Clothes spending

I appreciate good quality, love dresses - but won't pay much as I just love a bargain. I need really good coats and footwear for comfort but buy classic styles in the sales and they last for several years. I'm not a fashion mug, preferring to spend on other things.

Poppyred: 'Alexander Shulman looking amazing.' - surely, you jest? |She just looks dumpy and ordinary to me.

Marydoll

I spend far too much on clothes, but never pay full price. At the moment, I am wearing (trying on, got it today) a £110 Boden dress, which cost me £28 from Otrium, an online clearance site.
I like Seasalt, White Stuff, Monsoon and Boden and Otrium often has bargains from them.

Never heard of Otrium but having found it I think it might prove very interesting. Thank you!

DaislyAnne, first check online for vouchers codes. I got 25% off my already reduced items yesterday. The order was delivered today.

I love a bargain, I don't order anything that isn't on sale and love trawling charity shops

One thing I have learnt though, never save it for best.

You'll forget it exists, or something will eat it or the right occasion won't materialism...

Just wear the best clothes and enjoy them. Who cares. Go for lunch in an evening dress and feel amazing

I buy the best classic quality I can afford. I choose natural materials for preference, but do have some synthetic stuff.

I do try to buy for my lifestyle - which is largely outdoorsy type clothes but with trip to theatre, restaurant, etc. So I have the necessary different weight of jackets, from puffa to padded, and sweaters, jeans and trousers, to smart dresses and coats.
I have however been known to buy something because it was so lovely - which is a bit of a weakness.

My clothes last for donkeys years.

I don't buy or have a lot of clothes but try to stick with blues and layers. Like that I can vary what I like each day according to weather and location. Seasalt is very good for this style.

VioletSky

I love a bargain, I don't order anything that isn't on sale and love trawling charity shops

One thing I have learnt though, never save it for best.

You'll forget it exists, or something will eat it or the right occasion won't materialism...

Just wear the best clothes and enjoy them. Who cares. Go for lunch in an evening dress and feel amazing

I used to work with a lady who wore cocktail dresses to the office as she said they were years old and she would never wear them again. One day she turned up in a sapphire blue sequined dress.

What's a fashion mug? I assume a fool who likes to spend money on quality clothes? Hmm.

I'm with Violetsky, Just wear the best clothes and enjoy them. Who cares. Go for lunch in an evening dress and feel amazing.
Enjoy different trends and styles, choose expensive fabrics, add adornments, spend as much as you want to.

I will buy dresses from East and Sahara for up to £200 because I really like them, but I will also buy cheaper items, I bought two skirts from Hush this week at £22 each and a blouse for £25 and a skirt from Monsoon for £20.
I think it’s easier to pick up cheap things in the summer than winter.
I used to love shopping for clothes, but it’s more of a chore these days.

Violetsky
I agree with you, wear what you like when you like.
Sometimes my daughter asks if I think she’s too old to wear a certain thing, and I say, well I’m still wearing it.
I like bold colours, and shall continue to wear them.

The comments made by some are very condescending. A lot of people can look very stylish on very little because just because they have very little income. You can look just as nice as someone that can go out and spend £750 on one item of clothes that will obviously last a life time due to cut and finish, it’s getting the £750 in the first place that’s the problem for many. Plus a coat that’s twenty years old is not necessarily what a lot of people want. A couple of pairs of well fitting jeans, white t shirts, can be dressed up or down, a few basic items whether from somewhere like Tui or a charity shop, will still be a look look, spend as much as you can comfortably afford, putting food on the table and looking after bills etc is challenging to lots of people.

Wearing vintage clothes is fashionable too and have a coat bought secondhand for £50 which is about 50 years old. I think it is without doubt one of the most stylish midi coats ever. It’s good for going to art exhibitions.

