7 Reasons to Invest in Quality Clothes
7 Reasons to Invest in Quality Clothes
Cheap clothes are so abundant that we all tend to fall into the trap of thinking that clothes should be super inexpensive and entirely disposable. The only clothing some women ever invest in are job interview outfits and wedding dresses. But if you care at all about how you look, you should stop worrying about bargains and treat your clothes like the essential part of your personal style that they are. Invest in your clothes, instead of just buying them.
What It Means to Invest in Clothes
We’re not saying that you should dress up all the time. There are cheap yoga pants, and pricier, better made yoga pants. You’ll get more wear out of your casual, errand-running clothes if you spend a little more money. Remember “cost per wear”. If you spend $50 on a something you wear 25 times, it costs you $2 per wear. But a $20 garment that wears out after 5 wearings costs $4 per wear – twice as much as the more expensive option.
And if you buy tons of trends every season, that just means you’re buying more trends next season, and the next after that. And you still have nothing to wear for weeks at a time, every time it turns from fall to winter, or spring to summer!
Whether trendy or not, we’ve all seen the bane of plus size clothes shopping: pricy yet poorly made clothes. Doesn’t that just make you mad? You should get the quality that you pay for, so learn which retailers charge high prices for low quality fabrics and poor craftsmanship.
We’re also not saying that everyone has (or should have) a large clothing budget. Just buy the best clothes you can afford, even if that means buying one $30 top instead of three $10 tops that will fall apart in the laundry after two wearings.
OK, so that’s what we mean when we say you should invest in clothes. Now for the reasons why you should do it.
1. You’ll be more comfortable.
Cheap synthetic fabrics don’t breathe like natural fibers. Poor quality fabrics will make you feel too hot in a warm room, but won’t keep you warm when it gets cold. (That’s also what’s wrong with pantyhose – may they never come back into style.) But better fabrics will work the way that clothes are supposed to work.
2. Less ironing!
Good fabric has a certain weight to it, and that weight keeps it from wrinkling. Your clothes may pick up some creases while you are wearing them, but hang them up after washing and any wrinkles will be pulled straight by the weight of the fabric. And we all know, you have much better things to do than to iron.
3. Anna Wintour does it.
The editor of Vogue could buy an entirely new wardrobe every few months. Heck, she could probably get tons of clothes for free. But she doesn’t. Instead, she invests in a few things each season and wears the heck out of them. It’s her job to look good and be photographed, and yet she doesn’t worry about wearing a new outfit for every event. So why should we? Get one perfect dress you can wear everywhere, instead of buying a new dress every time you receive a wedding invitation.
4. It’s good for the environment.
When we buy loads of cheap clothes, we send a lot more clothes to thelandfill, a lot sooner. A poorly made top that fades when you try to get out a stain isn’t good for anything anymore. Plus, think of all the energy expended to transport your dress from an overseas factory, then to your local store, and then to the landfill. All for something you got to wear maybe four times. Buying clothes that will last longer reduces the environmental impact of your wardrobe.
5. You’ll like your clothes more.
So many of us could purge our closets of everything that doesn’t fit or is out of style, and we’d still have full closets and nothing to wear. Sound familiar? When you buy clothes only because they were on sale, or to make a small purchase to justify the trip to the store, you get a closet packed full of meh. Maybe you could wear those clothes, but you don’t really want to. The more you spend on a piece of clothing, the more you’re going to make sure you really like it before buying. And assuming you’re buying from a maker who cares about quality, the more value you’ll get out of every dollar you spend.
6. It shows respect for your own hard work.
You work hard for the money you spend on clothes. Spending your money wisely is a way to respect the time you spend in the office. You’re not just throwing your money away when you fritter it away on cheap clothes – you’re throwing away your own labor. Very few people love their jobs so much that they’d do it for free. So why do it for poorly made clothes that you don’t love? Calculate the cost of a skirt by time worked instead of dollars, and you’ll only buy the best you can afford.
7. You’ll find it much easier to get dressed in the morning.
By now, it’s likely that you’ve read one of the gajillions of posts out there about building a “core wardrobe”. I absolutely love this concept. There’s a reason famous fashion editors, stylists and models all wear fairly simple, but gorgeous classics. Because they’re easy, they last forever, and quite simply: they’re fabulous.
When you’ve made the commitment to build a core wardrobe of essentials that are the highest quality you can find (or that you can justify), you’ll discover an awesome new benefit: everything just works together! That’s right. Think about how many ways you can wear a simple black dress. Toss on a jean jacket and ballet flats for a morning of errands. Switch to tights and black boots for brunch with a friend. Then slick on a red lipstick, trade in the boots for strappy sandals, and toss on some bling–voila, it’s date night!
Not every dress has to be black, either. Maybe your neutral is navy, or grey, or camel or brown. Heck, maybe it’s hot pink. That’s cool. But findyour core wardrobe essentials, commit to high quality, and spend less time worrying about what to wear, and more time enjoying looking fabulous in those great items that magically seem to all work together!
Why? Because You’re Worth It
You buy the best groceries you can afford. You live in the best home within your budget. You deserve the best clothes you can manage to buy. The better quality your clothes are, the more they can stand up to wearing, washing, stain removal and alterations season after season. Which means you’ll save money in the long run.
You’ll look better, save money, and feel both more comfortable and more gorgeous! And who doesn’t want that?
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