Party for Less

After declaring that this blog will not be just about clothes and shopping, here’s a post about clothes and shopping. On Friday I went to a fancy black-tie party, wearing the dress pictured here. Pretty dresses are one of my weaknesses, and even though I always buy them on sale I still often spend more than I probably should for something that doesn’t get worn but a few times.

I am rather proud of this particular dress, however. I bought it at local vintage store Hip Wa Zee for $20 two years ago. It was originally ankle-length and I had it shortened, which probably cost around $10. (Normally I recommend doing your own hemming, but I was not up to the challenge of slippery pleated stretch polyester.) This is the second time I’ve worn it, bringing the Cost Per Wear (CPW) to approximately $15. That sounds like a lot, but consider that many people spend over $100 on cocktail dresses; you’d have to wear a hundred-dollar dress seven times to get its CPW down below $15.

While at the party, my friends Jean and Ann and I talked shoes. Ann was wearing lovely gold “Dancing with the Stars”-type shoes that she bought on Endless.com. I’d never heard of the site, but will definitely put it on my list of places to shop now that I know they have -$5 overnight shipping. That’s right: negative five dollars. Jean reminded us of Zappo’s 110% low price guarantee, which I had forgotten about. I don’t know how often people actually use it, but it certainly makes comparison shopping worthwhile.