Ooh, is that a new outfit you're wearing?
Yes, it probably is if you're like most women. Well, like most British women (but surely this at least somewhat applies to us across the pond too).
Barnardo's, the United Kingdom's largest children's charity, recently released a study about women's flaky apparel shopping habits. What survey takers found when they interviewed 1,500 females over age 16 was that women are quick to fall out of love -- make that steamy short-lived lust -- with their fashion purchases.
"Modern women have adopted a 'wear it once culture' when it comes to their wardrobes and only wear items a handful of times before considering them 'old,'" according to Barnardo's (barnardos.org.uk).
Maybe "wear it once" is a bit of a stretch, but not by much. The survey found some 33 percent of respondents consider clothes "old" after wearing them just three times.
But still, women will don those "old" thrice-worn items twice as many more times, until they wear out their welcome and become positively "ancient."
"The majority of fashion purchases see the light of day just seven times," Barnardo's states.
Call it the seven-wear itch.
It's a pretty lousy record, considering the study says the average British woman spends about $1,190 per year, at a cost of $58 per garment. That comes out to just under 21 garments per year, each of which will be worn only seven times. So women only have something to wear about 140 days of a 365-day year.
Apparently women really aren't exaggerating when we groan we have nothing to wear!
And yet, we have way too many items cluttering closets that could be put to better use, like donating to a charity -- which was Barnardo's point in doing the survey.
Zoe Abrams, Barnardo's director, says: "We're all guilty of wearing an outfit a few times and then forgetting about it, but we were surprised to find the average woman's wardrobe has at least 10 items that will never be worn again."
Gulp, only 10? I know I have
quite a few more than 10 useless items in my closet, between the looked-better-in-the-store clothes, the didn't-love-them-but-were-on-sale-and-couldn't-pass-up-a-deal clothes, the fat clothes and the now-skinny-clothes-that-used-to-be-fat-clothes.
Weight fluctuations (49 percent) and impulse buys (23 percent) were common reasons why women ditched their duds. Social pressure -- make that social media pressure -- was another reason: "One in seven said Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were strong influences for the culture, because being pictured twice and 'tagged' in the same dress on different nights out was a fashion no-no." (Which means one in seven also isn't nearly experimental enough with accessorizing! A woman doesn't need tons of clothes to achieve multiple looks. She just needs a few basic layering pieces and some scarves, costume jewelry and belts.)
Good question to ask ourselves: Will those who offer online "likes" of approval for our accumulation of clothes also "like" us enough to pay our debt and assist with our bankruptcy when all the bills roll in?
A few other findings:
• "Dresses were most likely to be bought for a [one-time] event and then discarded, with wedding and holiday outfits topping the list." Being popular is a plague that empties a wallet and clutters a closet.
• "Just over one in four said they were unlikely to wear clothes again because they had put on weight." And, we presume, the other three just bought Spanx.
• "One in 10 women wear a piece of clothing just three times before it is left gathering dust in the back of the wardrobe." And, we presume, the other nine hate her, but still pretend to be friends, hoping for her clothing castoffs.
I, unfortunately, don't seem to have many of that last kind of friend. When I posted a picture of a dress on Facebook and asked girlfriends if they subscribed to the seven-wear stat, the response was an overwhelming no.
"I don't have the 'luxury' of only wearing [clothes] a handful of times and considering them old," said one.
"I am guessing ... they only surveyed women who don't pay for their own clothes," said another.
But one friend answered the question without answering it at all, just drooling over the picture of the dress I posted: "I don't know, but I love your example. Where can I find it?"
Garb gab? Email:
jchristman@arkansasonline.com
What's in a Dame is a weekly report from the woman 'hood.
Style on 06/16/2015