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0 pointsJohnJamesRambo8y ago0 comments

But aren't you wearing the same thing over and over? What's the point of quality clothes people see so often they think it is dirty or that you own three shirts? I just buy cheap clothes.

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6 comments · 3 top-level

ryanianian8y ago· 3 in thread

3 is probably too few. People don't really pay that much attention to what you wear, I promise.

I usually wear my shirts twice and take them to the dry-cleaner after. I'll only go once if it's been a hot day or if the shirt has dirt/stains. Maybe 3 times if I didn't wear it all day.

Plus I have about 7 pairs of high-quality pants that work well in an office and are comfortable for weekends. Most shirts go with most pants. So I have like 70 outfits so it really doesn't feel limiting, especially if you add in a few sweaters, jackets, and shoes to bring the combinations way up.

I did the math on this once to figure out cost-per-wear of my shirts. I kept rough track of how many times I wore a favorite shirt of mine before tossing it. Roughly 100 times. The shirt was like $120. I paid about $0.75 per wear in drycleaning. So like $1.75/wear.

(I could wash and iron for myself to bring this way down to like $1/wear but I hate ironing so I just pay the drycleaner - I also could have gone another 50 or so wears but I spilled coffee on it and I could always see the stain even though nobody else could I'm sure.)

Compare that with a cheap H&M shirt I bought a few years ago for like $40 - I've worn it twice and don't look forward to wearing it again since it doesn't fit as well and is a bit too trendy in its style for me. Cost is like $20/wear. Save your money and buy higher-quality clothes :)

jakeway8y ago

Your H&M example isn't great. The reason you didn't wear it a lot isn't because of the quality, but because you bought a shirt you didn't like. Save your money and only buy clothing you like.

ryanianian8y ago

That's a very good point! You'll save a lot of money by being selective about what you buy.

I think I got suckered into the H&M marketing - it looked quite nice in store and it even felt nice the first time I wore it. But then I realized it only really went with one or two other things, and it didn't look quite as good after being dry-cleaned/washed, so it quickly lost most of its appeal.

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verall8y ago

Error was definitely spending more than $14 on a an article of clothing from h&m :P

I don't see anything wrong with a bunch of cheap shirts I only wear occasionally. Variety without too much expense. Wouldn't buy jeans from h&m.

fratlas8y ago

"less clothes" could be 5-8 shirts, which is fine. You don't often see the same person outside of work every single day anyway

therealdrag08y ago

I recycle the same 60% of my wardrobe each week. And re-wear pants and shirts without washing them most of the time. But I do laundry every week, mostly under-garments and workout clothes.

I have some cheap clothes, which are functional, but my favorite clothes are all a step above. My 10$ Uniqlo t-shirts are much softer than my cheap multipack shirts. But I have a 40$ marino wool t-shirt that I love and one I don't like. Same with underwear. I have 2$ underwear that works, but is eh, and I have 10$+ underwear that is great, and I have 30$ underwear that I don't really like.

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