Q Dear Miss Abigail:
Please help, I’m in a quandary! I just bought a $200 pair of white shoes at a Labor Day sale. Do I have to wait until Memorial Day to wear them??
Signed,
Blanche A. LaMode
A Dear Blanche:
$200! I’m not sure you got such a bargain. Nevertheless, I have found some advice on shopping for your wardrobe that you might want take note of. The key is to think ahead! And since it appears that you should put those shoes in the closet for the winter, I have includes a bonus tidbit on shoe storage.
1967: The Smart Shopper
The well-dressed woman is relaxed about the planning of her wardrobe because she does it well in advance and allows time for necessary shopping. She never waits until she wants to wear an outfit to go shopping for it. At all times she has in her wardrobe something acceptable for all social occasions she is likely to encounter.
I know several clever women who are well dressed on sale merchandise, but they are a distinct exception. They way they do it is to locate the things they want, possibly try them on before they go on sale, and then note, via their charge accounts, prior notice of a public sale. They then buy only those things they know they want. Never, in desperation, do they buy something just because it is cheap. They know that sale merchandise usually has something wrong with it when it has been so marked down. The best bargain is nearly always fresh merchandise.
End of the season clothes buying is rarely satisfactory. If you resort to it, you will seldom find the size and color you really want. You won’t get satisfying wear out of what you do select, for by next year this bargain will be last year’s style. A New York stylist says this is like buying children’s clothes too big so they will grow into them, only to find by the time they have grown into them the clothes are worn out.
The well-dressed woman does not buy her wardrobe in a piecemeal fashion but at the beginning of each season gets out all of her clothes, discards those things that take up closet space without being worn for one reason or another, decides what needs remodeling, shortening, or other alterations, then, with a picture of what she needs firmly in mind, goes to her favorite stores or couturiers. She does not discard basic standbys of her wardrobe that have given good service and that are becoming. Instead, she integrates them into a wardrobe for the coming season, adding a new belt here, a scarf there, a fresh jacket or costume jewelry to make something old and beloved look new and fresh. 
Source: Vanderbilt, Amy. New Complete Book of Etiquette: Guide to Gracious Living. Garden City, N.J.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1967.
~ pp. 175-6 ~