Who buys all of this expensive clothing?

[jenn_jenn]

Ack we do. My husbands shirts are regularly around that price but I do my best to shop sales and online secondhand. We don’t care about brands but we do look for quality. We’re not really trendy either, mostly opting for classic items. Mizzen & Main shirts are my personal favorite for his work shirts (they travel well too!), Hermes for ties, and Theory for pants. Tumi backpack and luggage. Weekend wear is Lulu or Vuori.

As much as we hate to admit it and it goes against everything I want to believe, the crowd that he runs in (Wall Street) you have to look the part to fit in and continue to move up the ladder. It’s about being part of the “in” club.

And it’s absolutely not wearing logos. It’s more understated items but somehow the quality difference is very noticeable.

It doesn’t matter so much for me. I buy most of my clothes on Poshmark but I also look for quality items.

[riverwed070707]

I generally don't see knockoffs of brand that are not well known but it can happen. The guy looks like a bum but his wife looks wealthy with a Gucci bag. A lot of wealthy guys just dress down with this full blown duck dynasty beard going on. His white shirt is probably some crazy brand that cost $325

I'm not a fashion person and I know the Givenchy brand.... its not a 'not well known' brand. He's most known for his designs Aubrey Hepburn wore and its owned by LV.

[riverwed070707]

I'm with you DS on the pricing and I won't pay it. Most of my closet is hand me downs from my little sister who likes to shop and clean out her closet seasonally and from thrift stores. Aside from undergarments and socks, I can't think of anything else I buy new.

[myrdale]

I've been thinking on this some. I don't think people wear clothes for the same reason. Yeah we want to be warm and don't want to be naked. But for some they are a utility, others a commodity, other's part of their persona and still other's it's a status symbol, and some people just want to look pretty.

The list I gave earlier, for me they all have a utility that is balanced with what I see as an acceptable price.

For the people who see clothes as a commodity, there is no reason not to buy / wear the cheapest shirt you can find. I've known several people, and I'd assume quite a few here, who brag about getting their clothes from Goodwill.

The persona / status symbol groups probably blend together a bit. Wearing a $300 shirt to show off to strangers in a club isn't too far away from wearing a $50 dress shirt to church. I can guarantee God / Buddha / Muhammad / David Koresh doesn't care what you wear. We are dressing up to impress other people.

Spending $500 on a belt because it says Supreme to me is kind of stupid, but assuming you budget for it, honestly it shouldn't matter. It may be arguable that the purchase should be classified as a Luxury purchase rather than just Clothing.

The midschool band my nephew is in, is planning a trip to Disney next year. $1200 a ticket. Personally I think it's crazy to spend that much on a trip for a couple of days. My friend who blows $5000 a year to shoot deer in Canada is crazy, I can shoot all the deer I want from my front porch for free. But then again I just blew $1000 on climbing gear for going down into caves.

As long as you can afford it, and you budget for it, at the end of the day there is no reason not to spend $$$ on clothes, if that is what you're into. If you're broke and putting it on a credit card, well that is a completely different circumstance altogether.

[scfr]

I'm also in the "pay more for good shoes (Keen & Merrell are my go-to brands, thinking about getting a pair of Allbirds for travel) but buy second hand for clothes" camp. And yes, getting a great deal on second hand clothes is a source of pride. I also recently paid what for me is a high price for a nice pair of winter gloves. My old pair (also a nice set that I had worn for about 20 years) had a couple holes and were a bit thin so rather than figuring out how to repair leather gloves only to have them wear out down the road anyway, I opted for a new pair that frankly will probably last me the rest of my life. Yes, I did a rough life expectency calculation, both for me and the gloves, factoring in that I'm close to retirement and once I do that I'll wear the gloves less. And as sad as it is to think about, I may not have as much dog walking in my future. When I looked at it that way, I decided it was worth it to me to order those nice gloves. And that if I was ever going to get them, now was the time if I wanted to get maximum years of life out of them. It may help that I'm not a fashionista (hah - that's an understatement) so I don't mind wearing the same pair for 20 years.

[disneysteve]

As much as we hate to admit it and it goes against everything I want to believe, the crowd that he runs in (Wall Street) you have to look the part to fit in and continue to move up the ladder. It’s about being part of the “in” club.

