Fashion

[ALRATIBA]

I have QVC on in background and I keep hearing how many of the items are being sold.

It occurs to me - Do I really want to buy something that 45,000 other people will be wearing?

I wore school uniforms for 12 years and swore when I got out of high school that I would never again dress lke anyone else.

[gizmogal]

Even if you assume all 45,000 units of the garment were sold to people in the United States, there are more than 300 million people in the United States!  That's not a very big proportion of people wearing the same item.

Do you believe you wear anything at all that as many as 45,000 people don't also own?  Unless your clothes are bespoke or homemade, you are already buying and wearing garments, underwear, and shoes that are popular and worn among thousands of people.

Whether it's purchased online or in a store, brand name clothing sells in the thousands. That doesn't mean we all wear the same thing every day so we seem to be wearing uniforms. There are still 365 days in a year and all 45,000 purchasers are not wearing the same thing on any given day and seen to be dressed identically. 

You can prefer your own unique look, but you are certainly likely to be wearing something every day that thousands of others also own.

[Kachina624]

@ALRATIBA   You live in NYC, right?  Do you think you'd run across one of those 45,000 people, living in a city of 8 million souls?  I think you'd be safe, especially since those 45,000 are spread across the whole USA. 

[millieshops]

 @ALRATIBA   Lol. Depends whether you want to feel different or you just don't want to be show up at an affair dressed the same as another guest.

For all the thousands and thousands of clothes the mass marketers sell, I could count on one hand the times I have seen the same garment in the same color or pattern on 2 different people, so it is not something I worry about.

if you really care and shop really upscale, (think Palm Beach for some special affair), your sales associate will record what you bought and will not sell a duplicate to another client who lives near you, belongs to your country club, or plans to attend the event you are dressing for.

[Venezia]

I haven't once run into anyone else wearing something I've bought from QVC.  I guess the other 44,999 people are spread out over this vast continent.

However, one time at work, I was heading down the stairs and coming up the stairs was a colleague wearing the exact same top (bought at the local Kohl's).  We looked at each other, laughed and agreed that we both had great taste.

[BunSnoop]

@ALRATIBA , I've thought the same thing, but I watch and purchase quite a lot from QVC, and I cannot say that I have ever seen a person that was wearing something that I could identify as a QVC item.   You would think you would, but I never have.

I have quite a few times, however ,seen people wearing clothes that I recognized from Kohl's.

[tends2dogs]

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@millieshops wrote:

 @ALRATIBA   Lol. Depends whether you want to feel different or you just don't want to be show up at an affair dressed the same as another guest.

For all the thousands and thousands of clothes the mass marketers sell, I could count on one hand the times I have seen the same garment in the same color or pattern on 2 different people, so it is not something I worry about.

if you really care and shop really upscale, (think Palm Beach for some special affair), your sales associate will record what you bought and will not sell a duplicate to another client who lives near you, belongs to your country club, or plans to attend the event you are dressing for.

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The Q should offer this option when you check out: *** Do not sell to anyone else in my zip code. ***  Heavens forbid I run into someone wearing the same thing as me at Aldi or Publix.....LOL 

[ALRATIBA]

@BunSnoop 

@Venezia 

@millieshops 

@Kachina624 

@gizmogal 

I humorously refer to it as "post traumatic dress syndrome."   

I really didn't mind wearing a uniform - easy to get dressed everyday - but wearing something different each day was a treat after those 12 years of school.   

When I look at my nieces' public school class pictures - the girls are all dressed alike by choice!  

Anyway .....

One time, my sister and I showed up at a family gathering wearing the exact same dress - from Lord & Taylor.

Remember SG's "road kill collar" faux leather coat?  I bought one and a couple of days later, a woman walkng toward me on the street was wearing the same coat - we just gave each other a "high five" and kept on going.  (That coat turned out to be a disaster!   I'm sittng in Starbucks one afternoon with a friend and the "faux" started to peel off and flutter to the floor.)

I do see QVC clothes around here.  Those SG reversble coats were everywhere.   

At one time, D&Co had knee length denim coats - one of my neiighbors (2 floors below me) was wearing the same coat when I ran into her on the bus on the way home from work.

Three of my friends showed up at church wearing the same LandsEnd beige jacket.

Granted - all those above incidents only point out the excellent taste of my friends and neighbors but  ......

"there are 8 million stories in the Naked City" .... those are just a few

[NYCLatinaMe]

@ALRATIBA I looked this up just for you.  You are speaking about clothes, so I am thinking women's clothes.  There are over 100 million women over 18 years old across the United States according to the 2000 census.  So 45,000 is a drop in the bucket.

I don't think I have ever seen anyone wearing any QVC clothes I have, though it is possible I have run across such people, since I wear ordinary looking pants from QVC that I don't consider particularly distinguishing.  I do admit that work colleagues have recognized my clothes as being QVC, usually saying they like my clothes, but I do feel a little embarrassed about it.  They tell me they saw it and they liked it, not that they have it.  My BIL told me he saw ladies in QVC clothes in his commute.  My sister watched a lot.

I did have an experience in the 1990s when I saw an "old lady" (60s, 70s, who knows, I was about 30) in a NYC bus wearing an Anne Klein outfit that I had recently spent a lot of money on in probably Bloomingdales, not thinking it was something "old ladies" would wear.  (I was a young professional.)  I was mortified and not happy to be wearing that outfit again.

More recently, I ran into a lady at an event wearing the same blazer I had on, purchased at a local store.  She had purchased it in a different store, it was a matching pantsuit for her.  It was one of these no print prints, so as a print, the fact that we were wearing the same blazer was obvious.  She was so excited to see me wearing the same blazer and kept standing close to me at the event!  It was a volunteer educational event, and I was staffing a table, and I just wanted to go away, but I was not about to bail out from what I had volunteered to do.

So I think I am more likely to wear stuff people near me are wearing if I buy locally.  The QVC stuff is spread out all over the nation.

If you want things few people have, you will have to spend a lot more money.

[hopi]

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@ALRATIBA wrote:

I wore school uniforms for 12 years and swore when I got out of high school that I would never again dress lke anyone else.

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Looks more like Mrs Roper's mumus than a school uniform.

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