I am terrible at shopping for clothes

I usually do my shopping from a utilitarian + price mizer point of view, if it can get the job done and it's cheap then I'll buy it.

This philisophy when it comes to shopping has probably saved me vast amounts of money as I am either certain about my needs or what I can live without and aim for something that fits in an "acceptable" price target.

I feel that I have made many good decisions in the past where I have decided against buying a car or living with roommates in a shared apartment and saving cash to use for other purposes. When it comes to shopping for things that lie outside of the world of price/performance comparison I might be a total cluts.

The company dorm which I live in, has communal washer and driers that everyone uses. I don't know exactly how, but I have had several pants get tears in them in very conspicuous places, namely in the butt (and no, it isn't me getting fat, really).

With me running out of wearable pants to wear, I've decided to head out to do some clothing shopping today, which is something that I rarely do. I wear most of my clothes until raggedy and then contemplate on buying something new. Generally, the only time I do buy clothes is when I make a visit back to Canada since I don't understand Japanese fashion too much and I like plain looking clothing. I do keep some nice clothing around for special events, however, but I am going on a tangent.

There are at least 2 points of weaknesses for me when it comes to shopping for clothes in Japan. First is that I don't know the brands or the stores out here all that well. I know just maybe just 3 by name and that is about it and the second is that given 2 pairs of pants, one of them being designer and a no-name brand. I generally opt for the no-name brand so long as I like the style and it is comfortable.

As of recent, I have had several of my female friends mention that I would look way better if I bought some nicer/fancier clothing. I have decided that it would be interesting to see what would happen if I did end up trying a few new styles.

In general, the price target for pants for me is in the $20~$30 range and generally the same things for sweaters. Only in rare cases when I do really like something that I will consider going upwards to maybe $45~$60 for a shirt, but that is only in rare cases.

The thing is that given 2 shirts, when the both of them provide for similar functionality (as in keeping me warm/clothes/or from breaking public nudity laws) I don't see a huge difference between them, I might like one style a little more than another but I generally can't justify myself paying close to 2x or even 3~4x in some cases for fabric that has been cut differently. Is it because it's been cut and put together differently that it is say 2x~3x more good looking as the price implies? What about the differences in material, is there that big of a difference?

To be honest, I have nearly no clue when it comes to clothing as my purchasing decisions come down to:

1. Is it the right price?
2. Does it look fashionably acceptable to me?
3. Is it comfortable?

I spent an entire afternoon going around to different shops looking at clothing. After spending 4 hours of looking around, I managed to buy a single pair of pants and that was about it.

I also checked out some designer looking stores and the one thing that struck me was that the clothing sold there is amazingly expensive. I would not fathom myself spending $120 for a pair of pants, $80 for a shirt and maybe $150 for a jacket. That would easily put the price tag of a single set of clothing at about $450 and this is only a single set of clothing we are talking about here! Sure the material looks a little nicer, but to me I just can't justify the price. For that kind of money, I'd rather save it and spend it on traveling or something else.

For the time being though, I am going to try and read up on clothing to try and figure out why there might be such a big price difference. A micro-fiber t-shirt vs a cotton one, sure I might be able to understand that (I love my micro-fiber shirt for sports and outdoor activities) but for other stuff, I haven't a clue.