This morning, while ironing your go-to work trousers, you noticed the fabric across the thighs for the first time. It has faded paler than the rest. Tonight, an October sale notification lands on your phone. Half an hour later, your cart holds four items with slashed prices.
Not one of them is a replacement pair of trousers.
There's nothing wrong with a sale. What often goes wrong is the order in which we judge what's in it. The percentage off registers in a split second, long before we think to ask about the fabric, let alone whether we need the thing at all. The safer order is the other way round: judge the item first, then look at the price.
A Discount Doesn't Change the Fabric
A discount only changes the number on the tag. A thin tee that stretches out easily will stay that way, even at half price. A crooked pocket seam doesn't suddenly straighten because the price has been crossed out.
But sale items aren't automatically second-rate either. Things often go on sale for simple reasons: stock needs to keep moving, or only a few sizes are left. So there's no need to be overly suspicious, and no need to lower your standards. Judge the item exactly as you would at full price.
How to Check Fabric Quality When You Shop Online
In a shop, you can scrunch the fabric in your hand and hold it up to the light. Shopping on your phone gives you no such chance. All you have to go on is the product description and the photos, so make the most of both.
Read the fabric description to the very end instead of stopping at the colour name. Then zoom in on the detail shots. Look at the surface texture of the fabric, then at the stitching around the collar and the pocket openings. Neat stitching runs straight and tight, with no loose threads dangling.
Say you've got your eye on a maroon red Crew tee. What you need to judge is how thick the fabric is and how neatly the neckline is stitched. A plain tee has no print or other detail to hide its flaws, so those two things are what count. The slashed price beside it tells you nothing about either.
Still unsure? Ask the shop's customer service what the fabric is and roughly how thick it is. If the reply goes round in circles without naming a material, take that as your answer. Give it a miss.
Work Out the Cost per Wear
There's a more honest calculation than the discount percentage: the price divided by the number of times you actually wear the item. Trousers that come out twice a week all year work out very cheap per wear, even if the original price was nothing special. A funny graphic tee worn twice before it sinks to the bottom of the wardrobe turns out to be the expensive one, however spectacular the discount looked.
By this measure, pieces you can wear to lots of places almost always win. Take the Army Chino. Chinos are cotton trousers that sit somewhere in the middle: more relaxed than office dress trousers, but smarter than jeans. A pair like this can go to the office on weekdays, then come along to a family dinner at the weekend. The more often you wear them, the lower the cost per wear. Something that suits only one kind of occasion will struggle to compete with that, however cheap it is.
The same logic applies to colour. The safest choices are colours you already know you wear a lot, such as black, navy, grey or brown. A new colour can still go in the cart, as long as you know straight away what you'll wear it with.
Three Questions to Weed Out Impulse Buys
First: what gap does this fill in your wardrobe? A replacement for those faded work trousers clearly passes. A fifth blue shirt, nearly identical to the four already hanging in your wardrobe, fills nothing. At that point, you're collecting.
Second: without opening your wardrobe, name three things you'd pair it with. If the answers come easily, you'll wear it often. If you're still scratching your head after a minute, it will most likely follow that funny tee to the bottom of the wardrobe.
The third is the most effective: if the price weren't slashed, would you still want it? If yes, treat the discount as a small bonus. If not, then all that ever drew you in was the percentage. Any doubt you feel at checkout usually follows you all the way to the unboxing.
One more thing, about size. If what's left isn't your size, let it go. Clothes in the wrong size rarely get worn, however big the discount. The only exception is if you're sure a tailor can alter them at a sensible cost.
Write a Shopping List Before You Open the Sale Page
The most sensible time to start shopping a sale is once you know what you're after. Write your list in your phone's notes first, then open the promo page. Do it the other way round and your cart fills up with whatever happens to scroll past on your screen.
Those faded work trousers deserve the first line on that list, and their replacement can be judged the same way. The description of the black Smart Waist Chino, for instance, is clear about the fabric: cotton twill with a little stretch fibre mixed in. The waistband has hidden elastic, which is where the name Smart Waist comes from. You can weigh all of that before you so much as glance at the price. And you already had a reason to buy them this morning, long before the sale notification came in.
Next month, open your wardrobe and look at which piece you've worn the most. Usually, it's also the one whose discount you've already forgotten.