Women hang on to £500 of old clothes

HOPES of a date at a fancy restaurant or an invitation to a posh wedding... most women have a range of excuses to keep old clothes in the wardrobe.

And research has put a value on them – with British women reckoned to have up to £500 worth of unused clothes and outfits gathering dust.

They are holding on to 13 items of so-called ‘fashion skeleton’ clothes worth an average of £36 each, it reveals.

The actress Jennifer Aniston quipped that ‘my girlfriends go shopping in my wardrobe’ and the problem also seems to be that old clothes remind many of a specific person, place or experience.

It means £13billion in unwanted clothing is being kept across the country, with 17 per cent of women holding on to unworn clothes for ‘sentimental reasons’.

Another 18 per cent hold on to items which no longer fit in the hope they will be able to squeeze back into them.

Eric Gagnaire, of ‘preloved’ clothing website Patatam, which commissioned the research, said: ‘It’s amazing to see just how much money British women have sat in their wardrobes, in the form of clothing which they no longer want.’

Of those polled, 92 per cent of women said they would prefer to sell such clothes, rather than simply throwing them away.