CheapJAP

Nifty Thrifty

Battle of the Fur-Collared Cardigans

Two sweaters, both alike in dignity, in fair Brooklyn, where we lay our scene (sorry - had a Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet moment there - how much did you effing hate Claire Danes when that movie came out?).
On first glance, these fur-collared cardigans are similarly versatile, adorable and of course, JAPtastic. But we don’t have Daddy’s credit card anymore, which means we need to deal with something we soooo used to not care about, something with serious ick-factor: The cost. Let’s bite the bullet and assess the price differential of these two garments.

The solid black cardy is cashmere, and that fur trim better be real (suck it, PETA) because it cost upwards of $300. The patterned cardy is Bebe (FYI, that means “Princess” in Persian and is pronounced “bee-bee”) and probably cost around $90 originally.

If I were an editor at some fashion mag, I’d slap this comparison on a “Splurge or Save” page and put the Bebe in the “Save” section. And that would be bullshit. A $90 cardigan is not a bargain by Cheap JAP standards of any kind.

I purchased the Bebe at Beacon’s Closet - a thrift store a few blocks away from my shoebox of a studio in Park Slope - and it cost me all of $10.95. We didn’t go from $300 to $90 here, friends. We found a cardigan similar to one in the three-digit range for eleven bucks. Eleven bucks! I’m re-living my bargain-hunting high just thinking about it.

Never ease your woes over not being able to afford cashmere by buying only moderately inexpensive, commercial crap. Go the extra mile, and you’ll have enough dough left over for a celebratory round of martinis post-shopping.