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wiw- touch of pretty, what I learned thru CPW.

shedev

Veteran

I've been tracking wears since 2013. The most immediate thing I learned was that I had way too many clothes. I did a few edits, and I'm closing in on my right size wardrobe. I'll be able to figure out my right size in Sept. I'll be out of the uniform for 1 year.

My aim for this year is to get my clothes down to $10 CPW for the year. I'm there with most of my winter things. I'd like to get down to $1 CPW, but since my costs go all the way from a few bucks at the consignment store to the occasional designer item, it seems really unlikely to get them down to the same low CPW. But I'd still like to feel like I'm getting my moneys worth out of higher priced items. I came up with the concept of good wear based on Mo's 50 wear life span. I have to admit that if I get to the 50 wears, I get really curious about how many wears I can get before the item develops a fatale flaw. I got 91 wears out of a $20 hanes hoody.

This is the 51st wear of the Kut baby boots. I'm planning to make Mondays Kut day for the rest of the year or until I never want to see them again. Or until they get the fatale flaw.

Worn with Eileen Fisher linen tee and Nike Jordan hi tops. I have had these for a few years but never really wore them. This year they feel kinda right. I won't be a minimal kind of girl because I need to be able to keep some things that aren't in current use as long as I still love them.

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20 replies

Latest reply was from lyn67

Karie

(website)

Veteran

I really need to start tracking CPW. Sounds like you're getting a good handle on your wardrobe.

Those sneakers are fabulous!

rabbit

Veteran

Interesting read and thanks for sharing. Good job using tracking to work toward the right size wardrobe for you.

Was Mo's 50 wears for shirts and pants? I'm assuming bags and shoes might be higher for example. When I look at my wear tracking (since 2014) I have bags, belts, boots and coats over that number (and sunglasses and camisoles).

I hear you on kind of rooting for something that's been around working forever. We have a water heater original to our house built in the fifties that is still going strong, and I'm reluctant to replace it, lol. Then again hose (not tights) seem to last me about two wears before they develop fatal runs.

I quite like the lacey high tops

Sal

Veteran

Those jeans suit you.

I have things I love to just keep on wearing and wearing....fun to see how long they can last. My winner is a winter wool coat that I purchased 15 years ago and drag out every winter. It still looks fine, mostly now just winter rugby, but I still adore it!

Suz

(website)

Veteran

You look great, Shedev, and it's good to read your reflections. 50 wears is a pretty decent number. I wore my puffer coat more thtn 50 times this year alone -- and it's on its 4th season, still going strong. It wasn't cheap (around $300) but assuming my wears were roughly similar each year, it has now had about 200 wears. Which makes its CPW pretty decent!

I think knits are the items most likely to get that fatal flaw before 50 wears. Having said that, I wore one of my J. Crew sweaters more than 50 times this winter alone. There is some slight pilling that I will be able to remove with a stone. Still going strong next year. Of course that's not true of all my sweaters. Alas....

CocoLion

(website)

Veteran

I so admire you for tracking wears, for two years already! Love the footwear choice, it adds a lot of style to a jeans + tee + sneakers FFBO.

rachylou

Veteran

What a great outfit! The lace adds just the right hit of pizazz. I'll be interested to know what you find out about number of wears and the development of the fatal flaw. And how long it took, elapsed time, to reach that number of wears.

Caro in Oz

Veteran

Fab outfit. I'm coming up to a year of tracking & it is really changing what I buy. I'm looking for a balance between CPW & JPW (joy per wear). So I don't mind having things in my wardrobe that aren't worn very often.

Anonymous

JPW. Yay.

kkards

Veteran

i'm not a CPW kind of girl, but i support those who are. so, good for you for finding what works for you…
what fab sneakers, love the lacey floral, just the right amount of fun and softness…

Carole

Veteran

I admire your your ablityto tackle the challenge of CPW. I have way to much stuff at the moment for that to be feasible, but I can see how enlightening that would be. Cute shoes!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

You should always keep the things you love. Nice sneaks.

Staysfit

Veteran

I can see why you love the shoes, they have a great texture/pattern. all this tracking of wears is getting me motivated. Perhaps it's time for me to get started again. How did you come up with the cost per wear that you want? I rally have no clue how much cost per wear should be for any given item.

shedev

Veteran

Thanks Karie.

Rabbit, I think 50 was just a general ballpark kind of number. I definitely agree that some things get a lot more. I've been carrying the same purse for well over a year. It's probably time to upgrade it. I'm going to get more than 50 out of my toppers. I have a couple that are getting close. I'm not getting 50 out of my knits. That water heater is a superstar. We replaced ours last year. It ws from the early 90s.

KIwigal, it's great to have old favorites.

Suz, coats are hardy like that. I always had mine for about 5 years of heavy wear. My season is a little shorter than yours, Oct to March, with a little wear in Sept and April. Even without tracking, I know it is a lot of wears.

I'm not getting anywhere near 50 on my knits. I'm hard on tops. My last style shift took me in the direction of pricier knits, so I'll find out a little down the road if spending more gives me a better lifespan. Even if the CPW is low, I feel disappointed if the lifespan is short and I have to look for a replacement too soon. ( I'm looking at you ON)

Thanks Cocolion, it's great to have FFBOs. I've been doing a lot of repeating lately. Just don't feel the need to keep reinventing the wheel.

Rachy, I bought the jeans in Fall 12. They were one of my first post YLF purchases. Being able to look that up made my inner analysis geek really happy.

