How much are you wearing?

[imomus]

In an idle moment in London a couple of weeks ago, Hisae and I were sitting in a café on the Finchley Road, leafing through a copy of Grazia magazine. We came across a feature called "So what's your street value?"



"According to a report last week," said the magazine, "the average Brit leaves the house wearing £851 worth of stuff -- and that's before you've even hit the shops".

Now, sure, we were reading a bling magazine in a bling town, but that seemed a little steep. What's more, the photos showed street outfits whose dowdy unattractiveness was matched only by their staggering cost. Lisa Harvey, for instance, a 30 year-old fabric shop owner, was apparently sporting an outfit costing £35,967. Now, admittedly that included a diamond eternity ring worth £25,000, and wedding and engagement rings worth £10,000. But that still left £967 for a frankly underwhelming black garment with a little grey waistcoat on top.

The other evening Hisae showed me the ultimate Japanese clothes-otaku website. It's called Web Across, and it tells you everything you might want to know about what selected Japanese people are wearing -- where they bought their clothes, how much they paid, and what the temperature was when the photo was taken. What's striking is how much cheaper these outfits are than the British ones, and how much more pleasing. This lady, for instance, is wearing an outfit that cost just 85,000 yen -- that's £380 British bling-pounds. And this one manages to look hundreds of times nicer than Lisa Harvey despite having spent just 27,200 yen, or £120 bling-pounds.

I decided to calculate the cost price of the outfit I was wearing yesterday. As you see, the total came to €129, which, at today's exchange rate, is just £86.32 in bling-pounds, which leaves me almost £900 shy of Lisa Harvey and £764.68 more cheaply-dressed than the average Briton. Then again, my British mother told me earlier this month that she thought I dressed appallingly, and that she'd be embarrassed to walk down the street beside me.

That stung, so I'd like to point out, in my own defense, Mama -- and I do apologize if this sounds like boasting -- that there's a 12-page article about me (including a photo by Paul Mpagi in which I'm wearing an even cheaper outfit than the one you see here, featuring an apron purchased in the penny-stores of Manhattan's Chinatown and wristbands from the uniform shops of Osaka's Shinsekai) in the new edition of cutting-edge Dutch fashion magazine Currency.

It's an interesting word, when you think about it: "currency" can mean bling-money, or it can mean the quality of being current -- staying abreast, or forging ahead. And you really don't need much currency to be current.

Comments

Farts

[(Anonymous)]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvLq9qk4II4 This is what I am wearing

[the23.livejournal.com]

you have something of an arithmetic problem in paragraph three.

this briton ventured out onto fancypants byres road today wearing sweater knitted by his grandmother twenty years ago (i bet it cost her less than a tenner), t-shirt advertising friends' acoustic tour of midwestern supermarket car parks ($5), thrift store skater jeans (<$5), walking boots (£23) and stupid facial hair (free), carrying a wallet with about £35 in it and wearing a watch whoch was a gift but probably cost about £20. this briton has an above average disposable income. no wonder most of my fellow countrymen are deep in debt. fools!

Re: Farts

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'd already seen that video. The smiling man with the beard is indeed elegant -- I'm being perfectly serious, even if he isn't.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Whoops, my bad on the arithmetic. Fixed. Still shockingly overpriced, though.

Glad to hear you're getting the better of rip-off blingo spendspendspend Britain! Yay for thrift!

£210 whatever that is in euros

[pitcherthis.livejournal.com]

this im guessing is cheap in street values :S

[contraries.livejournal.com]

I'd be surprised if any outfit (including shoes and accessories) I wore came to more than £100.

But then again, I shop at Primark and eBay.

I'm cheap...

[lecabinet.livejournal.com]

watch £9.99

jumper £3.50

jeans £40

tshirt £5 in 1997

trainers $20

socks £4

new bra £7

pants... from a multipack so £1

= £86.49

and glasses £110.

[cityramica.livejournal.com]

the only things i'm wearing right now that cost me money are my boots, underwear, and headphones. the rest was either donated to me by a friend who worked at Levis & a vintage clothing store, or else belongs to Virgil. The headphones are the priciest thing on my person.

Re: I'm cheap...

[imomus.livejournal.com]

So where are all these £851 people, then? Is this just a big lie designed to make us up our spending (to very little visible effect) and put more debt on our credit cards?

Re: I'm cheap...

[lecabinet.livejournal.com]

It disgusts me that anyone could spend that amount one really generic clothes; the women in that article look like they're wearing Topshop clothes.

