7 classic fashion mistakes and why we make them

Most people know the classic fashion faux pas – dressing too young, wearing something too revealing, and so on. But what about the reasoning behind them? Dr. Jennifer Baumgartner's new book, 'You Are What You Wear,' addresses not only fashion mistakes like wearing the same boring color over and over, but what it is that makes you want to wear the beige. Baumgartner also tackles questions like why some fashion lovers take to habits like wearing all designer label clothes – and why that not might be a good thing.

1. Buying too much

A man or woman who does this is now known as a shopaholic – someone who always wants to shop and keeps doing it even after his or her bank account can't take it anymore. Baumgartner says that the satisfaction of finding something exactly right or the happiness of owning a new item can be addictive, and shopping can become an activity to make up for other disappointments. (We've all heard of retail therapy.) Working with a client named Tessa, Baumgartner told her to write down everything she wanted to buy and look at it again in a week to see if she really still wanted it. Often, that wasn't the case, but if she did, she was allowed to buy some of the items. If she had been barred from shopping altogether, Baumgartner reasoned, Tessa would have found it harder to stick to the rules.

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