When holiday buys don’t look so hot back at home

Bizarre holiday fashion buys are a summer hazard. In a sun-baked torpor and with time on our hands, it is easy to be seduced by the possibility of a new, imagined future — and the imagined outfits to go with it.

Languishing in my attic is an assortment of mistakes accumulated over decades: a sapphire halter-neck mini-dress with gold trim from a market in Provence (new boho me); tangerine boots with seven-inch Perspex heels from a concept store in Barcelona (new avant-garde me); a turquoise kaftan from an insanely expensive boutique in California (new Stevie-Nicks me). They all made sense in their respective contexts. But in London, the dress was suddenly too garish, the boots too self-consciously wacky, the kaftan too frivolous. None saw the light of day.

It can be a wasteful, expensive habit — and it is not just me. Friends confess to stashes of “random” artisan jewellery and “twee” raffia bags, even a suitcase full of djellabas bought in Morocco “to be worn as housecoats”, never unpacked.

We accumulate on average nearly £33,000 worth of unworn clothing over a lifetime, according to 2019 data by Statista. Many abandoned items are holiday buys — and after more than two years of limited travel, we are more likely than ever to succumb to style splurges when we do make it overseas.

Mary Fellowes, a sustainable fashion consultant and stylist, suggests a couple of tricks for curbing the worst holiday fashion impulses — what she ingeniously calls “sartorial souvenirs”. “Take the emotion out of it and ask yourself, what’s my driver?” she says. “Is it sentimentality to remind me of this place? Or is this item something that will have multiple wears?” “If the answer is a reminder, go and buy a fridge magnet instead.”

Take the emotion out of it and ask yourself, what’s my driver? Is it sentimentality to remind me of this place? Or is this item something that will have multiple wears?

Fellowes offers a second rule for those who find themselves edging closer to the till in a holiday boutique: avoid anything that claims to be “trending” in beach or resort wear on Instagram. “Brands use influencers to shift products they can’t sell, so often what is claimed to be ‘trending’ is not a trend at all — it’s dead stock,” she says.

Stylist Julia Brenard advises me not to abandon all unworn holiday buys, even that sapphire boho dress. Increasingly, she says, such pieces are worn in cities as dress-codes relax after two years of intermittent pandemic lockdowns. “Anything goes now in the London summer. I even see people in swimwear worn with shorts,” says Brenard. That raffia bag from Marrakesh, too, can be retrieved and dusted down: Chloé, Loewe and Saint Laurent are among those offering variations this season.

Losing our minds on holiday is not an inevitability. Wise holiday buys can be a joy. Fellowes is particularly fond of a hand-beaten brass and leather necklace bought from a jeweller in Morocco. “Anything with an artisanal finish is likely to last longer, be more beautiful and made with love and care that translates anywhere,” she says. “And no one else will have it.”

She has also scored high-quality, reasonably priced linen pieces from backstreet shops in Italy and Greece: “Unbranded, but they look like Chloé or Brunello Cucinelli,” she says. “But don’t buy the mumsy, boxy pieces — look for sharper, urban lines. And never anything with added synthetic fibres.”

She also suggests diligent research beforehand, particularly in Europe. “Local brands with global outlets have a much better selection on their own turf,” she says. For example, Zeus + Dione and Ancient Greek Sandals are likely to have a bigger selection in their stores and outlets in their native Greece than the ranges offered by online retailers such as MatchesFashion. She is particularly enthusiastic about La Perla’s store in Capri.

FTWeekend Festival

Join us September 3 to listen to over 100 authors, scientists, politicians, chefs, artists and journalists at Kenwood House Gardens, London. Choose from 10 tents packed with ideas and inspiration and an array of perspectives, featuring everything from debates to tastings, performances and more. Book your pass at ft.com/ftwf

If despite all the advice you do end up back in gloomier climates with, say, a turquoise kaftan, Danish designer Stine Goya has advice: try “dopamine dressing” — by which she means wearing colourful pieces in an attempt to boost one’s post-holiday mood. But Goya, who specialises in wildly popular multihued creations designed in chilly Copenhagen, also practises holiday restraint: “Don’t overbuy for the sake of it,” she says. “One investment piece per trip is more than enough.”

Vicarious shopping is another way to distract yourself. Mariana Hinestroza and Catalina Alvarez, founders of Colombia-based beachwear brand Agua by Agua Bendita, suggest buying a sartorial present for someone else. But this should not be a way of palming off regrets: “Always give something that you like yourself,” they say.

What would Fellowes suggest I do with my strange tangerine boots? She advises me to look at them again. “Anything with a lot of character can be thought of as a conversation starter,” she says. “They’re characterful and Instagrammable.”

She proposes I wear them with minimalistic clothes from The Row, Jil Sander or Cos — a strategy that often works with more conceptual pieces. “You need to calm and cauterise them with something neutral and clean,” she says. I dig them out of the attic and wear them to a party, ready to make conversation with an admiring crowd. The Perspex heel snaps.

Find out about our latest stories first — follow @financialtimesfashion on Instagram