Anyone brave enough to answer this: where do you get the money for expensive clothes?

[Childoftheseventies]

I work part time and earn a good wage. My husband runs his own (so far, succesful) business. For this I am thankful. However, I still can't afford anything other than basic high street clothes. Zara is pushing it; Gap sale only, Monsoon for special occasions. When I browse in what I consider to be expensive but desirable shops, or look at websites (LK Bennett, Reiss, Great Plains, Hobbs, White Company etc) I always wonder what gives people the income to buy from there. Now I know there are sales and outlets and eBay, but for those of you who buy non-sale stuff in these lovely places as a matter of course, I am fascinated to know where you get the money. Are you a lawyer or doctor or top sales person, or are you a SAHM with a high earning other half, or do you have no mortgage or what!? I promise this is not a snidey post, just a genuine, if very rude and nosey, question.

Clothes are only expensive if you don't get the wear out of them. OK, cashmere sweaters, proper wool-coats, good leather handbags and shoes, technical parkas and well-made work-out gear cost a lot up front but if you take care of them they can last years and years longer than their "bargain" counterparts...It really is a false economy to buy shoddy workmanship.

Thanks for coming out of your lovely closets. Dragging you back to the original question, how do you find the money? Lanvin flats are what, £300, and a Celine bag is perhaps £500. That is still around six to eight months total clothes spend clothes for me. What is your work - I may have to consider a career change!?

I get a good day rate and since meetings could be any day I had to rely on friends and gps for childcare. Then the rest could be done at home (strategy) at night and on weekends. It was such a hard slog without the cc but since I saved a lot I bought that stuff instead.

My favourite shop is LK Bennett and I usually treat myself three or four outfits/ dresses per year, not exactly excessive and I don't waste money on throwaway stuff from Primark etc. I find that I really value the good stuff and look after it and enjoy wearing the outfits so much it's worth every penny. I work and so does dh we earn good salaries but are not rolling in spare cash, we buy good quality expensive things but they last and it's never money
wasted.

Child I'm in comms same as you!

Choogirl, I must be in the wrong company - or the wrong city! Perhaps should show this thread at my next review?

Then you need to buy those items then :-)
People have explained that they save or just buy what they need, but not excessively.

CHOOGIRL too true but from time to time TK Maxx do get Choo.

AmberNectarine lucky girl you must have a Gold Label store there.

Vis a vis income :I work as a writer, a lecturer and I also own several small businesses. Together these make up a good income.
DH is a lawyer. He is paid silly money.

Child I think it is a combination of saving and having the occasional reasonable chunk of money coming in - I am self employed so I can usually work a bit harder and earn a bit more if there is something I particularly want to buy. I am currently putting a bit by each week to buy a very expensive garment that I want - I will probably have enough within the month, but as I said, I am lucky in that I can work harder when I have the motivation of wanting something particular! DH would disagree with my logic

My DH usually gets me department store vouchers for birthday / Christmas which I love as I have a little blow out I couldn't justify if I was paying or I wait for the sales or go a little mad on payday and keep my fingers crossed for the rest of the month. But I'm fairness I don't buy nearly as many clothes as my friends, probably one or two things every few months or so, more if I have a special occasion coming up. I buy tat for my children now rather than myself.

Cannot emphasise enough how good the sales can be either. I spend a lot in the Jan sales (4 figures) but came away with goods totalling only 1/3 of the RRPs.

Also marsha and hopefully are very clever shoppers and really think about their purchases. They only buy something if they love it, and it is perfect.

Embarrassingly I pay full price for nearly everything, I hate bargain shopping, find it hard enough to find stuff that fits. I roughly try on 20 items before I buy 1, so sales shopping is my idea of hell, I rarely find anything suitable and it's just not worth my energy. I have a budget of £200 a month to spend, I rarely buy designer. Dh buys Paul Smith suits for work, they are cut beautifully but the trousers wear out very quickly and they all develop a shine from being dry cleaned over and over again. My sister works in the clothing industry, she has a tailor in china who makes all her clothes exactly how she wants, with the fabric she has chosen...she gets top quality clothes for pennies. She's rarely impressed with the quality of high end designer clothing.

"it is so hard to find stuff to spend all this money on!!!!!!"

Blueglue I love that quote from your friend of friend. That's a fantastic first world problem isn't it!

