While I was shopping in Waitrose (look it’s the closest supermarket to me OK?), I was chatting to the woman on the checkout who noticed I’d been in a clothes shop. She went on to share with me her theory that men’s clothes are more expensive than women’s clothes because women buy far more than men. If we men went shopping a bit more and didn’t treat it as a chore, then our clothes would be cheaper.
While I dispute the fact that men hate shopping (I can’t think of anything more enjoyable than a trip to HMV or Waterstones), I do agree that men’s clothes are more expensive.
I was reminded of this conversation when I saw the posters for Uniglo, the Japanese clothes shop, at Picaddilly Circus this morning. They’ve just re-opened their flagship store, and they’re proudly advertising their cashmere sweaters. Women’s ones start at £39 while men’s start at £59. Eh? Why the discrepency?
I suppose men are, broadly speaking, larger than women so need more material in their garments. But twenty quid’s worth? I think I’d feel agrieved if I was a small man, paying that much difference.
It could be that the women’s clothes are more flimsy. Women have more clothes ergo, they don’t wear them as often and hence don’t need as much wear in them. But women are much fussier shoppers than men, so they’d return inferior products at the drop of a hat.
No, I think it’s because men have no idea about how much a cashmere sweater should cost, and are probably just happy to have made the purchase and escaped from the shop intact.
(Of course, not having visited Uniglo since they reopened, I’ve no idea what the true reason is. Although prior to them closing down for their refit, £59 would have been at the seriously high end for anything they sold in the store. Have they gone “upmarket”.)