Calculating Fashion

*This piece first appeared on the blog Pretty and Poor as a guest post. I have reposted it here, along with an update at the end.

Long before I had a fashion blog I had a critical inner fashionista, and she manifested herself in my now-longstanding fabric-to-price ratio. From the time that my mother began dropping my sister and I off at the mall when we were in middle school, I simply decided that some items were not big enough to pay big money for. My two basic tenets:

Synthetic fabric – such as polyester or acrylic – should not be expensive. Conversely, it’s ok to pay more for great textiles, such as cashmere, jersey (wool, silk or cotton), or linen. (I’m a textile snob.)

Small things – such as sunglasses or bathing suits – should not cost hundreds of dollars.

If it can fit in the palm of my hand and it’s NOT jewelry or a piece of expensive technology, there should not be more than 2 digits in the price.

But the older I get, the more I develop my personal style, and the more money I have to spend, I do come across situations that challenge my ratio. Just today I encountered two beautiful tops I dearly wanted but that gave me serious pause:

The top on the left is just downright Gorgeous. Beautiful. Classy.  Satin is a “great textile” and it’s the kind of blouse you can dress up or down and always look fabulous. And did I mention that blouse was originally $395? It’s expensive, but feels like it would be a great investment.

The top on the left is fun and original. How about that print?! It’s the kind of t-shirt you need in your closet because you can throw it on with jeans, make zero effort, and still look cool. We all need t-shirts like that! It was originally $495 so $123.75 is quite a discount. But still, $123.75 for a t-shirt??? But again, this is the t-shirt you want to have in your closet when you just can’t be bothered to think about clothes, but still want to turn heads.

Tough call. I’ve thought about it for hours and still can’t decide what I would do (the black top is sold out – probably for the best), but whatever the outcome, it will certainly be a defining moment for my fabric-to-price ratio.

Update: I decided not to buy the t-shirt, unless it’s discounted at least 50% more. I found a cooler version of the cloud print in a satin blouse that I liked better, and at just $10 more was a better deal. The blouse sold out quickly, and now this t-shirt feels like a consolation prize. An expensive consolation prize. Albeit one that I would pay ~$65 for.