The mistake is buying a pleated skirt in whatever the mannequin was wearing, taking it home, and finding out under normal indoor light that the colour reads cheap and the pleats have already started softening out of shape by the second wear. Pleats hold a line for a while and then they don't, and nobody tells you that bit in the shop.
If you've never owned one, start with a midi in a mid weight fabric rather than anything floaty and thin, because the thin ones catch wind, cling to tights and lose their shape after one trip through a rainy commute. In the shop, scrunch a bit of the fabric in your fist and let go. If the pleats spring back crisp, that's a sign they're heat set properly and will survive sitting down for a few hours rather than relaxing into a vague accordion shape by lunchtime. Check the waistband too, a lot of the cheaper ones have a flimsy elasticated strip that rolls over itself the moment you sit, which is miserable under a coat all day. For colour, plain and solid wins over print almost every time, a deep navy, bottle green or a proper charcoal will go further and hide the inevitable slight unevenness that comes from pleats not all hanging perfectly identical. Pale colours and anything shiny show every crease from sitting, and satin finish pleated skirts in particular will flash under any kind of light in a way that's lovely for about an hour and then just looks slept in. On fit, go a size up rather than down if you're between sizes, because pleats need a bit of room to swing and move, if the waist is tight the whole skirt sits oddly and the pleats stop falling in a straight line and start splaying out at odd angles like a broken umbrella. Watch the length too, anything that hits mid calf can look ageing on a shorter frame, while a knee length or just below tends to be kinder to most heights. The real fit problem nobody mentions is static, a pleated skirt made from a fabric with any polyester in it will cling to tights the second the temperature drops, so if that's happened to you before, look for one with even a small percentage of natural fibre in the mix, it makes a noticeable difference to how it hangs by the end of a long day. Hang pleated skirts rather than folding them, folding flattens the pleats into the wrong creases within a week.
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