You get what you pay for
We all generally agree that you get what you pay for, right?
With the exception of being blatantly ripped off in the case of someone selling you snake oil… okay with that exception aside let me bust some crazy, pervasive myths.
$300 is an expensive dress. Whaaaat? You are thinking, if you have been on my website and seen entry level is starts at about 3-4 times that price.
Well then let me give you the numbers in black and white and the formula too and then you decide for yourself.
Picture a $300 dress in your wardrobe that you wear less than half the year and have in your wardrobe for approximately 2 years. Got one in mind? Let’s start,
$300 dress / 20 wears / 2 years = $7.50 cost per wear (CPW) + dry cleaning + how long it spends in your ironing basket + clutter + and those too hard basket questions… like where does it come from? / who made it? / where is it going when you declutter your wardrobe (in other words chuck it out)? Do you feel good about that? (Also 
🙄 for those of you out there who have the $300 dress in your wardrobe with the tag still on it cost per wear is $300 with daily compounding interest)… PS I have not included the cost of your time in these sums either because then the $300 dress rises to true minimum cost of approximately $800.)
On a scale of 1-10, how closely does this $300 dress align you with the person you want to be? What do I mean? Do you wish you had pieces in your wardrobe for five to ten years, not two? Pieces you actually wore all the time that are good quality and last? How do you feel good about throwing stuff out on relatively high frequency? How does your packed wardrobe of clothes worn on low frequency make you feel every time you look at it? Do you present at work feeling in control and in command? Do you love it?
So let me freak you out now! Imagine paying $1000 for a dress that you wear most of the year. I mean 70-80% of the year (40 wears) and you wore it for 5 years or more. The sums;
$1000 dress / 40 wears / 2 years = $12.50 cost per wear.
*Only $5 over $7.50 CPW on $300 dress but it is still going strong! So instead of dreading another trip to the shopping mall or charity bin you look at this piece and think, “hello friend, thanks for saving me time and you crazy thing
I still get compliments every time I wear you.”
$1000 dress / 40 wears / 5 years = $5.00 cost per wear.
*Now $2.50 under $7.50 CPW on $300 dress and has given you three more years service and its still going! Now you are thinking I want a back up… imagine if you could get one?
$1000 dress / 40 wears / 10 years = $2.50 cost per wear. Minus frequent cleaning – ironing – clutter! Minus these and cost per wear just moved into the negative… this piece is saving you money now!
*Now $5 under $7.50 CPW on $300 dress that has given you eight more years service and saved you many hours of your life that would have been wasted shopping. Does just reading this already make you feel better?
But how can that dress be real you ask? Ready for the biggest plus? Come to me for a dress and I will actually cut it to fit you from quality fabrics, that don’t bag, tear and bleed, get sweaty and smelly! Plus it is actually made to your bespoke tastes which means far from you looking like you are always wearing the same thing, you simply always look in control and on brand… your brand. People wonder, how does she do it?
Maybe you don’t want to wear it for ten years but… maybe someone else will be really happy to have it when you are finished with it! Imagine that? Leaving something good behind you. Let’s face it, nobody really wants the badly made fast fashion that is being dumped in alarming volumes in charity shops.
Why am I putting this information out in black and white? Well because I really like to help solve people’s problems. To be truthful this is not a problem I need to solve for my Empresses, they got this figured out a long time ago (that’s why they have got that OMG wardrobe). Some of them have living proof in the form of those ‘go to’ dresses we made them ten years ago. So this information is for you!
However, it’s not your fault, if you missed out on being taught about fabric, construction and fit, at home or school. So then when you walk into a shop and the retail assistant doesn’t have the knowledge either, how can they help you? Logically, this is not going to end with you getting a good quality, enduring piece.
New people find us by using the same intelligence they apply professionally. After they assess the sheer volume of evidence in their wardrobe and get utterly tired of how much time and money they are wasting for mediocre and poor results, they figure out their current formula for getting dressed is not adding up! We call these women our Ambassadors because they are ambassadors for change when they opt-out of a mutually held delusion that what they are getting for $300, even $800 or more is not as good as it’s going to get. They say, “No, we can do better than this and we are prepared to invest in change.”
Ambassadors come to us for the same sort of expert advise they would seek to get a better result in any other area of their life. Thankfully, usually before they resort to the other mutually held delusion that some how going online, probably late at night, possibly after a long day, sometimes aided by a glass of ‘red’ and not talking to anyone, or touching anything, or trying anything on is going to somehow deliver a better result in a soft plastic envelope. To be fair though, if you walk into retail to be ignored, insulted or simply served by someone who would like to help but really cannot because of their lack of training or sheer limitation of the stock on the floor, then I can see the online temptation… to at least suffer in silence and the comfort of your own home (red in hand).
I would like to stress, the mutual delusions of a $300 dress and online saviour are not your fault. Stop feeling like you just keep getting it wrong and know this; in the last twenty years the quality of middle market ready-to-wear has dropped to an appallingly low level. Brands justify this with the belief that people are happy to buy more frequently to stay up to date with trends. Therefore things do not have to be made to last anymore. As long as you keep buying they will believe they are giving you what you want. Now that you know this, you have a decision to make.
Many women have told me they notice that pieces in their wardrobe from twenty years ago (often bought from the same brand) are noticeably better quality than, new today. The question I have to ask, is why do you keep going back?
So what can you do? Use your eyes? Does it look good? Sit in it for 10 mins. How does it look now? Squeeze it… look, how crinkled is it? Is your palm sweaty? So what’s that going to feel like when you are in an over heated office, or under pressure? Read the composition label do you understand what it is made of and how that will feel when you have worn it for eight hours?
Ask the staff questions like, ‘this is how I indeed to use this piece, I want to wear it twice a week to work, is it fit that for purpose? How frequently will it need to be cleaned? What happens if a seam comes undone?’ Are you satisfied with their answers? If not, well don’t part with your hard earned money.
Also don’t be disheartened. Stop going to the same or very similar shops that let you down last time. There are so many small producers out their making anything from true quality t-shirts to beautiful shoes that you can acquire genuinely excellent alternatives from. If a niche producer is doing the right thing and making things with love that will last they will want to tell you about it. So read bios, use key word searches like #artisan#handmade #madetolast broaden your search and ask the producer questions. Stop repeating buying things that didn’t serve you well the first time. Get less things, invest yourself in getting better experiences by redirect spending from several ad-hoc purchases into one well considered item and you will feel better too.
I hope this post helps you to do that with confidence.
Sincerely
Susan Dimasi
Creative Director & Founder
MATERIALBYPRODUCT