• Andy WarholAndy WarholCelebrity favorite shoemaker, Christian Louboutin, may sell fancy heels from $495 and up, but his business is not suffering from the recession. In fact, the sale of Louboutins are up, and over 340,000 pairs are sold annually. Obviously, not everyone can afford or wants to spend that kind of dough on fancy pumps, but Louboutin himself estimates that about 3,000 women have around 500 pairs of his shoes each. (Um... 500 times $500 is $250,000. Holy crap.)

    Louboutin's best customer is author Danielle Steele. "She has at least 6,000 pairs, if not more," he says. "She comes to Paris, and she literally buys everything. Then she flies back to New York, says, 'I'm a little disappointed - there's nothing in the store,' and walks out with 80 pairs. She is super."

    And we thought our closets were brimming over with shoes. 6,000 pairs? What on earth do you do with that many shoes? You could wear a different pair every day for over 16 years!

    When it comes to shoes, do you tend to save up for a few

    Read More »

  • Getty ImagesGetty ImagesThough the prices of certain designer items may seem higher and more ridiculous than ever, we have some surprising news for you: clothing is cheaper than ever before. In addition to that, Americans are spending far less of their disposable income on clothing and shoes than they have in the past.

    Dr. Mark J. Perry, professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan, found that Americans spent almost $326 billion on their wardrobes in 2009. Sounds like a ton of money, but that only made up 2.98% of their disposable incomes. That's the lowest amount in U.S. history! In comparison, the average American spent 9% of their income on clothing and shoes back in 1950.

    So does this mean we are shopping less? By the looks of our overstuffed closets we'd have to say no. With a far greater selection of garments and footwear to choose from than in the past, constantly fluctuating trends, increased materialism, and the advent of online shopping, we're definitely greater consumers than

    Read More »

  • Getty ImagesGetty ImagesSupposedly the beauty industry is recession-proof. Why? Because when times are tough and ladies can't afford to splurge on a new outfit, buying a tube of lipstick or a bottle of nail polish provides a cheap thrill. And we don't know about you, but it's often difficult to go into a drugstore or walk by a Sephora without purchasing a little something. Well, a new survey has revealed that all those makeup purchases add up to big bucks over time. The results claim that woman will spend, on average, $13,000 in her lifetime. Does that number shock you, or are you already feeling pangs of guilt?

    Superdrug, who conducted a survey of 3000 women, found that women begin regularly buying cosmetics by the age of 16. On average, ladies shop for makeup five times a year, spending around $39.45 on each trip. When multiplied by 65 years, the average female adult life, that brings us to a whopping $13,000. As for some specifics, they tallied around $1,620 spent on a lifetime of lipstick, $2,512 on eye

    Read More »

Pagination

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
(63 Stories)

The Thread »