The 'cost per wear' formula

Last night I was browsing around the Internet trying to find new things about shopping (or better yet, not shopping) and some better ways of doing it. After a while, I came across an article that mentioned the 'cost per wear' of our clothing and I became interested in finding more about this. So after searching for a few hours and gathering all my findings I decided to share them with you.

What is the 'Cost Per Wear'?

The cost per wear is a simple and easy way for you to calculate how much you are spending on an Item every time you wear it, and if the price that you paid for that item was worth it or not. You can also use the formula before buying a certain item, but that will only give you an estimation of the cost per wear of the item.

What is the 'Cost Per Wear' formula?

Instead of only relying on the price tag to figure out if the value of the piece is worth it, the cost per wear formula calculates how much it costs you per day you wear it. The formula is simple:

Purchase Price / Number of Days Worn = Price for wear

For example a T-shirt bought for 20€ and worn 10 times will cost: 20/10 = 2€ per wear

How to integrate it into your wardrobe planning?

The idea is to have the lowest cost per wear possible, but still pay attention to the quality of the item, this way you should invest in more expensive but better quality pieces so we can keep them over the years. For me there are 3 things that I consider when using this formula: the cost, the number of times that I would be wearing the item and the quality of it.

The price

Decide what price range is acceptable for you, to do that you have to consider how much money you can spend on a piece of clothing or shoes, keeping in mind the quality and the times you will wear it, for example:

-» A striped shirt from H&M, synthetic, cost 10€. Gets loose and deformed after 2 laundries. Cost per wear is 10/2=5€ per wear.

-» A striped shirt from UNIQLO, Cotton, cost 30€. Still perfect, didn't stretched or lost colour after 5 months and will continue to last for a long time. Cost per wear: 30/40=0,75€ per wear.

In this case, a 30€ shirt has more value than the 10€ one, even if it’s more expensive.

The number of days worn

The other factor to take into consideration is the number of times you will actually wear it. This will help you decide if the item that you are purchasing fits with your wardrobe, for example:

-» If you buy a 40€ blouse but you only wear it 4 times in one year because the colour or the style fits with almost nothing that you own or was a trend piece that you bought on an impulse, it will cost per wear 40/4=10€ per wear. That makes the piece too expensive.

So to prevent this situation you have 2 options: buy a cheaper piece, knowing that you will only wear it once or twice, or, invest on a piece that fits in to your personal style so that it will work better with your wardrobe. And please, don't fall into the temptation of buying something just because it's on trend, buy it because you know it fits your wardrobe and more important, buy it because it fits your style.

Wardrobe Planning