How Americans Spend Their Money on Clothes

This graphic from the NYT shows how Americans spent their money in 2006. It diagrams household income, broken down into a dozen categories, for the lowest fifth household income ($10K, before taxes, for 1.7 people), the middle fifth household income ($45K for 2.3 people), and the upper fifth household income ($150K for 3.1 people).

I'm not an expert on this stuff, but I read these things when they pop up on reddit and so forth. What looks interesting to me is that the average household expenditure on apparel continues to sink. American households once spent about 15% of their income on clothing, and now they are under 4% in the middle and upper brackets. (Here's a 2001 essay by Jerome Segal for historical context.)

The annual clothing expenditure breaks down to about $500 per person in the lower fifth households, $675 in the middle fifth households, and $1150 in the upper fifth households. Giving the heads of households an extra allowance, and assuming that 2008 is not that different than 2006, it looks like the average man heading a 3 person household with a total income of $150K per year spends no more than $1,500 per year on his wardrobe. And a bread-earning man in a middle fifth household may spend $750 per year on his wardrobe, if he is willing & able to outspend his wife and/or barely clothe his half a child.

It's no wonder people look so bad! That was my first thought. That's not going to cut it. Some will argue that $125 per month is plenty of money to dress well, and to some extent this is true, but let's not pretend that ebay or the thrift store or the BB after-Xmas sale would be the same thing if every one of these men hounded these places for deals. And while $125 per month might be an acceptable budget for maintaining a decent wardrobe, there's no way that's enough to start one up. And how is a working father with one child and a household income of $45K going to dress well spending only $62.50 per month on his wardrobe? It's not going to happen. At best this guy is going to wear chinos from China, polo shirts, button downs, sweaters and sweatshirts, and $100 shoes.

The only way an American dresses better than this, today, is if he makes clothing his hobby, or if he significantly outspends his equals on apparel. (And contrary to popular opinion, the average American household does not allocate a significant portion of their income to frivolous expenditures that could easily be diverted to clothes. See Segal's essay for support of that statement.)

I've long been interested in the resentment American men will express toward their better-dressed equals. At first I thought it was mainly because they regarded the dandies as "putting on airs," that is, as making an irritating claim to an evidently nonexistent superiority. More and more I'm thinking the cause of the resentment is economic. It's not that we make more than our equals -- they know how much we make (the same as them) -- it's that we somehow find a way to spend more than them on clothes. People do not want to be told how to spend their money, and if you raise the bar, sartorially, at your place of work, that's basically what you are doing to your co-workers: they know what they spend on clothes, they know it's not enough to dress as well as you, and they resent the obvious implications.

i don't quite get you - what are the obvious implications?

I think that with $2,000 a year a man can dress very well. not Manton well, but very well.

one doesn't need 25 or more suits - and one can get suits that aren't bespoke in london or italy.

I am not sure that the spending is the main indicator of how poorly people dress - I think just looking around will tell you how poorly people dress.

Originally Posted by sloaney

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i don't quite get you - what are the obvious implications?
the obvious implications of that whole data set in the first link: americans do not spend very much money on clothes. according to that data, wealthy men (enjoying household income of 150K for family of 3) spend about $1100-$1500 per year on their own "apparel and services." middle-class men (enjoying household income of 45K for family of 2 or 3) spend about $650-$750 per year on their own "apparel and services." in the last sentence of the OP, it's suggested these are, for someone who works with a colleague or equal who outdresses him, the "obvious implications" of this low average amount of clothing spending: "where the f**k am i going to get (insert large sum of money) for a new (insert expensive clothing item)"? if you are not in the habit of dropping more than $60-$100 per month on your wardrobe, the sense that you need like two new pairs of shoes, or five new spiffy shirts, or two new suits, must be financially staggering.

Originally Posted by globetrotter

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I think that with $2,000 a year a man can dress very well. not Manton well, but very well. . . . I am not sure that the spending is the main indicator of how poorly people dress - I think just looking around will tell you how poorly people dress.
i agree completely. it is possible to dress well frugally, but most people associate improvements to their wardrobe with new purchases. people don't think, "man i better go home and better tailor this shirt on my wife's sewing machine." and $2,000 per year, that data suggests, is well above average for even the average wealthy american (if average wealthy american can = member of 3-person 150K income household). the total average "apparel & services" expenditure at that income level is $3,548, and that includes, on average, a wife and a kid or two kids or a wife and a mother-in-law. the rest of the household has to dress too. i'm not suggesting we cut any slobs any breaks for their slobbery. i was just somewhat staggered by how little the average american man spends on his wardrobe. i don't think i've ever dipped that low, even in my frumpier stages of life.

