How to afford luxury & how to start a luxury wardrobe
hello pals! Today I am going to share my top tips for How to afford luxury & how to start a luxury wardrobe. I have been luxury shopping for around 15 years now and I have some pretty amazing items in my wardrobe…. And here’s something important to know… I didn’t get them by being a nepobaby or by earning lots of money. I got them by collecting them over a long period of time. This is everything I have learn in 15 years about buying luxury! Let’s chat!
make a wish list of luxury items you would love to own
first of all, get clear on what you would love to own! A Chanel bag? A Burberry raincoat? A Hermes birkin bag? Chanel espadrilles? Make the list and really think about what you would buy if you could. Some might call this manifesting; I just call it getting clear on my shopping goals!
read / watch reviews of what you would like to buy
so here’s the thing… you have found your dream bag, but before you shell out thousands of pounds, go on YouTube and do some googling for reviews. I wish I had done this because actually, my dream classic flap bag is really bloody heavy! And my tote which I thought I would wear every day isn’t great at going over my shoulder as the straps are about 1cm too short. So make that list and then start watching reviews. You might find your dreams need reevaluation!
Sorry, I don’t want to dampen your dreams, I want to make sure you make the right wishlist!
similarly, when your friends buy designer items, ask them what they think of the quality, and how it’s worn. If they aren’t impressed they will tell you and you might want to rethink buying anything from that brand, or in that fabric, or style in the future!
Quit fast fashion
no really! If you want luxury fashion then quit fast fashion: because I promise you are spending more than you think of cheap things which don’t last in your wardrobe. Instead try to only buy essentials, like black leggings or tights when you need them… or even pants and socks. I promise, you don’t need a new fast fashion coat. You probably already have 10!!!
Why quit? Because the less you spend on fast fashion, the more you have to put towards your luxury wardrobe, like a Vivienne Westwood bag. And I promise it will stay in your wardrobe a lot longer than any fast fashion’
fun story: my friend once said to me ‘I don’t know how you can afford so much *insert designer brand*, you earn less than me’.
and then I said ‘well I never buy fast fashion’ and she said ‘tbf, I do drop £100 in primark pretty much every time I go in and I go in a LOT’. it’s really that simple!
shop second hand
Instead of shopping for new fast fashion, try to buy second hand brands which are a little more luxurious. This will make you see how much nicer it is to have better clothes, even if they are pre-worn! Also, if you shop second hand, you might find you stumble upon some of your wishlist items for a fraction of the price!
Sell your old clothes and bags
selling your old clothes and bags is a great way to declutter your wardrobe, free up space and free up cash, even if you think the items you have to sell are worth £10-20 each, if you don’t wear them, then you might as well sell them. After all, if you sold 10 items on vinted for £10-20 each, you would make £100-200! That’s not bad!
buy authentic preloved items
I’m a big fan of buying designer items preloved. You do have to be careful where you buy them, but you can save a lot of money this way. For instance, one of the cheapest Chanel bags in store is the Chanel WOC, which costs around £2,900. That’s one of the smallest and cheapest bags you can buy new! However, I’ve seen these bags sell for half that price at auction (authenticated) and I’ve bought quite a few amazing bags for around £1000 – and one chanel bag for £600! Which you can barely get a necklace for these days in store!! I also bought a preloved Gucci marmont bag for £600 a few years ago and they now retail for a LOT more!
personally I like shopping preloved designer items at places like bonhams and vestiarie collective.
dos & don’ts of buying preloved designer items
Do: be careful to buy from trustworthy sources, don’t buy items in bad condition, worn items feel less precious so you can enjoy wearing them without fear of ruining them, items are rarer and less obvious than current season, you usually save money
Cons: items might come without boxes and dust bags, condition can vary
rent out your designer items
When you start to collect some good designer items, consider listing them on by rotation or Hurr to make some money back from them. You can put this money towards your next purchase! I recently rented a necklace out to someone for £80! It felt like free money!
go to sample sales
This is more of a London thing, but I would recommend keeping an ear out for sample sales, a lot of your favourite brands do them; Monica vinader, Mulberry, Kate spade, anya hindmarch and so many more! I used to buy loads of Vivienne Westwood at sample sales and it was amazing!!
sign up to your favourite brands mailing lists
On a similar note, sign up to your favourite brands mailing lists so you can hear about any flash sales, sample sales or further discount codes. To save money on luxury you need to do the hard graft! I once bought a moschino bag at 70% off because it went into further reductions and it ended up being pretty iconic and now it’s worth at least triple what I paid for it! I would never have known about the further reductions if I hadn’t been on it!!
if you trust yourself, buy items using staggered payments
Let’s be honest, this isn’t for everyone, but if you know you could trust yourself to do a part payment scheme then consider it! For instance, Klarna split payments into three chunks. Maybe your dream bag costs £1200 and you have already saved £400 and you know you could save the other £800 by the time you need to pay it back, then why not! You do have to be strict with yourself, but it can be a great way to stagger the payments!
If you have ever asked ‘How to afford luxury’ then the simplest formula is to only buy what’s essential so you can save money for luxury and then put the money towards staggering payments of the luxury items you want.
alternatively, you could open a 0% interest credit card and buy the item using it. Usually these cards are 0% for 12 months and then they ramp up to 20%, so you would need to pay it off within a year. All you need to do is:
- Take out a 0% credit card
- buy the item you want
- divide the price by 12
- set up a direct debit to pay off 1/12 of the amount every month for a year
- by the end of the year, the item will be yours and the repayments will be a lot easier than saving the amount up from scratch!
- top tip: don’t buy anything until you have decided how much you could comfortably pay off per month. Don’t overstretch yourself!
How to afford luxury: Stalk the sales!
I’ve bought so many amazing things from the net-a-Porter and matches sale. It’s a lot more work and effort, but stalk the sales, look out for extra discount codes, deals, mailing list offers or anything. Keep checking back because you never know when your dream dress will be 70% off!
Pros & cons of buying luxury fashion
Pros: it feels more special, you will love it more, buying less is better for the planet, you can resell items if you get bored of them, investing in timeless designs mean you can wear them for longer
cons: it’s more of an investment, mistake purchases are expensive errors
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Thank you for reading my post on the how to afford luxury! I hope you like it as much as I do! If you have any questions, please let me know and if you decide to buy anything, please use my affiliate link. It helps me out a lot, and I promise, it doesn’t cost you any more or alter the price of your items, all that happens is I make a few pennies commission from the sale.