What proportion of your income do you spend on clothes? Pls help me get over my tightness...

[WilfSell]

I am a grown woman with a fabulous salary. OK I have lots of children and lots of mortgage and lots of commitments. But I still can't get over my 'god that's too expensive' gene.

I am fat and run to seed after baby 3. I know I need to shift blubber. Some of my meanness is that: you know, the 'I'll only buy really nice clothes when I'm slimmer' mentality. Which is stupid, because I know taking care of myself is actually more likely to help me slim.

And some of it is feeling selfish to spend money on myself. And not the kids or house or DH for example.

And some of it is just lazy, used to Tescos the crappy high street mentality. A woman of my age (farking 40) should know better.

I looked at the shirt dress Perkin Warbeck linked to in Austin Reed and though feck they even do it in an 18 (though I bet it is a 16 really) and wondered to myself why I have never even considered shopping there.

And some lovely things in Hobbs currently. And lots of other shops that I don't frequent.

sorry if this pisses people off - I'm not trying to be smug about my earnings. I'm just wondering how other people justify 100 quid on a blouse and 180 on a pair of kecks. Is it because I'm a tight Northerner?

Chanel makeup is really good. And Dior, Mac and Benefit.

Cheap make up is awful.

blimey, DSM for you feminism is just something that happened to other people
sorry I am too tired and jaded for this thread I think.

I entirely agree that human beings like to look attractive and stand out.
I am just saying:

there is no need to buy into what the current culture has decreed to be high status and/or feminine.

it is liberating to question what is marketed to us as desirable and examine the motives of those who are encouraging us to consume.

there are alternatives to spending lots of money on lots of clothes. these alternatives do not necessarily involve looking like a bag lady or not "looking good" - you can plough your own furrow and make your own mark and your own choices rather than follow the herd and the high street.

now I must go to bed....
sorry to be a killjoy

but we just have to realise we look ok without all that on our faces anyway

SEA,I am lucky to spend £20 on trousers,nevermind blusher.I suppose,though,if you have the disposable income to spend on clothes then why not
Each to their own and all.I really can't afford to spend loads on clothes,would rather spend it on the dcs,but I don't have a choice as we are currently living on my pt wages and dps benefits due to dps illness.If I won the lottery though I would jet to Paris and have a clothes splurge,in my dreams!!!I quite like charity shops though,I think it is recycling and helping a good cause!!

Thats quite my point. I don't follow the herd. I have an unusual style, and don't follow 'fashion' magazines and things. I have never bought a fashion magazine.

However, I buy a lot of clothes, and some are topshop cheap, and some are Gucci expensive. I buy what I like. But generally, I spend a lot because I buy a lot.

absolutely SEA
why do we think we are so unattractive that we have to spend (say) £100 on cosmetics before we can show our own faces?
that we need a £35 blusher to look good?
what is it about a woman's face that needs that, when curiously a man's doesn't

SEA - maybe you have a lovely natural beauty but I personally look a lot better with make up on.

I do not think I am unattractive - I am a model!

But I do buy make up, the cost is irrelevant. It is a really good blusher, I could buy a cheap Rimmel one for £3 or something, but I don't because I think they look cheap, and I can afford it.

if cheap makeup is so awful, how come models look so good with it on? or with nothing on their faces, for that matter?

Noone looks good in cheap makeup. Models don't wear cheap makeup.

i mean model as in working for an agency like Storm or Elite, not tit 'glamour' type models.

my cousin is a model for Ford models in NYC and most of the time, when she is not working, she wears no makeup at all.

My "treat" is Chanel perfume as a birthday/Christmas pressie.

I luurrrvee Chanel Allure perfume.Its gorgeous.

Even if I don't have good clothes I do like my dab of perfume!!

Er, I am confused as to what you mean.

I work for Storm. None of the models wear cheap make up. What do you mean?

I don't wear make up for a lot of shoots and things I do, but I do wear make up when I am not working. I like it.

she wears cheapo clothes she gets in charity shops, too - old jeans and stuff.

looks divine - 5ft., 11in., skin smooth as fondant icing.

by following the herd I don't just mean following fashion

I mean falling for the marketing and promotion and consumerism that preys on women's psyches to encourage them to spend such a huge amount of money for the profits of fashion and cosmetics etc companies.

I mean it is obviously your free choice in a free country DSM to spend £6000 a year on clothes and handbags and whatever, but to buy lots and lots of stuff you have never even worn seems to suggest that you are under some sort of compulsion.

well, DSM, you see a model on the cover of a mag and then read what her makup is.

and it's not always Dior or Chanel.

not ALL models like to blow loads of money on clothes or makeup.

fine if they do, but some do it for money to do something else in life.

Its not a compulsion harpsi, I just like shopping. I enjoy it. I don't feel compelled to buy anything, I like shopping.

Expat - I don't wear clothes from charity shops, never been to one, but I do buy vintage things, not everything I buy is expensive! In fact, most of it is not really, but I can bet that your model cousin will have at least one pair of expensive jeans.

She probably does. She's a very modest person. I wouldn't ask and she's not the sort to volunteer such info.

Because really, if it looks good and you like it, who cares?

Expat - Seriously, models don't use cheap make up. Really.

Not sure what you mean 'some do it for money'. I think we all do it for money, much like any job!

I wrote 'some do it for money to do something else.'

In other words, to fund another goal of theirs in life - an education, being able to live comfortably as an artist (Kirsty Hume, for example), buy a home and take a sort of semi-retirement, start their own business, etc.

Exactly! If it looks good and I like it, then its fine.

Think its terribly sad that people would make presumptions on me because I like to spend my (hard earned) money on clothes. Goodness.

FWIW - I spend a much bigger proportion on my DS (clothes, food, days out, toys etc) than I do on myself. I seem to be getting judged here..

so why on earth buy lots and lots of clothes you will never wear?
isn't it a crashing waste of time and money?
isn't there anything more interesting and fulfilling to do with your life than fill your home and pay for storage for things you will never wear?

it is political in many ways to choose to do things like this