What's the average in here? 10-25K?

I don't think that most people dress poorly because they spend too little on clothes. They dress poorly because they don't care.

If spending more money on clothes automatically made you look better, then rap stars and professional athletes would be the best dressed people on the planet.

The average man doesn't buy clothes that fit properly. He also doesn't pay attention to colours or patterns or what goes well with what. I think that it's as simple as that.

I wonder where cable television is counted? That has to be around $500 a year when all the taxes and fees are added up.

It seems like most Americans where little in the way of dress clothes/tailored clothing. Given how cheap casual garments can be bought, and how a lot of people dress, the figures don't surprise me too much.

Originally Posted by Dewey

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i agree completely. it is possible to dress well frugally, but most people associate improvements to their wardrobe with new purchases. people don't think, "man i better go home and better tailor this shirt on my wife's sewing machine."

i don't think i've ever dipped that low, even in my frumpier stages of life.

I have 12 suits - average price $500-600, bespoke in India. 10 jantzen shirts, $42 each; maybe 20 ties at average $100 each. a half dozen pair odd bespoke trousers, waistcoats, a few nice sweaters - total maybe $500. I have about 50 or so shirts that I had made in india, at $21 a piece. a leather jacket, bespoke in india, and a cashmere overcoat, ditto - maybe $500 together. 2 pair church shoes, 1 pair tricker, 2 pair vass bespoke - less than $3,000. 1000 bucks worth of underwear and socks.

so, total 10K-14K - but this is everything I have bought over the past 8-10 years. pretty much works out to less than $1,500 a year, and my wife never had to touch her sewing machine, and, aside from a half dozen ties, nothing bought used. almost everything, aside from part of the shoes, most of the ties and the underwear, is bespoke.

I'll be buying several suits and shirts this coming summer, but I expect that that investment will last me another 10 years or so.

This is a chicken-egg thing---people aren't dessing poorly because they aren't spending enough money on their clothes. They aren't spending as much on their clothes because they don't care enough to dress well. The amount they spend, their attention to fit, and to the appropriateness of their attire (often "the rules&quot is merely symptomatic of that.

^^^
But what about the shoe leather cost of buying bespoke from India? Did you ever go there for fittings/selection/delivery? Was that covered as part of travel for your job?

Originally Posted by Thurston

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^^^
But what about the shoe leather cost of buying bespoke from India? Did you ever go there for fittings/selection/delivery? Was that covered as part of travel for your job?

yeah, well, I guess some of us dont travel to india for work......


but to travel specifically to buy clothes (to india, hong kong, thailand etc) would still only add maybe $3-4K on the overall tab.

Originally Posted by globetrotter

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I think that with $2,000 a year a man can dress very well. not Manton well, but very well.

.

Manton doesn't dress for success...success dresses for Manton.

Originally Posted by globetrotter

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so, total 10K-14K - but this is everything I have bought over the past 8-10 years.

Originally Posted by globetrotter

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but to travel specifically to buy clothes (to india, hong kong, thailand etc) would still only add maybe $3-4K on the overall tab.

That little detail is about a 30% increase, by your estimate. I'm just saying....

Originally Posted by Thurston

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That little detail is about a 30% increase, by your estimate. I'm just saying....

yes, you are right. but you can also dress well without being all bespoke, too. and many people here buy used clothing. but even taking 20K over 10 years is still nothing like many of the people here spend on clothes.

Well, I don't need that article that American's woefully underspend relative to their total disposable income, especially in the high tax bracket. I am consistently amazed at running into professionals in their 30s/40s/50s who wear BDC polos from 5 years ago, Dockers pants, a cheap Marshalls tie, and cheap tassled shoes. It's as if they haven't spent money on clothes in 5-10 years. Not to mention that half of this group has ill-fitting clothes (shirts too small and suits to big).