Cost per . . . what?

Cost per wear gets at the real cost of an article of clothing.  Most of us cannot help but be seduced by the words sale, bargain, and clearance.  That’s because we’ve been trained as consumers to consume, and perhaps we feel less guilty and/or better about a purchase if we “got it on sale.”  Sometimes, too, there can be an automatic resistance to purchasing an item, no matter what it is, for a large amount of money.  If you get a coffee every day for a few bucks, that seems cheaper than the monthly total of one hundred dollars, doesn’t it?

Most women believe that if something is on sale, they got a good deal.  But when you factor cost per wear, you may find out your “deal” was anything but.

Here’s an example.  You buy a cute top on clearance for ten bucks.  You know you have a million things to go with it, plus you love the colors (even though you don’t have anything in exactly this color at home).  And did I mention:  it’s only ten dollars!  When you get it home, you realize the fit is a little funky, or the color is a little off, and it’s harder than you thought to pair it with something.  Over the course of a year, you end up wearing it twice.  Ten dollars (price of garment) divided by two (number of times in a year that you wore the garment) is five, so the cost per wear of this bargain is $5.

On another shopping trip, you fall in love with a wrap dress.  The pattern is amazing, the fit spectacular, but it costs $150!  You hem and haw as you keep looking at yourself in the mirror, in awe of how terrific this dress is.  Jersey knit, uncrushable (meaning you can cram it in your suitcase without a care) and so comfortable!  You cave and buy it.  And you know what?  You end up wearing it at least once a week for three seasons of the year.  That’s thirty-nine divided by one hundred fifty, which means the cost per wear of this “expensive” dress is $3.85, a dollar less than your bargain purchase.

This doesn’t even factor in the items you bought on sale that still have tags on them!  That’s sort of like having to throw away produce you never got around to putting in the stir-fry you had every intention of making.  Of course, if you’re purchasing items here and there for five dollars, ten dollars, etc., it’s going to feel like you’re not spending a lot of money.  But the truth of the matter is that you’re not even wearing what you’re buying.  When you have so many items, it can be hard to see what you have (unless you have enormous and unlimited closet space) and you don’t wear what you don’t see.  There’s also the 80/20 rule to consider:  most of us wear twenty percent of what’s in our closets eighty percent of the time.

So unless fashion is your hobby, you may be better served with fewer articles of higher quality clothing.  Calculate cost per wear on a few of your garments, and see how you fared.  Maybe you’ll consider passing up the sale items for a real bargain!