End of the year? Great time to not only look back at your wardrobe, but also look ahead. How many pieces of clothing have you added over the past year? (How to calculate that, read here.) And when you do have your head in the wardrobe, it's extra nice to have your Cost Per Wear keep track. After all, which item of clothing do you wear most often? And which one turns out not to be such a good purchase at all afterwards? By keeping track of your CPW, you will find out exactly which items are really worth it and will make your choices easier and more sustainable.
What is Cost Per Wear?
Cost Per Wear, CPW for short, is a simple calculation that helps you determine how ‘valuable’ an item of clothing actually is. You divide the price you paid for it by the number of times you wore it. That way, you find out how much each wear has really cost you. The idea comes from the world of sustainable fashion, where more and more people are taking a critical look at their buying habits. Instead of focusing on bargains or sale prices, CPW is all about long and frequent wear. So you can buy a more expensive jacket, which turns out to be much cheaper than that cheap shirt that disappears in the bottom of the closet after just one wear.
And to make it all concrete: a cheap €30 jumper that you only wear ten times comes out to €3 per wear. While that branded 120-euro jumper, which by now has been worn with love a hundred times, will only cost you 1.20 euros per wear. Chances are that jumper is the real winner of your clothing year.
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Good intention: track your Cost Per Wear from now on
Calculating CPW is super simple and quite fun to do. You take the price of a garment and divide it by the number of times you have worn it. But chances are you don't know the exact number. Unless you've kept track of it. That's why it's especially a fun thinking exercise to do with your favourite pieces from the past year. And perhaps even more fun as a resolution for the new year. Start keeping track now: make a note in your phone or peg it on a paper on the inside of your wardrobe. That way, in 12 months' time, you'll know exactly which item was your best purchase. And who knows, you might also look very differently at all those tempting garments in the shop, because they might not be that tempting at all.
More fine clothing tips!
- Also see: tips for selling smoothly on Vinted.
- Also see: Donate old clothes to charity with this handy list.
- Also see: Are you already participating in The Clothing Loop?
Sources: Project CeCe. Photo credits: Angela de Vlaming.
