12 Sneaky Style Stumbles That Could Be Affecting Your Look

The fashion world of what's in style moves so quickly these days that it can be easy to get lost. A simple style sin can take you from ready for the runway to fashion disaster in an instant!

Something as simple as dressing yourself can be infinitely complex. Luckily, we've curated a list of 12 of the most common style sins to uncomplicate the process and make sure you stay looking good and feeling confident (younger readers might know this as “slaying”).

There are some pieces of what might seem like common knowledge that you're about to find directly contradicted or omitted. Still not sure about wearing white after Labor Day? Well, we'll get to that (spoiler alert: it's fine).

Clothes Too Small

I get it — no one likes to see a larger number than they're used to on the sizing label. While this can feel like a blow to old self-esteem, wearing clothes that are too small for your body isn't going to make you look — or feel — any slimmer.

Tight clothes aren't only unappealing visually. They can also lead to skin conditions, poor circulation, nerve issues, and even yeast infections.

Clothes Too Loose

On the other side of the spectrum, it can be just as tempting to try to use baggy clothes to hide your body. This is certainly not meant to be insensitive to anyone with body issues, but dressing yourself in shapeless attire isn't going to help matters.

Some clothing items are meant to be worn oversized, but even for these garments, a proper fit is key. You want to aim for a comfortable fit: not too tight, not too loose.

Ignoring Body Type

Speaking of proper fits, you need to start paying attention to your body type. This means knowing more than just whether you need an S, M, L, or XL. You also need to know your shoulder, bust, waist, and hip measurements to ensure a proper fit.

These measurements will not only help you buy the right size clothes but also inform you of which styles and cuts you should look for to get the most comfortable and form-flattering fits.

The Right Shoes Are the Wrong Shoes

If your first instinct in selecting a pair of shoes is to match your outfit, you might have your mind a little bit blown by stylist Allison Bornstein's “Wrong Shoe Theory.” The idea, which went viral after she laid it out on TikTok, is that an outfit will only look right once it's paired with a seemingly incompatible pair of shoes.

Bornstein explains that making such a seemingly illogical move indicates that “there is some intention and choice and therefore it gives your look personality,”

Ignoring Care Instructions

Your clothes can only take care of you if you take care of them. Those wash-and-dry instructions are there for a reason, and failure to follow them can seriously hurt the longevity of your favorite duds.

Failure to follow washing and drying instructions can lead to shrinking, color bleeding, fabric damage, loss of shape, and other potentially outfit-ruining consequences. Those labels know what they're talking about!

Washing Jeans Too Often

Of course, you should wash your jeans every time you wear them, right? Wrong! Washing your jeans too often can lead to color fading and premature deterioration of the fabric. Experts recommend washing regularly worn jeans every 5-6 weeks.

Levi Strauss CEO Charles Bergh took it a step further in 2014, saying he never puts his denim in the washing machine and will only spot-clean his dungarees if something spills on them.

Putting Sweaters on Hangers

Clothing experts said putting sweaters, especially the heavier ones, directly onto hangers can lead to stretching that will change the garment's shape and ruin the neckline. Stylist Christina Stein told Today.com, “My preference is to fold them, but that's judging on how much space somebody has.”

Stein said people who don't have room to fold their sweaters can still hang the items — but they should be draped over a bar instead of put onto a hanger.

Clashing Patterns the Wrong Way

Wearing clothing items with dissimilar patterns has become a widespread practice. Still, it's important to do so with finesse and avoid sending your outfit over the deep end.

Some pattern-clashing mistakes to avoid include trying to mix more than two patterns at a time, attempting to mix patterns of similar sizes, over-accessorizing, and failing to consider color in a way that makes your clothing look too busy.

Failure to Tuck

Leaving shirts that are meant to be tucked hanging loose in the breeze can make an otherwise well-coordinated outfit look sloppy or worse. Stein says tuck-avoiders are “actually messing with the rule of thirds on your body because you're not really defining any point on your body for the eye to go to.”

Los Angeles stylist Laurie Brucker recommends a technique known as the half-tuck, telling Insider: “Take the front half of your top and tuck it into your pants, then play around with the fabric so that it drapes softly over your pant line and around the back.”

Forgetting the Tacking Stitch

This is one style sin many people don't even know exists: leaving the tacking stitch on a new coat. The X-shaped stitch on the vents at the bottom of a new coat is designed to keep the garment from losing its shape during shipping, but it's meant to be removed by the consumer.

Failure to snip this stitch is more than a tiny visual faux-pas — the vent is meant to be open to give the coat its proper shape and ensure the most comfortable fit.

Socks With Sandals

Somehow, we're still having this debate, even though wearing socks with sandals was voted the biggest fashion mistake in a survey of 1,500 people by British retailer Debenhams in the distant past of 2013.

This look seems to come in and out of vogue, but take it from the fashion experts at Marie Claire. Australian contributor Francesca Wallace states, “It might have been cool for a minute, but we wouldn’t recommend trying this fashion faux pas out any time soon.”

Following Outdated Rules

Fashion, it must be stated, is more of an art than a science. And as such, the rules are always changing. That means some guidelines you've been hearing your whole life — think “never wear white after Labor Day” or “never wear brown and black together” — are no longer applicable.

That means I'm afraid to say that even some of the rules I've spelled out for you here might not be conventional fashion wisdom in a few years. So, keep your rules flexible, and don't be afraid to follow new trends — except socks with sandals. Never, ever, do that.