Every one of us has long mastered this. After all, the basis of style is combining expensive with cheap and knowing how to choose properly what and for how much. It sounds great, but the dilemma behind it!!! 100 EUR for a scarf is unimaginably much for most women, and for an evening dress it's just about right. Have you ever wondered why that is?
I'll tell you how I do it. Ever since I've followed one rule, I can immediately tell whether a price is good or high for me, and paradoxically I've started buying far fewer, but more expensive things. What's the rule?
"I ALWAYS convert the price of a piece into the approximate number of wears."
(from the English "Cost Per Use", or in Slovak "náklad na nosenie".) Of course, adjust the amounts to your own financial means. Some will plug in 10 Euro, others 100, and there are those who plug in even 1000.)
According to this principle, I'd wear the cashmere scarf I mentioned about 200 times and on average I wear it for 4 years, whereas the evening dress just one single time. See? Is a scarf for 100 Euro a lot now? The cost per wear is about 50 cents. The dress, meanwhile, is still expensive. It is confusing, though, that most people, when choosing, favour the value of the goods and not their own need.
When you buy a summer hit, e.g. floral jeans for 29 Euro, you know they'll go with only one T-shirt and sandals and you'll wear them maybe 3 times. On the other hand, when you buy quality jeans for 80 Euro, you again feel they're expensive. Yet you'll wear them for 4 years on average and maybe 100 times. The paradox is that most of you would take the floral ones. Then it happens that, on a quick glance into her wardrobe, the average Slovak woman has several pairs of jeans and not one universal pair. If you stick to this rule, you'll prefer pieces you actually wear, and over time you'll build a quality and valuable wardrobe. (You can find more on how to do it in the article Capsule wardrobe.)
My outfit today is put together according to this principle too. The leopard coat from LINDEX cost only a fifth of what the CÉLINE sunglasses did... because I'll wear those like crazy, whereas the coat I'll pull out 3 times at most.
Do you get the principle? It has helped me incredibly with shopping. Try applying it and let me know whether it's useful for you.
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OUTFIT: Faux fur leopard coat: Lindex, Sunglasses: Céline, Leather handbag: Karl Lagerfeld, Leather ankle boots: Reserved, Turtleneck, Black jeans and mittens: Zoot.sk, Thanks to Kristína Botlová for the photos
