Clothes as an investment???

I was thinking about it it the last few days...

Can we say that our clothes are an investment? What do we mean? Of course, with very few exceptions,  we don't really expect that our frocks will actually appreciate in value. Rather, we think that we are 'buying quality', therefore implying that we will wear it longer and thus reduce the cost-per-wear. Sometimes we just mean that the love-per-wear is going to be greater.

Does it really work like that? Would more expensive item be more likely to survive the test of time? When I look into my closet, it is not necessarily the truth.  What survived longer is a mix of expensive and cheap and the fact that something expensive survived does not mean that it was actually worn many times, I am just less likely to chuck it.

From my experience, the more expensive items are not necessarily better made. And generally, I am much more likely to get bored with the item (cheap or expensive) before it wears out anyway.

So what do we pay for? Let's look at some examples:

Emerson Fry skirt (reviewed HERE) :

What did I pay for, when I could probably get a similar skirt for about 20% of the price?

• feeling that I am supporting something good, American made, independent designer, wholesome style
• better fabrics and presumed quality
• believing in timelessness and trend defying
• feeling that I am getting exactly what I want and being more satisfied because of that
• girl crush!

Whether this is worth some $150 extra, is another question.
(Btw, the hook closure at the waist came off after the first wear)

DVF dress (reviewed HERE)
Why would I think this is worth about 3 times what I would normally consider paying for the dress?

• it was a splurge and I knew it. No way I can really rationally justify it.
• perfect fit 
• better fabric
• timelessness and trend defying
• feeling that I am getting exactly what I want and being more satisfied because of that
• resale value, just in case
• OK. Label.

Was it worth the extra $200?

***

What really made me think of cost-per-wear was Project 333.

I realized this is just a simple math. There is no enough days in a year to wear all my clothes enough times to make them an alleged 'smart investment'!

How much money do you feel comfortable spending on clothes every month?
$100? $500? $1000?
I am spending more that I consider reasonable.
And I would really like to be around say $200-$300, maximum.

so let's try to do the math

Everyday, we wear on the average about 5 pieces of clothing. Skirt, shirt, sweater, shoes and purse. In the winter add coat and scarf, in the summer it may be less, say dress, shoes and purse. I am not counting jewelry or belts. I think 5 is conservative in my climate.  In the month this will come to 30x5=150 instances of wearing an item.  So if your cost per wear is about $1, your monthly cast would be about $150 dollars, but if your cpw averages $3, you will be closer to $500.

To stick with my desired monthly numbers, I should have no more than $2 cpw. OK, I can probably do it with coats. I use 3 wool coats and a puffer for extra cold days in the winter.  There is at least 180 of winter coat wearing weather in NJ (Oct to March). Each coat will get about 50 wears in the year, 150 wears in just 3 years and since my coats average about $175, I would be close to $1 cpw, especially that I would hope to wear them longer than 3 years. I think it would also apply to my boots, purses and jeans.I just don't own that many and I wear them a lot.

But let's take for example my J.Crew wool pencil skirts:
Again, we have about 180 days in a year to wear them. Of course I am not always in pencil skirts, I may be wearing them about 3 times per week. In 26 weeks  it would be about 80 'pencil skirt days'. Let's assume life span of  5 years and the average cost of about $80.  5x80=400 days and each skirt would have to be worn 40 times to come to $2 cpw.  If I had 10 pencil skirts I would be OK. With 20 in active rotation, I am at $4.  It is much worse with pants and dresses and things like bathing suits, better with t-shirts and sweaters but I think my average cpw per item is really closer to $3-$4 and  $500-$600 monthly.

The reason it works like that, is not that I spent too much money on individual items, or that the quality is bad, so they don't last long enough to get the cpw down. The reason my cpw is high, is because I simply have too many items.

What would happen if I had about 100 pieces of clothing in total, which would probably be close to Project 333 idea, implemented  in temperature climate? Let's do the math:

356 days x 5 = 1780 (~ 1800)
1800 /100 = 18 time to wear each piece
18x5 (life span) = 90 wears

If my average item costs is $200, I would still be in a good shape with cpw around $2. This is pretty high cost for an average item. If the average item is $90 then you'd be close to $1 cpw and $150 monthly, very reasonable monthly cost.

But if I have about 300 items (I do!), then just because of that,  we are talking only 6 times a year or 30 times in 5 years and $3 cpw on $90 item, almost $500 monthly. Again!

If I wanted to feel better about my cost-per-month I have following choices:

1. buy deep sale to reduce the cost per item  (not very attractive alternative) 
2. increase life span of an item ( but I am getting bored easily) 
3. embrace $500+ per month and stop kidding myself (shrug and say: 'some people spend more on cigarettes so wth')
4. reduce the number of items in rotation (yes!)

I am leaning towards option number 4. I don't want to think that option number 3 is the only viable alternative.

****

Did I lose you with my crazy math? Made logical errors?

Of course, I am not saying it always works the same for every item. As you may know, if you read this blog, I am all for items that provide 'joy per wear' (like Emerson Skirt) and 'memories per wear' (like DVF dress). But we also have those $10 t-shirts that we wore 100 times. So I am thinking, somewhere, at some point, the averages have to work as well. Right?

What do you think?
Please share, it would be no fun without you!!!