Cost per wear, calculated honestly, including the three that were not.
Best by Lauren may earn a commission when you shop through certain links. Every product here was bought with my own money or tested for at least six weeks. No brand has paid to be included, and nothing is ranked higher because it pays more.
I keep a note on my phone with what I paid for expensive things and roughly how often I use them. It is not a glamorous document and it has saved me a lot of money.
These are the pieces where the number came out well. At the end, the three where it did not.
The one bag I would replace immediately if it were lost. It has been rained on, sat on, and shoved into overhead bins on four continents, and it looks better for it.
Bought in an airport, worn every day since. I have lost two pairs and bought them back both times.
It goes under the seat, it holds a laptop, and it has never once looked like a travel bag. That combination is rarer than it sounds.
Not a recommendation so much as a fact. It is the piece everything else in the closet is measured against.
A pair of designer boots worn four times in three years. Beautiful, impractical, and a reminder that I buy shoes for a life I do not lead.
A structured tote that only works with an outfit I have to plan around. Anything that requires the rest of the wardrobe to cooperate is a bad investment however good the leather is.
A coat bought in a sale, in a colour I would never have paid full price for. The discount was the entire reason and that is never a reason.
Would I buy it at full price, today, if it were the last one? If the answer needs the word "sale" in it, I do not buy it.
And: can I name three specific occasions in the next two months? Not "it would be great for travel" — three actual days.
Price divided by the number of times you have actually used it — not the number of times you imagined using it. I keep the count in a phone note and update it once a season.
Something soft, dark and under-the-seat sized. The Louis Vuitton Keepall has the best cost per wear of anything I own, at about sixty cents.
Only if you wear them daily. Mine are the single highest-use expensive thing I own, and I have replaced the same pair twice.
