#ootd - my photographer has returned!

Some of you may remember that my husband, also my #ootd photographer (yes, he's a super sweet guy <3), was away for 6 months to go return to school and pursue a new career. He returned home in early February after passing with flying colors, and has already begun employment with one of the largest companies in his new industry. Many congrats to him!!!

And now, after settling down with a new work schedule and finally being able to spend a weekend together between both our work schedules, was able to spend some time to do a #ootd shoot. It also helped that our rainy Vancouver weather let up for an hour and we were able to head outside. 

Work has gotten even busier for me so I don't get home until after dark, therefore, moving forward, I'll try my best to keep up with daily #ootd posts but will try to do a proper shoot and post a 'featured #ootd' post when I have more time on the weekends and me and the husband have more time together. 

So, without further adieu, the return of #ootd! 

Jacket | Michael Kors

Top | Banana Republic

Jeans | Banana Republic

Shoes | The Wishbone Collection

Bag | Lauren by Ralph Lauren Whitby satchel

Watch | Seiko

Necklace | Swarovski

 

 

Designer jeans - a thing of the past for me

Remember several years ago when you couldn't open a magazine without seeing an article about how much we 'had to own' a pair of designer jeans? ... I'm not going to lie, I got caught up in the hype too, and I'm going to confess... I didn't buy them because I personally thought that the quality and cuts were better; a younger and much less wiser me, bought them purely as status symbols and justified them as investment pieces. Looking back, jeans were something I should have saved my money on, and here's why - 

Weight change - this of course is not the jeans' fault, but now I'm left with 6 pairs of designer jeans that don't fit (thank goodness I was able to give 2 to my friend earlier this month). At my age now, I've accepted that my weight will fluctuate for better or for worse, and there's no way that I can confidently say that I will be able to fit into the same size jeans from month-to-month, let alone a solid year. (This is why I love bags). This leads me to my next reason - cost per wear.

Cost per wear - out of 365 days of the year, there are approximately 104 days (weekends) that I can choose to wear jeans; that's about 28% of the year. Throw in some business casual Fridays, stat holidays and vacation days, then counter that with days I wear something else, we may be looking at actually 15%, which is about 55 days. I currently own 10 pairs of designer jeans and at a rough average of $125/pair (bought on sale and regular price), we're possibly looking at a Burberry coat.

(side note: Burberry coats are currently my wardrobe 'exchange rate'). 

Now, only 4 of the 10 pairs fit me and are in rotation, and here's their cost per wear breakdown for one year: ($125 per pair x 4 pairs) / (365 x 0.15) = $9.13/wear. (Interesting fact: if I were to wear the same pair of jeans for an entire year, its cost per wear would be $2.29). As I mentioned before, my goal for cost per wear is $1 - $9 is not going to do!

Less expensive options - In the last 6 months, and most recently, in February, I purchased two pairs for approximately $24 and $15 (yes, at the GAP =P), and they have already paid for themselves! If they wear down or my weight changes, I have no problem letting them go.

Other pant options - I've recently fallen in love with cords for fall/winter and khakis for spring/summer. They're great alternatives to jeans, especially khakis when the weather just gets too hot. Last summer, I spent most of my time out of jeans. Moving forward I expect that I will be wearing these alternatives more often, further preventing my cost per wear from going down

So taking the above into account, designer jeans are no longer an item I'm willing to spend my money on as an 'investment piece.' I'll be sticking to more reasonably priced alternatives, or picking them up at major discount.