I get that. We have a friend who works on Wall Street also. They spend a fortune just on dry cleaning his shirts, not even counting what the shirts themselves cost. I've never dry cleaned a dress shirt in my life. It goes in the washer with everything else. I don't even know how much that costs today but even if it's $1.99, after a few cleanings, I would have spent more than the shirt cost me. Thankfully I never had a job that required me to have certain clothing. A shirt and tie, but it didn't matter what brand they were or where they came from, and yes a lot of my dress shirts in the early years of my career came from Goodwill. I didn't have $20 to blow on each shirt when I could get them for $3.

[disneysteve]

I've been thinking on this some. I don't think people wear clothes for the same reason. Yeah we want to be warm and don't want to be naked. But for some they are a utility, others a commodity, other's part of their persona and still other's it's a status symbol, and some people just want to look pretty.

I think that's a great point of view. To me, clothing is a necessity. No shirt, no shoes, no service. I need to be dressed to go out in public. But as long as my clothes are clean and presentable, I'm satisfied. I'm not out to impress anyone. What I wear is definitely not a reflection of who I am and I couldn't care less about status symbols. My status is not determined by what I wear or what I drive or what my house looks like.

[jenn_jenn]

I get that. We have a friend who works on Wall Street also. They spend a fortune just on dry cleaning his shirts, not even counting what the shirts themselves cost

Yes! We purchased a Samsung Airdresser to help extend wears a tiny bit but even so dry cleaning is expensive.

Even a good portion of my clothes need to be dry cleaned. I’ll get $400 cashmere sweaters for less than $100 on Poshmark but there’s no getting around dry cleaning.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I also have friend who just like looking nice and trendy. My best friend likes thrift shopping, ross/tjmaxx, etc and she buys things on deal. She just likes clothes.

Me? Well I will admit that some of the better quality stuff fits nicer. I also will say that it easily lasts longer. You can see it stretch out less if you buy higher quality items. That being said I tend to toss things as I lose and gain weight. DH is the same size and wears free swag shirts. But then i just bought him very expensive jeans. But he only now has three pairs and if no more accidents happen that'll last I bet 10 years+.

Shoes they last me 6 months for sneakers. But I'm hard on my shoes.

Also since Covid I've been looking at clothes i used to wear to an office. An office i quit and have NO plans to ever go back. So i've been contemplating getting rid of it all. It's not a ton but about 7 days worth of nicer dresses and stuff that I don't realy like but I wore the same thing for about 5 years and honestly it looked fine but I hated it. I don't particularly like the feel or the restrictions. And I keep thinking, maybe I'll just let it go. Am I really going back to a place that I have to dress up ever? And like now i have a about 3 dresses to wear to weddings or dinners. And I have 1 pair of shoes worn 1-2x a year. Do I need or want more? I probably need new heels instead of my 20 year old slip on heels. The soles are pretty much gone.

But I wear it mostly christmas party, wedding, bat mitvah, and anything else formal. So how often? Never.

That isn't to say i shouldn't, but I really dont' need it. I live in sneakers, flip flops, yoga pants, and a t shirt. Occasionally a dress like the $12 HM dress i got that's cute. It'll last a season. But DH and I both since we moved and left the east coast and corporate world behind we just don't need what we used to wear. DH has worn his sports coat and suits to like to weddings and that's it. He hasn't worn anything but a shirt since 2015 to work and me since 2020. Our lifestyle is different. I can see us wearing these clothes till we die.

I want to add when we went a cruise last year, we both struggled to put together and even want to bring clothes for "dress" up night. If we hadn't gone with friends we wouldn't have bothered. The biggest hassle was shoes for DH.

[srblanco7]

I look for quality and utility in the clothes I purchase. If it's "name brand" (e.g., under armour, ll bean, eddie bauer) it's generally purchased on sale or via their outlet.

Sneakers are definitely an exception. Went to a local running store several years ago and got "fitted" (as did DW). It validated that Brooks were a great fit for me. If you haven't done this, I'd recommend getting fitted (made a big difference in selection and fit for DW).