To the posters spending $10k a year on clothing...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I spend a lot because I ONLY wear dresses when I'm out and I only wear each one 2-3 times before retiring it. This means I'm always buying a new dress. I always buy on sale but it still adds up. Worth every penny to feel great though!

What do you do with the retired ones?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I spend a lot because I ONLY wear dresses when I'm out and I only wear each one 2-3 times before retiring it. This means I'm always buying a new dress. I always buy on sale but it still adds up. Worth every penny to feel great though!

What do you do with the retired ones?

Why only dresses? Do you have a weird body type? Great legs? What style dresses? I'm so curious. I don't wear dresses often because I think they are a big drain on a clothing budget. You can't really wear them more than a couple of times without retiring, as you say. I'd love to wear desses more, but can't justify it at this point. I love a really great dress though.

And to the pp that spends $800 on pantyhose, please explain!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I spend a lot because I ONLY wear dresses when I'm out and I only wear each one 2-3 times before retiring it. This means I'm always buying a new dress. I always buy on sale but it still adds up. Worth every penny to feel great though!

What do you do with the retired ones?

Why only dresses? Do you have a weird body type? Great legs? What style dresses? I'm so curious. I don't wear dresses often because I think they are a big drain on a clothing budget. You can't really wear them more than a couple of times without retiring, as you say. I'd love to wear desses more, but can't justify it at this point. I love a really great dress though.

And to the pp that spends $800 on pantyhose, please explain!

I'm tall and skinny and can literally wear anything but I love feeling feminine and would rather be over dressed than underdressed in any situation. There is a dress out there for every occassion no matter how casual or formal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: ...

And to the pp that spends $800 on pantyhose, please explain!

That's me. I wear them everyday for work. I spend about $8 a pair and, hard as I try not to, I run at least one pair per week, probably more like 2. Over the course of a year, that's $800.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And what do you do with the clothes you own? Do you just get rid of them? Or are there more and more clothes in your closets etc? I'm serious.

Keep them. I have hundreds of pieces of clothing. I also gain or lose 15 pounds, unfortunately, so I have clothing anywhere from size 8 to size 12 in my closet.

Your closet must be really big..

It's a walk in, yeah.

[Anonymous]

I used to spend $6k a year and now that I'm married I spend less than that for my DH and myself. We both like classic clothes from Brooks Bros and J crew. Years of careful investments mean I spend less on clothes each year. I still use the $900 Prada purse I got to celebrate my first big promotion almost 10 years ago and I still wear the $1200 Burberry trench I got to celebrate my next promotion. Wanting nice classic things, like shoes worth repairing, means some investment in the first 5-10 years, but then it's just maintenance purchases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find it extremely difficult to believe that anyone can dress in a way that's professional and well put-together on a clothing budget of $200/year.

I am a teacher and I probably spent $400 in my first year of teaching. Since then, I spend around $200-300/year. I shop at the outlets and use coupons. I just got a nice pair of black pants (lined) from the J. Crew outlet for $20. If I gain a few pounds and my clothes start leaving marks on my skin, that is my key to stop eating crap. I cannot afford to buy clothes in another size. I guess if I made $200K instead of what I make (around $50K), I would spend more. I only wear pants to work b/c I work with little kids and I can't get down on the floor in a skirt/dress comfortably.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, here. Thanks for sharing ladies. Unfortunately, I don't have much reason to dress up. Work is business casual, as would be any event we attend. Maybe I'll look into a personal shopper - not so I can spend $10k, but so I can look a bit more... polished? On top of my lack of $10k to spend, I don't think I'm very good with fashion, which probably doesn't help.

I'd love to hear from more of you.

I think it takes more thoughts to look good in casual than formal occasions. More fun as well.

I do not spend $10K each year, but last year I bought some pieces I really wanted -

Trench coat ~$1k
2 suits for mix and match ~ $3k
Dress shirts/blouses ~$800
Scarves ~$900
Hand bag ~ $2k
4 pairs of shoes/boots ~ 2k
Plus fun dresses and jeans and casual stuff for a lot less

All line items except the last can be used for years to come.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I have never been able to tell looking at the people in my life, who is wearing a 10k a year wardrobe and who is wearing 1k a year... and I know how to sew and grew up with a seamstress, so I know the differences between quality fabrics, well-made clothes, etc. The only things I recognize are gaudy expensive handbags because they have logos all over them.

This is just naive. Seriously you can't tell the difference between a quality wool suit and a polyester one? Or between unlined pants and lined pants? As for the handbags most nice leather bags look it vs. pleather or worn totes or those dump Longchamp totes that are so popular.

No I can't tell. Same with wine. Could be a $10 or $100 bottle and I wouldn't know the difference.

Out of curiosity, what types of things can you discern value differences for? Did you grow up poor, or just with parents who didn't point out indicia of quality to you?

Wow PP. I didn't grow up poor but even among good brands there are differences in quality. Personally, I like Brooks Brothers Outlet for my shirts/sweaters and I buy pants from Dress Barn. I spend maybe $2K per year.