I mix and match. V. cheap 'phone. Cheap shoes in summer, really do buy rubbish in summer, nobody notices. Two or three good quality tee shirts, one decent pair of jeans, one decent skirt, then use what I've built up over the years. Winter is different. Really good quality shoes, boots, tops etc. With regard to coats, I have a mulberry duffle that I picked up in a second hand shop years ago for less than forty quid; it's wonderfully warm and doesn't date, so that's normal wear. I will be purchasing an 'evening' winter coat this year, I had a burgundy velvet one, but it needs replacing. Everything I save in summer, goes toward winter. But again, it's mix and match, eg. for everyday wear you can't beat fat face blokes range for good quality, warm sweaters.
I also purchase in the sales, often last years for next years iyswim.

Spring I am a bit like you - I don't usually buy much in the sales. But, as Amber says, I buy very little, and what I buy I absolutely adore and wear to death.

We put aside an amount of fun money every month to cover clothes, gigs, eating out and so on. Luckily, DH is a former mod and gets as excited about clothes as I do so there's no conflict or deceit - we both take the view that dressing well is one of life's pleasures - like food or music - so worth spending on. And we both need to be smart for work, so there's an element of necessity.

But we stick to the budget - luckily I prefer utility-style US/British/Scandinavian labels - APC, Acne - to French design, so pricer labels such as Lanvin or Celine don't interest me.

That said, APC is French, but sure you get the gist.

I'm a lawyer and spend a fair whack on clothes and shoes (I also manage to save each month and pay mortgage, childcare etc), but I rarely buy full price anymore. I used to spend a lot at net-a-porter but I got fed up of seeing things I'd bought go down to half price in the sale so I tend to buy things from the Outnet these days. I spend far more on work clothes than I do on weekend clothes - suits are the one thing which I will buy full price because I find it difficult to find ones which fit well.

I don't think you are ever going to get a real concensus here OP.

Everyone's situation is so different.

I have a friend who thinks nothing of going to Margaret Howell and buying 2 pairs of "pants" - trousers to you and me- for £150 each and a pair of Amani jeans for £170. Her DH is a lawyer. Mortgage paid off, loads of disposable cash.

I have other friends who find it hard to find £30 for a pair of M&S trousers.
Or who think spending more is just silly for some clothes.

Then there's me who is in the middle. We have a reasonable income but still have a mortgage and live SE. In my head, I have a limit of around £100 for any single item of clothing- and then it has to be something that would last a couple of seasons.

I don't buy trash- quite a lot of my clothes are Jigsaw ( in sales) or White Company, and I buy decent boots and bags- not designer makes but Jones, Duo, Dune, French Sole etc.

I can't get my head around spending a fortune on clothes- I just don't need that many - I'd rather save for a 2nd home or a house deposit for DCs- we haven't enough cash for it all!

Damn! I really should've stayed on at law school!

I feel like a bit of a scumble reading this, seriously its made me question my whole fashion sense.

I pretty much keep my clothes until they are dropping apart and even then t-shirts etc get chucked in my bedtime box as i can wear them for bed - knickers with holes in get kept for periods. I still have socks from over 8 years ago and they are going strong still. I have never ever thought about my clothes budget and tginking about I spend very very little. I dont have a monthly amount as I can go months and months without buying anything at all.

Dhs stuff lasts forever as he wears his work clothes during day (building trade)) and then joggers after his bath, dd has basic wardrobe as she is very boyish so its usuall joggers and t shirt for her or she just puts her jammies on after school. She has one of things such as trainers, coat etc (some prada sandals are her most luxury item but they were less than £30) as when she was younger I went daft and bought all sorts that never ever got worn.

My last shopping trip came to approx £80 and that is only because we are going on holiday and needed some new bits. Out of that £80 I got 12 tops, a mixture of vest ones and going out ones 20 pairs of knickers and 3 bras, 10 pairs of knickers for dd, tenpairs of pants for dh and a jack and jones tshirt for dh. Yes its all highstreet stuff but I find even primark stuff last me years.

One thing I do like to splurge on is a decent school coat for dd and a few weeks ago spent £100 pounds on a barbour jacket. I didnt have the money so it went on the credit card but I think it works out cheap as she will be wearing it almost every day for a whole year and I do get comments (on the days I can be arsed to make an effort) from people saying I look nice. I want to go shopping now.

Who buys Chanel/ Hermes handbags other than milllionaires? It fascinates me. I go in and drool at Chanel but could never afford a 2.55 or any other Chanel bag. Who buys them??

I a 2.55 and two Diors. They are status symbols - important in some places and among certain people, completely irrelevant somewhere else. But people are shallow - I get much better service when carrying them (could once fly without a ticket and ID for example). They are not necessarily a rational purchase - the leather is worth 200 eur at the most, but you are buying into an abstraction.