The price tag tells you what a piece of clothing costs once. Cost per wear tells you what it costs every time you put it on. Those are very different numbers, and only one of them is useful.
The formula
Cost per wear = price paid ÷ number of times worn
That’s it. No spreadsheet, no jargon.
A £200 coat worn 100 times costs £2 a wear. A £30 shirt worn twice costs £15 a wear. The coat was seven times more expensive at the till, and seven times cheaper in real life.
One edge case: something you’ve never worn doesn’t cost £0 a wear — it has no number yet, because there’s nothing to divide by. The first wear sets it at the full price; every wear after that brings it down.
Why it matters
Your brain is wired to react to the price tag. Cost per wear quietly overrules it.
- It exposes the impulse buy. The bargain that lives at the back of the wardrobe was never a bargain.
- It rewards the boring pieces. The plain jeans you wear three times a week are the best-value thing you own.
- It makes “expensive” relative. A pricey item you’ll wear for years is cheaper than a cheap one you won’t.
Try it right now
Pick three things you’re wearing today. For each, guess the price and roughly how many times you’ve worn it. Divide.
You’ll probably find one hero (under £1 a wear), one solid performer, and one you’re now slightly annoyed about. That’s the whole point — the feeling is the lesson.
Go one step further
The formula gets more honest when you include what an item costs to keep: dry cleaning, repairs, that one tailoring visit. Add those to the price before dividing. Most people skip this and that’s fine — the simple version already changes how you shop.
Make it a habit
Estimating works once. Tracking works forever. Add your pieces with what you paid, log wears as they happen, and the number does the rest. Over a few months you’ll know exactly which items earn their place and which just take up a hanger.
Next up: the 30 wears rule — the same idea, applied before you buy.