The ‘90s Fashion Scheme: Buy Less but Buy Better : Style: Some working women are rediscovering an old-fashioned way to shop for clothes.
What a curse the Bard left us with in the idea that clothes make the man. A double pox on the assumption that they make the woman.
“In my first job, the guy I worked with had two suits, seven shirts, eight pairs of socks, one pair of shoes and some ties,” says financial analyst Francoise Giacalone in Los Angeles. “He went with that for a year.”
Women are hard-pressed to follow that example. As a result, buying clothes suitable for launching a professional career can put a serious dent in a woman’s personal finances. It is not difficult to spend several thousand dollars for a good initial working wardrobe.
Dress codes are also tougher on women. Many employers still forbid or frown on pants. And there is the problem of the dreaded pantyhose, which cost $5 a pair and seem to tear almost immediately.
Enter the fashion scheme of the ‘90s--investment clothing. In a fitting end to the shameless consumption of the 1980s, fashion stores and their customers are rediscovering the old-fashioned method of buying less but buying better. Increasingly, professional women are eschewing high fashion for long-term values. High prices are reinforcing the trend.
Nordstrom’s Personal Touch department has even prepared a pamphlet called “Investment Dressing,” illustrating suggested outfits for women in different careers.
“The clothes may be more expensive, but they last longer,” insists Lisa Netel, a Personal Touch Manager at Nordstrom in Glendale.
Experts advise women who are starting out to keep it simple but buy quality items. Try to get a good winter suit, two pleated skirts (one solid, the other a print), two blazers, several pairs of shoes, a belt and a trio of blouses. The bill can quickly cross the $1,000 mark, but if you’ve made the right choices, you’ll enjoy returns on your investment for years to come.
Marnie Carlin, a lawyer at the firm of Tuttle & Taylor in downtown Los Angeles, took this simple approach out of necessity. She had just a week between final examinations and her first day on the job to buy what she needed. “I found a good sale at Bullock’s,” she says, and picked out a gray suit, a black suit, a glen-plaid suit, a handful of blouses and several pairs of shoes.
Monica Williams Rupert proved that investment dressing isn’t always cheap, at least in the short run. Recently named vice president of sales at Secure Horizons, a division of Pacificare, she had just returned to the executive ranks after years of selling commercial real estate and tending her twin boys.
Needing a wardrobe to suit her new job, Rupert went for quality in a few suits, mix-and-match skirts, and blouses and dresses, which she fervently hopes will last a long time. But prices had risen tremendously since she left the corporate suite, and her new duds cost thousands, which she didn’t spend eagerly. “I have a mortgage and preschool to pay,” she says.
Many women understandably take a more gradual approach.
“It took me six years to reach a decent working wardrobe,” says Adrian Meredith, an image consultant specializing in fashion eyeglasses. She started her working life in the cosmetics industry in New York, and her initial salary of $95 a week would buy one outfit. So she decided not to let the weather dictate her attire: “I would buy clothes to wear year-round.”
That’s one cost advantage for Los Angeles, where the climate is such that a single business wardrobe can work for most of the year.
“Buying gabardines can expand your winter wardrobe and take you through spring,” advises Penny Haberman, director of the Fifth Avenue Club at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. She advises customers to invest in scarves. At $65 each, they’re a cheap way to convert one outfit into several.
“They can be a blouse, a belt. They can make you feel you are wearing a wonderful outfit instead of the same old thing again,” says Mildred Marx, a South Bay scarf fan who is executive director of a charitable foundation.
Fashion consultant Mary Willia has worked out a system using one suit, one dress and two scarves to create a different outfit for every business day of the week.
Executive recruiter Harriet Lipson of Los Angeles carried the keep-it-simple approach even further. “I took my limited budget and decided to wear only two colors--black and white,” she says. Lipson kept to her duochrome look for 13 years.
Giacalone says she was even more extreme when she was poor: “At one point I said all I would wear was gray.”
You needn’t go this far, but a basic approach is a sound way to build a business wardrobe on a budget. Says Willia: “Stick to black and brown shoes, blue and gray suits, solid color dresses.”
As the months go by, you can add suits, coat-dresses and more skirts and blazers. Francine Stessel, director of corporate communications at Redken Laboratories Inc., took this gradual approach. “It took six or seven years to reach a satisfactory level,” she says.
She buys such good quality that she frequently recycles things. “I update the buttons. I have jackets reshaped. It might cost $25,” she says.
If you really have to choose between expensive clothes and accessories such as handbags, shoes and belts, Willia comes down on the side of accessories. “Your bosses and clients won’t notice the $30 dress,” she says. “People make or break deals with shoes.”
Marx says she emphasizes jewelry, and as her responsibilities expanded she also enlarged her color scheme. “If I give a talk, I usually wear red. It is hard to overlook someone wearing a red dress.”
For those who don’t want to haunt the discount outlets and wholesalers, Haberman points out another way. Two of her customers, both the same size, bought one Donna Karan bodysuit to share. The conclusion for the young professional starting out is clear. Move in with a roommate who wears your size. You double your wardrobe instantly.