I m often complemented on my clothes which I spend very very little on, mostly others cast offs in charity shops but they were the ones who spent hundreds and I got it after wards for peanuts suits me down to the ground, my most expensive buy this year was from an alternative shop in the city and cost me £30 it’s a pair of cotton (many colours) patchwork dungarees with a white t shirt underneath I feel very comfortable
I m another who was not impressed with the ‘Shulman’ photo I d never heard of her and she looks fine but it’s only jeans and a shirt not anything I would turn my head for
Got a lovely dark blue shirt at oxfam last week £1 50 I love a bargain
I agree with you VS never keep things for best because the opportunity never arises
I m happy with my very very full wardrobe

Allsorts

The comments made by some are very condescending. A lot of people can look very stylish on very little because just because they have very little income. You can look just as nice as someone that can go out and spend £750 on one item of clothes that will obviously last a life time due to cut and finish, it’s getting the £750 in the first place that’s the problem for many. Plus a coat that’s twenty years old is not necessarily what a lot of people want. A couple of pairs of well fitting jeans, white t shirts, can be dressed up or down, a few basic items whether from somewhere like Tui or a charity shop, will still be a look look, spend as much as you can comfortably afford, putting food on the table and looking after bills etc is challenging to lots of people.

Hear, hear

Yesterday in Tesco, I got a £22 sports top reduced to £5, then with 25% off. It cost £3,75. I was well pleased.

I agree about not keeping things for good. When I was teaching, I had lots of Boden dresses, always bought in the sale.
After I was forced to retire on ill health, they lay in the wardrobe unworn with other similar makes.
When I decided to revisit them, they no longer fitted, such a waste. They all went to the charity shop.

I don't think the comments here are intended to be condescending. My passion for nice things stems from a very underprivileged background, when I was mocked at school for having little to wear and wore cast offs.
The privileged and shallow girls in my posh grammar school looked down on me, when I turned up at the school disco in my school uniform coat. It was the only coat I had.
I swore no-one would ever do that to me again again.

I am probably as shallow as them now, thinking it is important how I look. 😉
I spend what I can afford and as I previously said, its never full price.

I haven’t read anything particularly condescending.
If it was the £750 coat, it’s proved to be very good value.
I’d have to love a coat very much to spend that, but if you can afford it, why not?

Thanks Sara. As I said it was back in my working days. The brand in question is still selling exactly the same coat for many more £££s. It was a good investment as is the twenty year old jacket which again is still being sold. Both are the sort of thing that always looks good despite being so old that they are apparently ‘not necessarily what a lot of people want’ (in which case why are the exact same styles still being sold?). The way to spend more on good quality clothes that will last is to stop buying the cheap stuff that some find so irresistible (where do you keep all this stuff ?) and save up what you would save spent for when you see a good item in the sales which will cost a fraction per wear of what fast fashion costs. Unless of course you’re the sort of person who has to be seen in different things all the time at the expense of the planet.

We all spend our money - whatever we have - on different things. I guess there are people who buy lots of new, cheap clothes regularly. But I think many folks on here are talking about buying reasonable quality clothes secondhand.

I like bargains so almost always shop in sales, or charity shops.
I bought two floral short sleeved polo tops in EWM last week for £15.

I spend as little as possible, while not buying too cheap which is usually false economy and bad for the environment. Just bought a brand new midi shirt dress by M&S in the hospice charity shop for £10 ( a sensible one without all the flounces that dresses all seem to have these days!)

If nobody bought nice things new, there would be none of them for the rest of us to buy cheaply second hand .

I was brought up to have to justify my spending - ‘you paid how much??’ and I refuse to do so now, whether to boast about a bargain or an extravagance.

If nobody purchased anything new, how many people would be out of work, how many factories and stores would close, how many transport companies would fold, the High Street is struggling enough as it is.

Like Doodledog has posted many charities rely on selling preloved goods to keep them going.

I am happy to do my bit by buying nice things for me and my family.

Have to agree with Sarah72 in that I saw nothing spectacular in Schulmans look. I have it 'that's me out of bed' appearance. Absolutely fine but, oh so ordinary.

I bought some new basics from Cotton Traders this year as I've found they're better quality than White Stuff, Joules etc.
So many firms selling good basics have closed eg Country Casuals, Penny Plain etc.
I have some pieces of 'posh stuff' which I keep for rare occasions.

What I really need are a few in between clothes - good enough for wearing out for a meal etc but not too dressy, iykwim.
I need a personal dresser.

Land's End are good for basics, more for tops than trousers, for me anyway.