Borrowed designer clothes without realising now they are ruined.

alarafan

I have a question - I hope this is the right place to put it.

I visited a friend on the other side of the country for a weekend a year ago. We are both on low incomes. We went for a walk one afternoon just before I was due to go back and I ended up very muddy.

I put my clothes in a plastic bag to wash when I got home and she kindly lent me a change of clothes - tracksuit. t shirt and a pair of shoes. I am quite disorganised and meant to send them back as soon as I had laundered them but 'I never quite got round to it' I apologised for the delay and she said not to bother as she has loads of tracksuits and shoes (she does). I wore them around the house and in the garden as they were really comfy and washed them about a dozen times in the machine in total over several months.

The thing is I am clueless about designer labels and things, I am a Primark sort of girl :-) and not very fashion conscious. The tracksuit and T shirt are Nike (which I know of, but have never looked into prices) and the boots were Uggs (I had a similar primark pair) - Anyway I was in town with my cousin and saw some Uggs in a shop and they cost £175 !!! and then I looked up Nike tracksuits & tee shirts online and we are looking at at least another £120!. I phoned her and apologised profusely and said I had no idea they were worth that much. She just said it's fine, 'don't worry about it'. Anyway even if I returned them now, they are in a much more worn condition than they were when she gave them to me.

I don't know what to do - I feel bad - She has said to forget about it - but it is £300 I owe her essentially - my budget is so tight I only have about £20 per month 'left over' -

I don't know what I should do - advice appreciated.

Kimberley82

alarafan wrote: »

I have a question - I hope this is the right place to put it.

I visited a friend on the other side of the country for a weekend a year ago. We are both on low incomes. We went for a walk one afternoon just before I was due to go back and I ended up very muddy.

I put my clothes in a plastic bag to wash when I got home and she kindly lent me a change of clothes - tracksuit. t shirt and a pair of shoes. I am quite disorganised and meant to send them back as soon as I had laundered them but 'I never quite got round to it' I apologised for the delay and she said not to bother as she has loads of tracksuits and shoes (she does). I wore them around the house and in the garden as they were really comfy and washed them about a dozen times in the machine in total over several months.

The thing is I am clueless about designer labels and things, I am a Primark sort of girl :-) and not very fashion conscious. The tracksuit and T shirt are Nike (which I know of, but have never looked into prices) and the boots were Uggs (I had a similar primark pair) - Anyway I was in town with my cousin and saw some Uggs in a shop and they cost £175 !!! and then I looked up Nike tracksuits & tee shirts online and we are looking at at least another £120!. I phoned her and apologised profusely and said I had no idea they were worth that much. She just said it's fine, 'don't worry about it'. Anyway even if I returned them now, they are in a much more worn condition than they were when she gave them to me.

I don't know what to do - I feel bad - She has said to forget about it - but it is £300 I owe her essentially - my budget is so tight I only have about £20 per month 'left over' -

I don't know what I should do - advice appreciated.

Nike are not designer clothes.

If she is OK with it then dont worry.

southoftheriver

Send her a card and a box of chocolates of something to say thank you for being so understanding? I am very impressed that you are living in 2011 and aren't aware of Nike, I want to come and live where you are!

pigpen

they were slobbing in the house stuff.. she would have nagged for them sooner if she was bothered.. she said forget it..

How much would a smilar worn suit and boots be on ebay? Next to nothing.. you don't owe her £300 that is what she paid.. you probably owe more like £30 second hand worn condition.

Send her some flowers or a couple of bottles of wine and forget it

Emmzi

Send her a bunch of flowers or box of chocs to say thank you? And stop feeling guilty. If she was that bothered sshe'd have lent you something cheaper :-)

Me, I'd be mortified if you tried to replace them. Anyway, they'll be last seasons now...

the_cat

Well whatever condition they are in, you should return them as they aren't yours to keep.

Invite her over, make a nice meal, maybe buy her a token 'sorry' present, give the stuff back and then forget about it. It's not like you did it on purpose!

Tropez

If she is okay with it then stop worrying. I wouldn't lend something to even my closest friends if I knew that I would be upset if it were damaged.

I've got quite a few bits of Nike clothing that hasn't cost anywhere near £120 so it is quite possible she had picked them up in a sale or on the cheap somehow. One of my most worn jackets is a Nike fleece hooded jacket - it cost £15.

But yeah, if she says not to worry about it then don't. If you're really that concerned about it, just put a few quid aside each month and buy her a replacement item for Xmas. You might not be able to afford the full whack but plenty of stores will have sales on that time of year, and even a fiver aside each month will be about £30 which you can use to buy her something.

ViolaLass

Perhaps she got them second hand on eBay or in a charity shop, perhaps they're fakes. Either way, she's not bothered so I wouldn't worry about it. If it were the other way round and she was bothered but you knew the clothes had been really cheap, would you refuse to take it seriously because the clothes hadn't cost her much?

sashadesade

She told you not to worry about it before and she's told you not to worry about it again, so I would take her advice and not worry about it! As others have suggested, a token present might be nice. They might not even be worth as much as you think, when I was buying cheap clothes from ebay and charity shops for working out I got some Adidas trackies (similar to Nike) and a Nike t-shirt, which was brand new, for the grand total of £4.75.

alarafan

Thanks so much for the answers. When I next see her I will take the clothes with me, together with a box of chocolates!

alarafan

southoftheriver wrote: »

Send her a card and a box of chocolates of something to say thank you for being so understanding? I am very impressed that you are living in 2011 and aren't aware of Nike, I want to come and live where you are!

ha ha! I knew what nike was, but just not how much they cost, it was more the Uggs that were a shock to me. I had some similar primark ones for £7!