve tried.)
Other options from Gia Borghini available on TheRealReal
For closed-toe shoes, I wanted something similar to last year’s COS pair, with a round toe and a sharp vamp. I loved the iterations from Le Monde Beryl, Margaux, and Tony Bianco. I chose Le Monde Beryl for its high quality and the chocolate patent finish - they look amazing. Let’s see if they meet my expectations in terms of durability.
Tony Bianco, Margaux NY, Le Monde Beryl
What I bought: green Gia Borghini slides from TRR and Le Monde Beryl Stella flats in patent leather - both patiently waiting for summer.
Animal Print / Funky Loafers
I’m also out of loafers and would love an option that’s a bit more creative than the usual. I love the recent trend of animal-print loafers - there are some great iterations from COS and Tibi. My true love is the fringed animal-print pair from Gia Borghini, but the price is a bit steep even for my fashion-loving wallet and by now most sizes are sold out.
Cos, Tibi and Gia Borghini.
What I bought: nothing. I’m still thinking about the Gia Borghini ones, though - maybe I can catch them in resale!
Non-Basic Tops
I sometimes think my biggest style mistake is wearing T-shirts every day - they really don’t do me justice, and other pieces usually look much more elevated on me. That said, I still need to wear something. I have been reluctant to buy Tibi tops as they are quite costly and the CPW for tops is usually not as high as for pants, skirts or blazers. I usually look for more affordable options at COS, but this season I also discovered some surprisingly cool tops at Massimo Dutti.
Massimo Dutti, Massimo Dutti (similar), Cos.
What I bought: the three tops shown above (the middle one is very similar, but not the exact one)!
What I Bought Spontaneously
Gilyte Capsule Love dress, Cos pants
In addition to these, I bought a Gilytė dress and a pair of COS pants that I loved - without the meticulous planning. I had been looking for a cream dress and really loved this relaxed iteration by Capsule Love. The COS pants completely caught me off guard - I tried them on and they looked so good, as if they were made for me. These two feel like great additions.
What I Bought and Returned
With all this shopping, there were also some items that didn’t work out. For example, the Massimo Dutti jeans fit very strangely, so I decided to return them. The semi-sheer Cos skirt looked stunning, but it was actually sheer all the way through, and I realized it would be too much hassle to wear only with leggings. The Cos nylon bag on sale seemed like a promising solution for carrying my laptop, but it turned out to be quite inconvenient - it somehow has only one handle. So all of these went back.
So what’s next? I’m taming my purchases for a while and luckily Tibi sale is already over! Instead, I’ll play with these fresh new additions to my wardrobe and look forward to wearing them throughout the year. Have you added new pieces to your closet this sale season? Please share in the comments!
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Such a great wish list. Those snake pants are simply stunning. Do you know if they feel like snake leather?
I really like the look of the striped Bitte Kai Rand non blazer blazer, but I'm not sure how I feel about the fabric composition... Do you have any experience with this composition? With the sale it's quite tempting....