To ask how much you pay for clothing?

[pancakeloverrr]

Wondering if anyone wants to come out and state what they pay for a dress, blouse, jumper, jeans on average.

Would love to know the most you pay for clothing.

I buy 90% of my clothes secondhand off eBay. So under £20 for everything, under £10 even better. Currently wearing Gap denim shorts and a Jack Wills floral blouse that cost about £8 including postage for them both!

The rest is online sales only. I used to be very extravagant but it just isn't something I like spending on these days and my wardrobe requirements are minimal thanks to children dogs and horses!

Jeans are the exception. I'll pay over £100 if I like the fit and style. But will always save a search to find secondhand of the same style if I can.

I'm a cheap skate. Love Simply Be and Sainsbury's and love a sale.

Dress £15/£20
Jeans £15
Tops £5/£15
Leggings £8
Coat - splashed out two years ago and got two for £70 each. Wouldn't usually spend that though.
Shoes £20/£30
Boots £30/£40

" I rarely see people patronised and lectured like this for buying expensive holidays or cars or premier league season tickets. But a woman with (presumably) a good income spends her money on something she loves - and that was probably made by a woman too - and out they come."

I think it's about an appropriate cost isn't it? if someone spends thousands on a holiday I would think it was a lot of money and wouldn't do it myself, but if it was a long holiday and inter-continental for a group of people I would understand as it's a cost that makes sense. If they spent 3k on a weekend in Blackpool, I would think they were idiots.
So if you spend 700 on a dress when perfectly nice ones are available for 50, I'd think you had more money than sense. It's not about disapproving of spending on beauty. I would understand a few hundred on Botox or something because that's what it costs, it's just that she paid way over what is necessary. I doubt the dress is 14 times better than a 50 quid one.

Also, what if you rip it or stain it?

But why is that perfectly nice dress £50?

I find it hard to spend over £5 on an item!!! I constantly put things in virtual baskets then never check out as I feel bad spending money on clothes. Partly because I’m fat so I feel it’s a waste as I’ll look shit anyway and because there’s more important things to spend money on - kids clothes, uniform, activities, days out etc.

Is the Picasso that sells for a hundred million pounds objectively 14 times better than some other 'perfectly nice' painting?

Surely these can only ever be subjective judgements Gwenhwyfar? What something is worth to you is completely irrelevant to me if I want to spend my money on it. (Except insofar as mass opinion affects the price of goods.)

"Is the Picasso that sells for a hundred million pounds objectively 14 times better than some other 'perfectly nice' painting?"

Probably not, but paintings can be investments so I'd understand that purchase.

If you break down the cost of a £700 dress compared to a £50 I reckon you’d see
higher labour - I.e. craft, but extent depends on where it’s made
fabric - a biggie most £50 dresses aren’t silk etc
marketing - a huge cost
Designer - lead design and all the team
Anything else might have forgotten.

For me it’s worthwhile to wait for the sales to chip down some of that marketing cost. I don’t need to be first and if it’s expensive I’ll want to wear it for years. I also think that the very high cost out of sale is to allow for the reduction later on when more people buy.

But of course anyone can spend whatever they like, it’s up to them on whether it feels worth it.

Look, if the OP had asked "Is this dress worth £700 or could I get something equivalent for less?" I'd think it a reasonable question. That's what S&B does.

But to ask what other posters pay for clothes - with no spreadsheet setting out their individual incomes and outgoings, tastes, sentiments, culture and lifestyle - is utterly pointless.

Excellent point @Floisme. If you buy a dress for £10 new you're kidding yourself if you think somebody hasn't been exploited somewhere back down the line and the environmental cost is huge. Someone who buys a £700 dress is unlikely to be party to the same sort or social and environmental damage.

I go from one extreme to the other, lots of stuff from Tu at Sainsburys, a bit of Primark, Top Shop & New Look but also Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen and MaxMara.

Well I used to spend a lot on clothes, but not anymore, I wouldn’t pay more than 35 pound for a blouse skinny jeans 30 jumpers 35 don’t wear dresses very often but if did no more than 50, I actually buy most of my clothes from charity shops go in with 50 pound and come out with several items and very often change too

There is no general rule that a £700 is always far superior than a £70 one, I bought a dress for £853 that was so poorly made with poly lining. And another cotton one for £600 on sale, horrible fit on arms and cotton started pilling after a few washes. Cotton dresses from Zara or and other stories were better made,
But they were by popular hot brands that are always sold out! so I was just paying for the name and idea but certainly not the quality.

Jumper £70-£100
Dress £50-£120
T shirts up to £35
Jeans up to £60
Going out top up to £80

You have have far too much money if you think £700 on a dress is OK.

@Feelingpoorlysick

You have have far too much money if you think £700 on a dress is OK.

There are a lot of people on this thread who have more money than sense.

PerditaProvokesEnmity
hate this oblique belittling of women's expenditure.

Well said that woman

I budget £5k a year for clothes for work.

No idea what I spend on home stuff, not much. I'm either uber smart or in old comfy crap !

*But OP - the same people who tell you that they find Sainsbury's too extravagant for clothes will forget to tell you that they keep three horses.

Those who boast of only ever buying job lots on eBay won't mention their brand new Range Rover. Half the people sniffing that they'd never pay outrageous prices for 'designer' clothes are paying school fees or a retinue of tutors.

What I'm saying is that if you do genuinely want some moral or financial guidance on the relative value of a particular, elective purchase you're not going to get a reliable answer from the question you've asked.

(And it touches a nerve with me. I hate this oblique belittling of women's expenditure.)*

Yes, that's why people don't usually spend £700 on a single item of clothing, because they've spent it on horses or rangerovers or private school. Of course.

Look, it's obviously down to individual incomes and expenses and priorities but even a millionaire would know that the VAST majority of people could not afford to spend £700 on a dress. And even the most ARDENT clothing enthusiast would know that, even if someone had £700 burning a whole in their pocket, most people probably wouldn't choose to spend it all on a single dress.

If people can afford to spend £700 on a dress and they want to do so, then fine. It's their money and they can do what they like with it. But there is no reason they should be blind to the fact that it is unusual.
I'd extend the same sentiment to people spending thousands on watches or antiques or whatever else. If a man spent it on clothes, I'd apply the same to him.

VirginWestCoast, that was my whole post! So you could have used the new Quote function. (Click the three dots.)

(Otherwise you need to asterisk beginning and end of each separate paragraph.)

I spend usually up to £35 but sometimes up to £50 on a dress

Up to £35 on jeans

Up to £35 on a blouse

Up to £50 on a going out at night top but only up to £35 on a day top

Up to £35 on a jumper or cardi

Up to £120 on a winter coat

Up to £100 on boots, up to £90 on trainers, up to £50 on other footwear

Up to £50 on a bag

I do have a lot of bargains though - especially during lockdown I've bought some nice clothes from Tesco

Nothing usually (apart from my very extensive, and often expensive, lingerie collection). I just reclaim everyone else's castoffs.

I'm not all that interested in clothes

MN posters come from a wide range demographic.
We can’t assert that it’s unusual to spend £700 on a dress. It happens more often than you’d think.