Posted by Mike Smith :: January 22, 2008 @ 2:52 pm

There’s an old saying that clothes “make the man,” but my recent shopping experiences cause me to question that. What do the clothes we wear really say about us?

Clothes don’t hold a lot of significance in my life, which can be seen in my small allocation for clothes in my yearly budget. I’ve always dressed respectably, but have never been one to spend a lot on clothes or put a lot of my self-worth into the value of my clothes.

I recently had a big event to go to and decided to spring for a new outfit. Since it was a special occasion, I decided to go to a high-end store to see what they had to offer. I was shocked to see that they were selling dress shirts for $75 and pants for $180. To make matters worse, those were the sale prices. Normally they would have been $110 and $225 respectively. I’m all for looking nice, but there’s no way I could justify spending that kind of money on an outfit that I’ll only wear a few times.

To me, the difference in the way I look in a more affordable outfit vs. such an expensive one is not worth the price difference. I doubt the people who were attending the event with me would have noticed any difference either. Even if people could notice a difference, would it really be worth taking on debt to achieve that status? Perhaps trading debt for status is one of the reasons why credit card debt is so high in our country. Luckily, Lending Club has been able to help people get out of debt by refinancing their credit cards with a low rate person-to-person loan.

Part of my sticker shock stems from the fact that on those occasions when I do shop for clothes, I usually shop sales at retailers known for their reasonable prices. For a special occasion, I recommend going with a retailer one level higher than where you normally shop. My mistake was going to a store many levels above where I normally shop. Some companies make it easy for you to shop different tiers of their brand. The Gap, for instance, offers both a lower and higher brand, with their Old Navy and Banana Republic stores.

If you’re comfortable in your clothes and they are appropriate for the occasion, then I say the less you can spend, the better. It doesn’t take an expensive outfit to feel like a million bucks.