Are you one of the people who buy dresses for £200 +

[listsandbudgets]

Who are these people?

I need a dress for an important occasion and as I had nothing suitable to wear I went hunting through charity shops. After a couple of hours and a lot of shops, I admitted defeat and headed for the proper shops. I budgeted a maximum of £100 which I hoped was generous.. Almost nothing that was suitable, my size and I liked seemed to be less than £125 A lot of them were £200 plus.

I finally fell in love with a £199 dress thankfully reduced to £79. The lovely sales assistant told me that it was the last one of that line and hadn't sold as it was an unusual size (20 ). The rest had gone at the full price.

So are you one of those people and do you really feel the dresses are worth what you paid? Perhaps I'm just tight with money and need to accept taht this is the price of a nice dress now.

God no! My sister does but she has more money than sense, I cannot understand why you would spend so much, I can afford it but wouldn't dream of it, but then I do love to hunt for a good bargain

I buy expensive clothes on eBay. I got a wool Jigsaw coat for £10 last year. It doesn't look like it's ever been worn.

Saying that I will spend £100 on a rug for my horse

It's priorities I guess - I also like the rush of finding a gem on eBay or in a charity shop and being complimented on it.

If I spend £200 on a dress for a party the first thing I would so is snag it on the Christmas tree or spill the Baileys down it.

I'm that person. I can afford it, and I I like it and it suits me, I buy it.

However, I go out at least once a weekend to somewhere that I wear a dress to. I have 7 or 8 on the go that range from £10 from tesco to £300, and they all get worn. I probably buy one new one every 2-3 months.

I wouldn't spend that if I wasn't going to wear them often though. I feel justified on a cost-per-wear basis because they get worn so much. Same with shoes. Id rather have one pair of black louboutins that look classy and go with everything than 20 pairs of cheaper shoes that might get worn 4 or 5 times.

Last dress I bought cost me £6 from Sainsbury's, worn it loads already (Admit it isn't for a fancy do though!)

No.
I hate clothes, I resent having to shop for them, wear them, etc.
As soon as I get home I change into something comfy.

I spend about £50 max on dresses. It wouldn't occur to me to even look at items costing more when I'm shopping. I often only wear dresses a handful of times so it just wouldn't be worth it. However, if it's horse related clothes (Ariat boots, jackets etc) then I'm happy to spend as much as it costs because I'm going to wear them every day, and as Whippet says £100 for a decent rug for a horse is totally fine.

If I was buying for a wedding or black tie do I'd be on eBay, searching Whistles, Hobbs, phase Eight, Monsoon etc. Then I don't have to worry if it gets food, wine, or damaged in extreme ceilidh dancing.

Hobbs outlet online too can be good.

I paid a lot for my ex runway designer wedding dress, but the company bought it back for a good amount. It was a very special occasion, though.

I could but I dont. I'm just not that into clothes and, despite having the ability to afford it, I still love a bargain. I also can't stand the pretentiousness of some labels and shops.

My DH regularly spends £££ on suits but he doesn't have the luxury of time or patience to shop around so he stocks up in jermyn street. He does look smart in his suits.

I love wearing dresses and maybe,if I could be bothered looking, I might buy a more expensive dress.

I do. As my mother used to say "I can't afford cheap clothes".

I once spent £350 on a dress for my dd's wedding. Yes it looked lovely but the wedding was 9 years ago and the dress has been worn twice (once for a cousin's dd's wedding) it is a size 20 and I am now a 16. It languishes in its bag in the wardrobe and will never be worn again but what does one do with a floaty flowery chiffonny creation with 'handkerchief points' embellished with crystals to stop the pints taking wing?
I don't regret it (much?).

Points not pints (pints might be useful though) no flying pints at my dd's wedding.
Fwiw her dress (bride) was from Monsoon and cost £120!

I have four favourite dresses, two are designer and cost over 600 each when I bought them several years ago.

My other two favourite are TK Maxx and cost less than 30.

They all get worn a lot, and I think one of the designer dresses was a particularly good investment and is down to about 1 a wear.

If you have a tight budget then TK Maxx is a great shop for one-off dresses, if you can afford to buy an investment piece, then why not?

No bloody way, but then I'm not loaded.

I have loads of £30 frocks from DP/M&Co/M&S and I get plenty of compliments on them :)

I am one of these people. I like to find gems and bargains everywhere, from charity shops to high street or designer sales. However, for special occasions I very often find myself procrastinating to get something and end up buying more expensive dresses. If the dress has a classic line and a colour that can be accesorized differently, I'll most likely get the most of it by wearing it a few times! One pretty gown from Whistles (around £300) saved me last summer for 2 weddings and a charity ball. I have another ball in a week but the dress does not fit my bump...nor my growing bust... need to get creative here!

I would much rather buy one dress for £200+ once a year then buy 4 dresses for £50

I would for work or a wedding or black tie do. I need to look the part for my job (lawyer) and well-tailored stuff is never cheap. I have a few coast type dresses for weddings and have worn each one more than once, a couple of them many times. I don't do disposable fashion.

It's not disposable fashion. Bit of a snobby pov that. I've had pieces for years and years and worn them time and again. If I spent £200 per dress I'd have very little choice in my wardrobe!

Jack, it's not a "snobby pov" to reject disposable fashion.

I am one of those. Have bought dresses for £40 worn once, bought dresses for over £200 and had them years, worn countless times. Cost per wear? Practically a bargain...

I used to, before kids etc. I now buy from Ebay as that dress has been worn once or twice and is now being flogged for 20 quid.

I am that person. I don't need a lot of day to day clothes, am happy to wear the same things over and over again, and I don't make a lot of effort with hair or makeup. But when I have a party, I like to find a beautiful dress, get my hair done, and feel amazing. I've never gone without or into debt to buy any of my black tie dresses and I've worn them all several times.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one! I was genuinely shocked at a thread on here yesterday where someone was asking advice on dresses for a wedding, I honestly had no idea that so many people would spend so much on one dress. I don't spend £200 a year on clothes

Even my wedding dress only cost £132 from an eBay shop in Hong Kong - and I lost sleep over that...

Fair play to the people who do though - their money, their choice

My problem with a £200 dress is I'd be scared to wear it in case it got damaged!

I have wool dresses from Boden that I got for £5 in charity shops. If I bought them full price I'd worry about wearing them for everyday as they would get messed up. But there's no point keeping them for special because they're not smart enough for a wedding or party.

So I end up wearing second hand a lot.

I can't think I've spent more than £200 on anything clothes wise (other than my glasses when I first became a "speckie" - I paid £400 for them and still have the frames)

When I am in my happier body phase (IE slimmer) and feel confident about myself I can wear stuff from any where and feel good. When I am fat and feeling like rubbish I certainly wouldn't want to spend that much on an item of clothing. Not that I have the budget for it.