I grew up as the only boy in a house full of women, and as such, I feel like I know a good deal about them. I know how they generally behave, I know how to behave around them and I definitely know what not to say to them. In spite of all of the things that I’ve learned about them over the years, the one thing that I will always struggle with is shopping for women.

Shopping for guys is easy; mostly because we have far fewer options than the opposite sex. Male fashion can pretty much be broken down into jeans, shorts and t-shirts.While there are a couple of other details that could be brought up, such as jackets and accessories, even those are not too difficult to figure out. On the other hand, women have so many different variations in clothing that I don’t even know how they keep up with it all. In addition to having the same jeans and t-shirt options as guys, women also have skirts, dresses, rompers and a ton of other things to consider. Their shorts even have sub-genres like high-waisted, cut-off, etc.

So, what should you do if you’re a guy that wants to buy clothes for a woman? Perhaps most importantly, you should pay attention to what they normally wear. This can go a long way towards deciding what types of outfits to purchase them. If your sister is a rough and tough tomboy, then there’s a good chance that she won’t want a frilly sundress.

You should really keep in mind the general theme that their outfits follow, and match them accordingly. You can even think about the type of clothes that yourself wears when following this point. For example, I typically wear clothes that are darker in color. While I do have a few bright colored shirts, my wardrobe mainly consists of dark blues, navy blues and charcoal greys. So, I would feel really out of place in a vibrant yellow shirt. This same thought process can be applied to picking out clothes for women.

It’s also important to think about how the clothes you buy them could pair with stuff they already own. In my experience, girls love to mix and match different pieces, and it’s actually really cool to see how they can take a simple shirt, and wear it in a number of different ways.

Shopping for women can be hard, but it’s not impossible. If you simply pay attention to the types of clothes they usually wear, then you should be well on your way to being a women’s fashion expert in no time. Or you know, at least learn enough so they don’t grit their teeth when they see what you picked out for them.