A woman spends 287 days choosing what to wear The average woman will - between the ages of 16 and 60 - spend 287 days deciding what to wear. That's according to Matalan, which polled 2,491 females and found that this essential activity accounts for an average 16 minutes on weekday mornings, 14 minutes after getting up at weekends and up to 20 minutes bothering the …
My mate used Einstein's trick of wearing identical clothes every day, thus saving the brainpower required to decide what to wear. Unfortunately, he didn't actually bother with a dozen sets of identical clothes, choosing instead to just wear the SAME clothes.
As far as I'm aware he's still single...
> What we want to see, though, is a Matalan poll of 2,500 Reg readers to see just how long they spend mulling the comparative merits of a suit and tie, or jeans, trainers and that favourite black t-shirt.
Version 1.
Open chest of drawers (or wardrobe, if a special occasion) , pull out first thing that comes to hand. Check trousers have no unsightly holes in the wrong places. Check shirt for same. Check underware looks and smells clean (note: qualifiers in previous sentence). Repeat checks until selected apparel passes, dress, exit room.
Total time: 30 seconds.
Version 2.
Pick up items from floor, dress, exit.
Time 10 seconds (possibly faster if her husband arrives back unexpectedly)
What we want to see, though, is a Matalan poll of 2,500 Reg readers to see just how long they spend mulling the comparative merits of a suit and tie, or jeans, trainers and that favourite black t-shirt
The sad thing is, Monday-Friday I wear a suit and tie and on weekend I wear Jeans, Trainers and a Black Vest. I thought I was a rebel but it turns out i'm a conformist :-(
after selecting the blood thing, they have to wear it don't they? and what about makeup?
"What we want to see, though, is a Matalan poll of 2,500 Reg readers to see just how long they spend mulling the comparative merits of a suit and tie, or jeans, trainers and that favourite black t-shirt."
I literally pick whatever is in front of me, as for my hear and beard.... I take care of it once a month when I go to the barbershop.
oh... and I don't fell ashamed about picking my nose when I am alone
mine is the one that is "hopefully" is still clean enough to wear again.
She spends more time thinking about what her horse is going to wear than she does dressing herself. The last time I saw her deliberating over clothes, was to fumble along her jackets, in the hallway, trying to work out which one had the cigarettes in.
This post has been deleted by its author
"What we want to see, though, is a Matalan poll of 2,500 Reg readers to see just how long they spend mulling the comparative merits of a suit and tie, or jeans, trainers and that favourite black t-shirt."
That would be dependent on how long it takes me to consult Outlook for my daily calendar. It's then a binary decision between suit and jeans.
Any other decision based on clothes is a quick judgement of "what can pass as clean" and "do I need to iron it"
Total time, 30seconds per day, max.
I'd guess that their sample set included a large proportion of nuns, because there's no way the "average" woman only spends 287 days choosing what to wear ("20 minutes preparing for a night out" - yeah *right*, that's on a par with a man's "I'll be there in a minute" when mid-Halo/Quake/GTA/etc.).
Workday -
two pairs over black trousers, whichever is on the radiator
ten shirts, all dark and hung up, whichever is to hand
tie, if I can be bothered, all match the shirts, whichever is first out of the rats nest
shoes, one pair, black...
weekend -
jeans, tshirt... top of the pile on both counts...
evenings out -
clean jeans, decent shirt (this one may actually take 5 min)
I never realised my lazy-ness was actually a drive for efficency but I'll take it!
Oh, and coat - never wear so none :)
Then it occured to me that quite a few women wear a uniform to work, which would skew the averages a little. Also, the time spent deciding on an outfit for a special occasion is an average which includes all the times they buy an outfit specifically for the occasion (2 days deciding what to buy probably doesn't come into deciding what to wear) - which again will bring the average down a bit.
Having said all that, I reckon I will spend at least 260 days deciding what gadgets to buy in my life time - and another 620 posting comments on El Reg. Most worrying is the hundreds of days I will waste following my wife around Matalan whilst she decides what buy (for both of us).
Work shirts are on a rotation system and trousers are choosen to match the shirt except that they cant be worn on two consecutive days.
Leisure wear consists of favourite pairs of jeans and shorts on a rotation policy plus t shirts of multiple colours depending on either my mood or what is clean.
You got to keep it simple.
Not only spending 287 days choosing what to wear, but also the questions such as "Do I look fat in this?" and the man spending double that time trying to figure out just how to answer it without getting in trouble? What about putting the outfit on finally and then realizing it doesn't math with their nails and the function and spending that same amount of time to find a new one? Or even better how about finally figuring out what to wear, then getting halfway to where your going (No matter if its 4 hours away) and realizing that you NEED to go back because you forgot your perfume?
/I say this now, to all the women who read this and don't go through those things I apologize but in my lifetime I have met maybe 2-3 that don't.
"What you wear has a direct impact on how you feel about yourself and it is important a woman feels exceptional in her outfit. Whatever the occasion your clothes portray an image and we understand this is fundamentally important to women."
The statement seems completely reasonable on its face. But then if you think about it for a second, it doesn't explain why anyone would have anything in closet the which makes her feel like crap, nor indeed, why it takes that kind of time to rule out such clothing.
I need a better reason than that for such alarming indecision.
and use non-coloured toothpaste. That way, when you spill toothpaste your shirt just gets whiter and smells minty fresh!
To help with any male equivalent survey- for me it's just black jeans, black shirt, black shoes, black socks, black boxers. For special occasions I'll jump into one of two suits. I can go shopping for clothes in less time than it takes my flatmate to decide which jacket she'll wear to go shopping for clothes (achieved on, so far, 3 occasions).
@Schultz
Adobe reader sucks, so yes you should change from it. Next problem!
@"misogynistic comments" AC
It's not misogynistic if it's true, is it? And the point is that- according to the survey, at least- it IS true.
I think you'll find most Reg readers just start putting on clothes as they find them, usually from the floor, until they think they've covered enough of their body to cover legal requirements.
The brilliant thing about nerds is we're incredibly environmentally conscious. That means we understand that the biggest contributors to CO2 emissions come from showers, washing, etc. Heating all that hot water is terrible for the environment and I'm not even being facetious, it really is.
So we shrug our indifference at wearing the same clothes for weeks at a time, even longer if it's possible to hide stains by turning things inside out or using other long-term garments to hide what's sticking to the lower layers. Sometimes we'll pretend the stuff smeared and sticking to our clothes is a nerd fashion statement that regular people can't understand, just like the rest of our lives. Smelling of beer, cigarettes and sex is a badge of honour amongst IT workers, as it proves we have a life outside of World of Warcraft.
Personally I keep a no-more-than-twice-worn tee-shirt and jeans on hand for interviews, socks are an annoyance so forget those and not even the hardest of nosed geeks would want to know about my boxer shorts unwashed half-life.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
