Sandhya Garg — Style Notes
Five Fashion Resolutions That Actually Survive February
Your Life · Your Colours · Your Tuesday · 12 New Arrivals · XS–3XL
Quick Answer
Style resolutions fail for the same reason gym ones do: they ask you to become a different person by March. These five are about the wardrobe you already own. Buy for the life you actually have, not the one in your calendar. Learn your colours rather than the year's colour. Wear the good dress on an ordinary Tuesday. Get one thing properly altered — the hem is almost always the problem. And repair one thing instead of replacing it. Five things, no personality transplant required.
Every January the same advice appears: be bolder, buy less, find your signature look. By February most of it has quietly gone the way of the gym membership, because it asks you to become somebody else.
I'm a Project Runway designer, and I've watched a lot of women shop. The resolutions that stick are smaller and duller than the ones in magazines — and they're the ones that actually change what you reach for on a Wednesday morning. Here are the five I'd keep.
A dress for ordinary days, a colour that's yours rather than this year's, and the good one you've been saving. Three of the five, in cloth.
Five Resolutions · Twelve New Arrivals · XS to 3XL
The Five
Resolution One
Buy for the life you actually have
Open your wardrobe and find the dress bought for an event that never happened, or for a version of your week that doesn't exist. Almost everyone has one. Meanwhile the three things you actually wear are wearing out. This year, buy for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday — and buy the occasion dress when you have the occasion.
Resolution Two
Learn your colours, not the year's colour
Here's the proof that these are two different questions. Pantone's Colour of the Year for 2026 is Cloud Dancer, a soft white — the first white it has ever chosen, as TIME reported. It's beautiful in a room. On many people it does nothing at all, and at a wedding you can't wear it. The year's colour is a design story; your colour is whether your face looks well when you hold the cloth up to it. Our 30-second colour test settles it at a window in less time than reading a trend report.
Resolution Three
Wear the good one on a Tuesday
There is a dress in your wardrobe you are saving. You have been saving it for two years. Nothing has been good enough for it yet, and meanwhile the fabric is ageing in the dark whether you wear it or not. Wear it to lunch. Wear it to work. The compliment you get on a Tuesday is worth more than the one you'd have got at the party.
Resolution Four
Get one thing properly altered
This is the resolution that changes the most for the least money, and almost nobody does it. Nine times out of ten the problem is the hem — a dress cut for a heel you don't wear, or a length that stops at the widest part of your calf. A tailor will fix it for the price of a lunch, and a $250 dress that fits reads as more expensive than a $600 one that doesn't. Choose the shoes first, then take the dress and the shoes together. If you'd rather skip the step, made to measure includes length.
Resolution Five
Repair one thing instead of replacing it
A pulled thread, a lost button, a split seam — small faults that send perfectly good clothes to the back of the wardrobe and then to a bin bag. Most take a tailor ten minutes. It's also the only sustainability claim any of us can make without hedging: the greenest dress is the one already in your wardrobe, worn again. How to care for each fabric is the other half of it.
And If You Only Buy One Thing
Most styles XS · S · M · L · XL · XXL · XXXL · Size chart · Made to measure, including length
The resolutions that last aren't about becoming more stylish. They're about wearing what you already own more often, and getting it to fit.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are good fashion resolutions?
Small, specific ones about the wardrobe you own: buy for the life you actually have, learn which colours suit you, wear the dress you've been saving, get one garment properly altered, and repair something instead of replacing it. Resolutions that require becoming a different person rarely survive February.
Should I wear the Pantone Colour of the Year?
Only if it suits you. Pantone's choice for 2026 is Cloud Dancer, a soft white — lovely in interiors, but not a colour that flatters everyone, and not one to wear as a wedding guest. The year's colour and your colour are separate questions.
What is the most worthwhile alteration?
The hem, nine times out of ten. Dresses are cut to a standard length for a standard heel height, and neither may be yours. Take the dress and the shoes you'll wear with it to the tailor together. It costs very little and changes how expensive the dress looks.
How do I stop buying clothes I never wear?
Ask where you'll wear it within the next month. If there's no honest answer, it's a dress for an imaginary life. Buy occasion pieces when the occasion exists, and spend the rest on the things you wear on ordinary days — those wear out and get replaced most often anyway.
Is it worth repairing clothes?
For anything well made, yes. A pulled thread, a lost button or a split seam is usually a ten-minute job. Hand embroidery in particular can be restitched, where a damaged print cannot be fixed at all. It's also the one environmental claim that needs no qualification: the garment already exists.
How do I find my best colours?
Stand at a window in daylight and hold the fabric under your chin. If your face looks brighter, it's your colour; if the fabric looks brighter than you do, it isn't. The full method is in the 30-second colour test.
Keep Reading
Resolution Two
The 30-Second Colour Test
Done at a window, not in a shop.
Resolution Five
Garment Care
How to make things last longer.
Resolution One
Ten Pieces, One Palette
Buying less, on purpose.
If You're Feeling Braver
The Print Ladder
Five rungs, start wherever you like.
About the Writer
Sandhya Garg is a Project Runway Season 13 designer who won two challenges on the show and presented her collection at Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week. She studied womenswear and pattern cutting at London College of Fashion and worked at Alexander McQueen, Gucci, Liberty London, and Alice Temperley — featured in Marie Claire, Elle, Cosmopolitan and Vogue online, in sizes XS–3XL with made to measure available.
Project Runway · Vogue · Marie Claire · XS–3XL
Wear the good one on a Tuesday.
Sandhya Garg is a Los Angeles boutique creating limited-edition artisanal dresses in original hand-drawn prints, hand embroidery and heritage textiles. Sizes XS–3XL, shipped from Scottsdale within 1–3 days.
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