Investing wisely

Dream frock or financial nightmare?

It’s a case of love at first sight. Your dream dress. It’s bang on trend, is in a colour you love, the fabric feels great and you can already imagine yourself wearing it, making marvelously witty conversation in different fabulous scenarios. You can hardly wait to get into the fitting room to slip it on. And by the time it comes to head over to the register you can’t whip out your fantastic plastic fast enough. But before you break the (piggy) bank, you might want to think about what this new number is really costing you.

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I’m not talking about the price printed on the swing tag. No siree! That’s just for starters. There are heaps of other hidden expenses (and don’t even get me started on the environmental costs). Are you using credit to purchase your dearly beloved? If you don’t pay off your card quick smart you’ll be slapped with an interest fee courtesy of your bank.

And remember, this is more than merely a financial transaction. You’re also trading your time and energy. Add up how many hours of work it takes for you to afford your foxy frock. It might not be an issue if you’re lucky enough to have a job you love, but if not….

Another way to figure out if your latest vestment is a wise investment, is to think about how often you’re going to wear it. Introducing the cost-per-wearing formula! Don’t worry, not too much scary maths… Just divide the cost of the garment (including any upkeep such as dry cleaning) by the total number of expected wearings. A $250 pair of jeans you wear 250 times is a bargain. A $250 frock you wear twice costs you $125 per wear. Ouch! You don’t need a degree in finance to know that that’s more dollars than sense!

The moral of the story then? Buy what you love and love what you buy. Love it to death! When you do that you get your money’s worth and reduce your fashion footprint. Ka-ching! Now that’s what I call a wise investment!

Back to front

I’m sure we all agree that sustainability starts at home. It’s the multitude of little things we do that, collectively, add up to a big picture. In terms of sartorial sustainability, that means consuming less and wearing more.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But these days we have so many clothes, shoes, belts, hats and scarves jam-packed into our wardrobes that it’s sometimes hard to get a handle on how much of it we’re actually wearing. How do we figure out what’s on high rotation and what almost never sees the light of day? I encourage clients who need help sorting the wheat from the chaff in their wardrobes to turn the coat hanger around once they’ve worn a garment.

Employing the back-to-front hanger strategy is an easy way to remind you to try and wear most of your clothes most of the time. I’m not suggesting donning a heavy winter coat in summer (well…. it is Melbourne), but even if we’re sticking to clothes that are suitable in a particular season, I’ll bet there’s a lot of unutilised potential in there. So next time you see a back-to-front hanger, move on and choose something else! You’ve been there, done that and variety is, after all, the spice of life. And once all your hangers are facing the wrong way you know it’s time to start all over again (and by then you probably will be wanting your winter coat)!

Vamp it up (or down)

Vamp. It’s one of those words that has few letters but multiple meanings. Vamp, of course, is short for vampire and, given the absolute fixation with all things vamp at the moment – The Vampire Diaries, Twilight, True Blood – it seems apt to dedicate a post to it. Vamp is also used to describe a femme fatale – a woman who, while she might not drain men of their blood, drains them of other things. Yes, that. But also their money! A vamp is a flirt, a minx who uses her feminine whiles to seduce and exploit men.

So, what has all this got to do with a blog about style, you ask? Not much, admittedly … except today we’re here to discuss the vamp of a shoe! The vamp is the upper part of a boot or shoe that encases the tops of the toes and some of the foot. It basically helps hold the shoe onto the foot. In the case of thongs or sandals, the vamp might only be a strap or two (unless they’re gladiator sandals). Ballet flats, pumps and other closed footwear can have high or low vamps. The hard-to-wear ankle boot (also known as a shoe boot or ‘shoot’) has a high vamp. If, on the other hand, you’re showing a bit of toe cleavage, your footwear definitely has a low cut vamp.

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The height of the vamp affects how long (or short) your legs appear. If you’re blessed with the legs of a gazelle you can get away with wearing shoes with a high vamp. For the other 99% of us, the problem with high vamped shoes (the same goes for thick ankle straps) is that they cut the line of your leg off at the ankle, making your legs look shorter and heavier. Eek!

Even worse is teaming high vamped shoes with knee-length (or longer) skirts/Capri pants because your legs will end up looking like stumps. Have you ever noticed that the bean-pole models promoting ankle boots and chunky strapped heels almost always wear them with micro minis? Exposing some leg above the knee helps restore the length cut off from the ankle down.

If you simply love high-vamped shoes, but do not have the aforementioned gazelle-like legs, you can team them with long pants that cover the ankle. Alternatively, if you want to wear them with a skirt, make sure you match the colour of your hosiery to both the shoe and the skirt hemline. This will create an unbroken line and restore some apparent height and length. Voila! It’s a shoe in!