Wardrobe tool
The Cost-per-Wear Calculator
Divides what a piece actually cost, including the alteration, which is where petite purchases are usually mispriced, by the wears you have actually recorded. No estimates, no predictions, no judgement about whether anything was worth it.
Your figures, your browserNo predictions, no adviceWorks without JavaScript
One division, honestly performed
Cost per wear is the number that decides whether a garment was expensive, and for petite buyers it is routinely miscalculated, because the alteration is left out. A $90 trouser hemmed for $25 is a $115 trouser, and pretending otherwise flatters exactly the purchases that deserve scrutiny.
So this calculator adds what you actually paid: acquisition, alteration, and any care cost you choose to count, and divides by the wears you have actually recorded. That is the entire trick. What it refuses to do is estimate the wears for you, predict the future, or tell you whether anything was a good decision. Those would be predictions and judgements wearing arithmetic’s clothes.
Nothing saved
A one-off calculation
Numbers in, a figure out, nothing stored. The address carries only the numbers: never a name, label or note.
From your wardrobe
A piece you have recorded
Reads the cost and wear figures on your wardrobe desk, and steps the wear count when you say so. Nothing changes without your action.
Reading your wardrobe…
Methodology
The arithmetic, and its limits
Two formulas and five refusals.
Total cost basis = acquisition cost + alteration and repair + any care cost you choose to count. Current cost per wear = total basis ÷ recorded wears. That is the whole engine, and every figure in it is one you typed.
Unknown stays unknown
A missing acquisition cost makes the basis unknowable. It is never treated as zero, because an unknown price treated as free would flatter every figure it touched. Zero recorded wears is its own explicit state, not a division error.
Wears are recorded, never inferred
The count comes from you, typed on the wardrobe desk or stepped with the “worn once more” control. Saved capsules, trips and formulas never increment it: a plan is an intention, not a wear.
Projections are typed, not offered
A what-if figure exists only for a wear count you entered. The calculator never proposes a horizon, assumes seasons of use, or estimates how long anything lasts.
No judgement attaches to the number
The result is a quotient. Whether it is high or low, and what to do about it, is a decision about your own life that a calculator has no standing to make.
Currencies are labels
The label you enter is preserved exactly, imports keep their stored label, and no exchange-rate system exists. Figures in different currencies are never combined or compared.
Background
The reading behind the arithmetic
Where the alteration-in-the-price rule comes from.
What Is Worth Tailoring, and What Isn’t
Alteration is a wardrobe strategy with a budget. Spending it on the wrong three garments is how people conclude that petite sizing is hopeless.
7 min read
Eight Pieces That Carry a Petite Work Wardrobe
A working week needs fewer garments than most wardrobes contain. These eight cover it, drafted for a shorter frame.
10 min read