For some weird reason, I am sometimes driven to buy or do things in multiples of three.  I don't think I have any other OCD tendencies, but this one has been around for awhile.  I sometimes buy canned goods or produce at the grocery store in threes.  Need peaches? 1, 2, 3 in the bag.  A can of garbanzo beans is good, but three is better.  You never know when you'll want to make hummus, right?

But now I've realized that The Rule of Three is invading how I shop for clothes.  I do almost all of my shopping on-line now.  I tend to be a "I need a yellow dress," shopper instead of a "Let me see what catches my eye," kind of shopper probably because I'm a pretty strict budgeter and planner.  I go through my wardrobe routinely to see what is missing or needs to be replaced and make lists (maybe another compulsion).

On  my hunt for a yellow dress (which I had to buy because you know I need more color in my wardrobe), I started my normal shopping process.  Go to my favorite sites, The Outnet, ShopBob, Bluefly, and Piperlime and search "yellow dress."  I found this mustard Z Spoke dress at The Outnet.

But I need to find two more.  I had to find two more.  I couldn't bring myself to just go for this one without fulfilling the rule of three.  I had to have comparisons.  I would need to hit the next tier of Reiss,  TopShop, and ASOS where I found this M Missoni dress.


I still needed to find one more, so my last stop in situations like this is Forever 21.  If I haven't found three by this point, I'm starting to realize that I'm not really looking for an investment piece or something that I'm going to get a lot of wear out of.  A low-price point is good for grabbing cut but trendy.  The only trade off with Forever 21 is that you have to be really careful that your choice is age appropriate.


Now for the decision-making process:

The Forever 21 dress is too short for me.

I like the ASOS dress, but the cut rules it out as a dress I could wear to the office.

The Z Spoke dress is it which I knew all along, but I still had to go through the process.  Call me crazy!  And the funny thing is, it drives me crazy to do any kind of in-person comparison shopping.  Never ask me to drive around town looking at flat screens.  Won't happen.