I am the original pp (who grew up with a seamstress) and to me the issue isn't that high-quality clothes aren't worth the expense, but that there's very little out there that's actually high-quality. When I go to a department store and compare a fancier brand dress that is $300 with a cheaper one that is $70, I don't really see much of a difference in quality, fabric, sewing, anything. It wasn't that long ago that a nice leather bag was $100, prices are just insanely inflated. Luxury appears to mean very little at this point. And as far as purses and such, I see brand purses that are pvc being sold for $400 as well. If you search, you could find higher-quality items on sale that were cheaper to begin with by looking at the material and quality of the sewing. My favorite cardigan, which is made of high-quality cotton and has kept well for years, was $10 in the junior's section. And if you are one of the few who makes an effort to buy wool suits, lined pants, leather bags, etc., you most definitely should not be spending 10k a year. Those items should hold well for years and you shouldn't be buying very much year to year.

I don't have any expertise, other than growing up in high quality clothes. I totally agree that luxury these days is meaningless. Unless you are spending insane amounts of money and/or buying artisanal clothing made in Brooklyn or some such, it's very easy to spend $$$ on polyester these days. Which irritates me to no end as there isn't much difference between a JCrew shirt and an H&M shirt these days. I finally had to retire an old Brooks Brother oxford as it had a giant hole that made wearing it unseemly in public. I have had that shirt for 15 years. I actually winced when I realized that it was made in America, not that long ago...

[Anonymous]

I don't spend $10k by myself but we probably spend about that much as a family of 4.

I admit that I like bags. I probably spend about $3-5k on shoes and bags. I like LV and Chanel so $5k doesn't get you that far.

We buy a mix of clothing, mostly mall stores like J Crew, Banana Republic, Neiman and Bloomingdales. We all get nice coats (maybe not DH every year but his men's clothing is pretty classic). The kids wear a mix of cheap, medium and expensive clothing - Old Navy, Nautica, Ralph Lauren, North Face, etc.

DH gets expensive pieces but infrequently. I buy new clothes for every season and tend not to wear much from last year. I have 2 growing children who need new clothing every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, here. Thanks for sharing ladies. Unfortunately, I don't have much reason to dress up. Work is business casual, as would be any event we attend. Maybe I'll look into a personal shopper - not so I can spend $10k, but so I can look a bit more... polished? On top of my lack of $10k to spend, I don't think I'm very good with fashion, which probably doesn't help.

I'd love to hear from more of you.

I think it takes more thoughts to look good in casual than formal occasions. More fun as well.

I do not spend $10K each year, but last year I bought some pieces I really wanted -

Trench coat ~$1k
2 suits for mix and match ~ $3k
Dress shirts/blouses ~$800
Scarves ~$900
Hand bag ~ $2k
4 pairs of shoes/boots ~ 2k
Plus fun dresses and jeans and casual stuff for a lot less

All line items except the last can be used for years to come.

OP here. Thanks for your reply. I do have a couple pair of $300 boots and a $1k handbag, so I get the idea of buying pieces that will last for many years. For those who don't believe, there is a difference in quality between a $50 pair of shoes and a $300 pair of shoes. For me, though, I could never go out and spend all $10k in one year; I think my life style does not call for it. I'll will keep on investing in one piece at a time that I know will last; next on my list is a trench coat.

[Anonymous]

So curious about the multiple PPs who say you can only wear a dress 2-3x before you need to let it go. Please explain! Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So curious about the multiple PPs who say you can only wear a dress 2-3x before you need to let it go. Please explain! Why?

I'm not that person but totally get it. Once someone has seen the dress, unless it's like a basic dress that you dress up and down with accessories, people remember it. You don't want to be the person wearing the same dress to an event every time. I do the wear it with this group, wear it to a kids school function, wear it with family, etc.

But, I'm also the person that hasn't sent my kid to preschool in the same outfit more than twice...and that's only because I've been so busy to keep track. FWIW, when your kids are growing like weeds, this isn't that hard.

[Anonymous]

I totally get the $800 in pantyhose! I figure there are 200 pantyhose wearing days a year. Let's assume that each pair lasts three times, that means I need 60 pairs a year. Even if I buy Leggs, for $5/pair, that's still $300/year. More likely though, I end up getting slightly nicer, so maybe $500-$600/year.

In terms of quality, to the poster who said that she can't tell b/w a $300 suit and a $70 suit, I agree, BUT there is a huge difference b/w a $1000 suit and a $300 suit. My mom bought me a $1000 suit about 7 years ago (before my DC#1 was born), and it is still stylish (surprisingly) and has held up better than anything else in my closet. It is a wonderfully soft wool, I can wear it three seasons a year, and dress it up or down. In that same time, I've tossed out (not good enough to donate) plenty of $300 suits that just did not hold up well. I try really hard to buy on sale and get the best quality suit that I can buy, which usually means spending more money.

I do spend more on my kids than on my own clothing. I need clothing though; my closets are in sorry shape now.