I did see a programme about a woman who was in debt and her boyufriend didnt really know to what extent. She said she couldnt buy a label-less bag because no one would know how much it cost. Of course she couldnt afford to maintain the look of being rich. A very sad situation, makes me glad I'm a bargain hunter.

[niemandsrose.livejournal.com]

Does my dental work count?

[alibee.livejournal.com]

My officemate is wearing clothing entirely from Goodwill. So, her outfit probably cost $10US. I bet the most expensive thing she's wearing is a bra (hey, did they count those in the totaling of women's clothing? Victoria's Secret makes a KILLING on bras).

I'm wearing a sweater and jeans that I've probably had for 5-10 years. The most expensive part of MY outfit (besides bra, as mentioned) would be my Docs. Damnit. I'm too high-style to read your blog. :P

[imomus.livejournal.com]

There are all sorts of alternative accountings we could make. For instance, I'm wearing a Japanese vest. While cheap, it did cost a lot in jet fares to get it (and in environmental damage). There's also time as cost; it took me months to match my sailor trousers with a similar sailor top. I could imagine someone being willing to pay a lot of money to avoid having that long search.

[niemandsrose.livejournal.com]

And depreciation changes the reckoning too. As does thrift/resale/consignment shopping. And theft.

[niemandsrose.livejournal.com]

My bra cost more than my Docs! Eek!

[alibee.livejournal.com]

I'd have to say that bras tend to last longer than Docs in my experience (the ones I end up with always have leather that loses its stain in the toes because apparently I kick lots of things accidentally).

[niemandsrose.livejournal.com]

Also my docs were bought used, and I'm skeeved by used underclothes.

[rroseselavyoui.livejournal.com]

I'd like to send each one of those over-consumers this message:

[alibee.livejournal.com]

Rightly so!

We (some girls I know here in Madison) have a big garage sale twice a year. There's this cross-dresser who always shows up, and since I usually handle the money, I tally his goods. (His outfit is decidedly strange -- usually farmer chic with fake nails. I guess he does his cross-dressing in the privacy of his own home.) The fact that he's bought a couple pair of heels never even registered for me, but this year he bought someone's used panties and bra.

What REALLY got me about that is that I am apparently friends with someone who sells her underwear. This is not Japan, people! It's Madison, WI!

Man, I miss SF.

[alibee.livejournal.com]

I would like to complain. If you're going to wear sailor clothes, your eye patch needs to be more piratey.

Re: I'm cheap...

[girfan.livejournal.com]

Was that the show where they took a designer bag out on the street and no one guessed that it was a designer (over £500) bag? Where some people thought it was from a cheap shop?

It made me laugh.

[girfan.livejournal.com]

Not counting my eyeglasses, I figure I'm wearing around £75.00 worth of clothes (and a watch). Most of my clothes are "classic" style and last me for years. I tend to update clothes with accessories...a lot of which I buy in charity shops or online. I just bought a new winter coat for £65.00-the first one I've owned in over 10 years (I have a 15 year old biker leather and a short wool jacket).

It amazes me when I see the prices a lot of women pay for clothes, especially ones that are quite trendy and will go out of season in 10 minutes!

Granted, I did see an art nouveau inspired shoulder bag in leather and velvet from Liberty's that I adore...if I had a spare £500. If I got one, I would own it until I died.

[(Anonymous)]

Your unfortunate mother is absolutely right -- you're a complete and utter shape these days! A few years ago you used to be quite smart, but now you've come over all nutter/hippy/pennerverein. Still at least it shows your rather elegant girlfriend likes you for who you are. Either that or she thinks you've stashed all that money you've saved on clothes.

Wully fae the dapper OSP

What ARE You Wearing?

[charleshatcher.livejournal.com]

[xvs.livejournal.com]

heh
if you'll try to do same sort of accounting here in russia (oh, especially somewhere near Ural or somewhere like that) you'll find out that total balance is sometimes under $10 :)
and it's not horrible-looking quilted jacket and tarpaulin boots, but something with thin beauty flavour :)

yes, sure, theres a lot of people with $300+ and $3000+ outfit, but it's only single persons from grey faceless crowd and it's not the best people...
(i guess most often it's a people inferiority complex, 'cos single glance at their faces can tell volumes)
funny magazine's reports and fantasy :)
but i guess theres a lots of people who read that and thinks that it's a real world
hollow mummies from spaceless place in placeless space...


oh, sorry for my bad english :)