Thirty wears: the one question to ask in the fitting room
A rule small enough to keep in your head, and what it does to a rail full of maybes.
There is a moment in every fitting room when the coat already feels like yours. The light is kind, the mirror is long, and the question you ask yourself is the wrong one: do I like it? Of course you like it. You picked it up.
The better question is smaller and much less romantic: will I wear this thirty times? Not love it, not need it — wear it. Put it on, go out in it, come home and hang it up again, thirty times over.
Why thirty
Thirty is not a law of nature. It is a number large enough to rule out the things you would wear twice, and small enough to picture. Once a week, it is about seven months. Once a month, two and a half years. Either way you can see the answer from where you are standing.
It has a useful side effect: it makes you think about the rest of your wardrobe. Thirty wears of a yellow shirt means thirty days on which something you already own goes with it.
Not “do I like it?” — “will I wear it thirty times?”
What it does to a rail of maybes
Ask it of everything in your arms and the pile sorts itself. The trousers that fit like the ones you live in pass easily. The jacket for a wedding you have not been invited to yet goes back. The shirt in a colour you never wear — you knew, but now you know why.
None of this is a rule against buying. Some things pass the question in a heartbeat, and those are the things worth paying properly for.
Try it
The thirty-wears question
How often would you wear it?
How long will you keep it?
Counts only what you chose here.
When thirty is the wrong number
Some things are not for thirty wears. A coat for a winter wedding, a swimsuit for one holiday a year, the suit for the interview. The question still helps: ask how many times, honestly, and decide whether that is enough for the price.
And some things will be worn far more than thirty times. Those are the ones that deserve the care — the washing, the mending, and a second life when you are done with them.
If you would rather not keep the count in your head: Dresd counts the wears on every piece you mark as bought, towards thirty.
Get the app