Caro, I'm looking for the same kind of balance. I would have hated to miss out on the Flora Mortis based on the CPW will likely be high. The JPW is off the charts. I'm really not just trying to get to a really low CPW. Keeping numbers is helping me decide how many of each thing I need, what is a comfortable range to spend, and what I'm wearing and what or I'm not. Framing my wear goals to $10 CPW helped me integrate some things like the Villous jacket, instead of saving for good. I mostly stopped doing that, but I started doing it with that jacket. Maybe it was because it was blue. I can always get black jackets.

Kkards, Tracking wears is a lot of work if you don't enjoy it. Geeking out on the number is part of how I have fun with fashion. For others it can be things like building capsules. It makes me really happy to hear when everybody finds the things that work for them.

Carole, I had a super big wardrobe a couple years back. Tracking all that would have been a monumental task. I purged a couple wardrobes worth. I want a size where I can, love it now, wear it now, wear it out. Where I can use refreshers to replace things I really did wear the heck out of. I'm closing in on that place.

Angie, I don't have a lot of closet space. I have 2 35" closets. One has a 24" section that is double barred. I have a little over 200 pieces. That includes shoes, workout, and outerwear. So it's anything you might see as I leave the house. I don't count underthings, pajamas, and a couple undershirt tanks. I still have space to keep some things not in current use. All my seasons are in the closet with nothing packed away. Our weather can be really weird, so the haven't worn it in a year doesn't really work for me. It makes me really unhappy to keep tossing stuff that is barely worn, but I know not every purchase will work out so I won't force myself to wear things I'm just not loving.

Staysfit, I think the texture is what draws me to the shoes. I'm still working on what my perfect CPW is. I can't pretend that I don't care at all, but I don't want to become so focused on CPW that it limits me. I'm all about scoring the deal, but I don't want it to rule all my choices.

One more thought, I seem to get a CPW between 1-2 for things I paid full retail for, sale will get me to 1 or less. This is for cheap to midrange things. Even with the same CPW, I get dissatisfied if I don't get a good lifespan out of them. I look at the Kuts and think, wow I wore the heck out of those. I had a pair of ON khakis that I bought on sale for 17. They fell a few short of 1CPW, but they just started to look really crappy and I started to feel the opposite of fab in them. I felt gypped. It took me a while to find the exact shade of khaki ( I'm a little weirdly OCD about that) and now I have to start over. No more ON for this girl. Wow this got long. If you stuck with me this long, you rock.

MTBGirl

Veteran

Rock on!

Caro in Oz

Veteran

Sounds like we are in a similar place, wardrobe wise, shedev. Feeling the love for your

Flora Mortis top here too, it looks fab on you

Quietgirl

Veteran

I am like Suz, I simply cannot get 50 wears out of sweaters. Even JCrew sweaters pill way too fast. I make it sound like I am moving furniture in them! (not) Of course, wearing them around the house can up the CPW but mostly I wear washable stuff at home since I am also the cleaning lady! Thanks for a thoughtful post, shedev.

Elizabeth P

Veteran

I've really enjoyed this post Shedev...both your analysis,the comments, and especially your detailed response TO the comments. Lots of things to think about!

I track my CPW by default, as it's a feature in Stylebook (if you take the time to plug in the cost of an item) but I don't really do anything with it. When I see the #wears some of you get, I realize (not that I didn't already) that I have a lot of clothes. I think it's time for me to get serious about what I need and wear.

I do have a question about CPW though... for you and whoever... do you not find that if you are purposefully trying to hit a certain number, that you are almost forced into wearing things you might not want to? I think that pressure would cause me to start almost resenting n some pieces. "I want to wear skinnies today but the CPW on my BF's is still too high so I should wear those" kind of thing.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Elizabeth, I'll take a stab at that -- even though i haven't really been tracking CPW, LOL. Just wears.

In short, I think tracking CPW could work that way for some people, "forcing" them to wear items with relatively low happiness value. And that's precisely what they want. It's a strategy for wardrobe pruning. I think rabbit did this -- she made herself wear things that were not getting lots of love -- but then made decisions about them after wearing. Making sure you've tried them allows you to see -- do I not love them because they are unlovable, or do I not love them because there are too many similar items competing for attention, or for some other reason -- and is it time to say goodbye to them.

I think it is an especially useful strategy for someone with a large wardrobe who has trouble letting go of things.

My wardrobe is medium sized, I know I generally wear everything except special occasion items, and I also know that a few things get far more wear than other things but those less worn things still have a vital place. And I'm an eager and easy "editor." So for me, that kind of tracking of CPW isn't as valuable. At the end of every season I just sort of ask myself "Do I love this enough to wear next year?" and if the answer is "NO" or "Eh, probably not" then I pass along.

shedev

Veteran

Suz hit pretty close to home on this. It just helps to remind me to wear things more. If I find myself passing over an item repeatedly, out it goes. No forcing wears and no taking up my closet space allowed.

lyn67

Veteran

Nice sneakers, really give a punch to your otherwise simple but flawless outfit! And wow, what a great anlysis!

"I have had these for a few years but never really wore them. This year they feel kinda right". This really resonates with me.

I am always the very latest to trends here, but I suddenly got to wear my red chinos(khakis) this spring already 2 times. Never had colored jeans(pants) before in my adult life and these were bought very very late (last spring) but saddly never wore till now as did not felt right for a matter -but suddenly all things clicked together. It happens to me sometimes-so yes. Keep those great clothes you are loving.