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Q&A: But how much do I budget?!

February 06, 2024

If you were to ask me what question I receive the most, I’d have to say, “How much should I allot for my clothing budget?” is at the top of my list. And for very good reason! Hiring a personal stylist is a investment in yourself. I always encourage my prospective (and previous!) clients to be as informed as possible when it comes to cost. You need to have a realistic expectation before you dive in and commit.

In this blog post, I’ll share how I break down the cost of clothing and how you can get an estimate for your clothing budget even before we meet at the Consultation + Style Discovery.

Lets start with the basics. First and foremost, there are actually two investments to consider when hiring a personal stylist. The first being, and perhaps the most obvious, the styling rate. This is amount you pay for the service which includes the stylist’s time, work, and expertise. You may find stylists that charge by the hour, or stylists (like myself) who give you a flat rate for the desired service.

The second investment which is equally important and much less black and white is the clothing budget. The clothing budget is not included in the styling fee. Similar to any other contracted work, you pay for the labor and the materials used/acquired goods. An interior designer structures their business the same way. You pay for their time, but you also pay for the furniture and decor.

Here are a few questions I recommend you first consider:

Where do you like to shop? Or, what stores do you spend the most money in?
How much does a ______ (shirt, dress, pair of shoes, etc.) cost at the stores you love to shop from?
What is the maximum amount you would spend on one ____ (shirt, dress, pair of shoes, etc.)?
About how many _____ (shirts, dresses, shoes, etc.) do you wish to have in your closet?

These questions allow you to begin thinking about how much you already spend per item. This is called itemized budgeting, which we spend some time discussing at your consultation. Itemized budgeting is calculating how much you would spend per category based on how much you’re willing to spend on a single item. From there, we’re able to get your overall clothing budget!

Let me give you an example. Congratulations! You’re hiring a personal stylist! You have a business professional career that you work Monday through Friday. You rely heavily on work-appropriate dresses which are your day-to-day go-to. The first question you ask yourself is, “How much am I willing to spend on ONE work appropriate dress?”. You assess what matters to you. You want these dresses to last the next 5 to 10 years. You care about quality and are willing to spend more on something you love that will give you more longevity. You decide that you are willing to spend up to $350 per dress.

Next, we need to think of the number of dresses you actually need. Based on your lifestyle and the type of dresses you want, you know that you’ll need to take them to the dry cleaners. You have a busy life, so to ease the amount of visits you make to Brothers Cleaners, you decide that you want to have 10 new dresses that will easily get you through a week and a half of work, no problem.

Now that we know how much you would spend on one dress (a maximum of $350), and how many dresses you want to have (10), we can calculate how much you should allocate for your dress budget. In this example, your dress budget would be a max of $3,500.

Now, will you actually spend $3,500 on your dress category? Maybe not! I may find some dresses on sale or a dress that looks and feels like it’s $350 but it costs $200. Whether or not you use that entire amount for dresses we can’t say for sure. However, this exercise gives you a practical and numerically correct number based on your own lifestyle, wants, and means.

To calculate your estimated overall clothing budget, you’ll need your estimated budget per category of clothing. I’ve listed out all the clothing categories that I use for my clients. Do a little trial run on yourself! If you want to add categories that are more specific to your life, you can do that too! For example, maybe you want to have a category for “Work appropriate dresses” and “weekend dresses”. Do whatever it takes to make it make sense to you so you can feel more equipped and confident going in to this process!

As always, if you have specific questions about budgeting, feel free to email me or we can discuss your questions further at your consultation.

Q&A: But how much do I budget?!

Clothing Categories