Cost Per Wear: How to Work Out If Clothes Are Worth the Price

Cost per wear is a simple metric: take the price you pay for an item of clothing, say $150, divide it by the number of times you'll wear it, say 400, and the result is $0.375 per wear. It sounds straightforward, but what counts as cost, and more importantly, what counts as a wear that keeps the metric useful?

"Cost per wear is 'a ratio that does what it says on the tin: quantifies the cost of a single wearing.' In English, it's written as: Total Cost ÷ Number of Times Worn," says a definitive guide from the online fashion brand Clueless Clothing. But before you try the formula, read on for the caveats you need to apply.

The basic formula

The definitions are all the same: the cost per wear is the number you get when you divide the total cost by the number of times the garment is expected to be worn. It's based on a simple formula:

One source defines it as: "Cost per wear = Purchase price ÷ Number of wears."

That seems straightforward: but which number represents the full cost, and which number represents how often the buyer expects to wear the item?

"To truly get a sense for how much you're spending per actual wear," says lifestyle blog The Frugal Glow, "you'll need to take a more advanced approach." The group work out the formula by including the item's resale value and the care costs you will incur: "(Net cost = Purchase Price + Care/Repair Costs - Resale Value) ÷ Number of Times Worn."

But before anyone reaches for the price tag or product details, the first assumption is the big one: the wear you will get from the item. And although most people will be able to guess the right number, it's more important to be realistic than confident.

What counts as "cost"?

The starting point sounds simple: the price on the tag, or the price you paid at checkout. But the costs can be hidden, and there are ways to reduce them, or at least include them in the calculation.

"If the item needs tailoring, include the cost of that in your total cost. So you're paying $50 for a dress, but you have to spend another $10 to get it properly tailored. That's a total cost of $60 for the dress," says the Clueless Clothing blog. Style In Process also writes, "If you plan on any alterations, adjustments, or repairs, add them in the total cost."

On the other side, you can also include any resale you can get from the item, if you plan to sell it later, but it can be tricky and almost impossible to predict in advance. The Frugal Glow blog says, "deducting your estimated resale value from the purchase price is standard. Because, if you're going to sell your outfit at the end of the season, of course that affects your ROI on the item."

Estimating realistic wears

As mentioned, the wear you'll get from an item is an estimate. And you have to count the time the item will spend in your wardrobe, not just the period between the purchase and an occasional-use occasion.

The Frugal Glow blog acknowledges that the wear-count estimate is part of the art, and the science, of cost per wear calculation, and warns: "Do yourself a favor and resist the urge to justify that impulse buy with a future that’s bound to stay hypothetical. Project how many times you’re realistically going to wear the item, not how many times you could wear the item."

To take another example, The Pretty Planeteer includes as its worst case the time when an item is worn a single time, and thus its cost per wear is the same as its sticker price. This is worse than the sticker price, of course, when you factor in the costs around shipping, taxes and other costs that may have piled up to the purchase.

A reality check, not an exercise in fancy numbers

Where lifestyle expectations don't fit the metric

A guide at Style In Process raises a warning flag for category assumptions. A detailed breakdown on the service's website observes that pricing choices "assume that an item will be worn at least 1x per year, but it's possible that certain items are worn more frequently. For example, bags can be worn every day, while a t-shirt may only be worn occasionally."

Then again, it may not be the garment that is unsuited; it may be that your lifestyle doesn't support the high-frequency wear that reduces the cost per wear of the - relatively more expensive - buy.

If you have weekend outfits that you'll never get into, or fashionable items that will peek once at an event, then cost per wear wouldn't be a fair measure, probably because you are planning to donate or sell the item rather than keep it. One-for-occasion buys are unlikely to be worth it in terms of cost per wear.

If a top that is stylish but dated costs $30, and you'll wear it once, then the cost is $30 per wear, and you are covering the cost, but you can also try the cost per wear metric to justify its purchase. When thinking about whether an item is worth it, consider the following questions:

• Will I actually have an opportunity to wear that piece of clothing, even once?
• Do I truly wear the item as often as I think I will?
• Would my budget benefit by purchasing a less expensive item instead?