If there’s one thing I know about Australia, it’s that we’re more fashionable than people give us credit for. I personally love clothes and although I wouldn’t say I have the most stylish clothing in the world, I do have a wardrobe that suits my own style down to the ground. In fact, I’ve been building my wardrobe for years, and it was only recently brought to my attention how valuable it might be.

Immediately I started thinking: Should I insure it?

It’s smart to make sure you’re totally covered by your insurance policy. Like most Aussies I have a home and contents insurance policy. Under that of course, I’ve insured my engagement ring and eternity ring (that ring took an eternity to come mind you). But, when I had a closer look through the policy I wasn’t sure that I could claim the cost of my wardrobe in my cover if something happened. In fact, I’ve never even heard of people insuring clothing, shoes, and bags before.

 

Is this a common issue?

To get the answers for this, we spoke to Understand Insurance, which has recently conducted a survey through Newspoll about this same issue. The findings got me thinking.

The survey showed that one in five women own a wardrobe item worth more than $1000 but, of those people, three in 10 weren’t sure if their insurance would cover it.

I know for a fact that, although I don’t regularly splurge on expensive wardrobe items, over the years I’ve accumulated a few beautiful, and expensive, items. These are things like handbags and shoes mostly, but there have been a few designer clothes that I couldn’t refuse! It would be fantastic if these items were covered!

 

Protecting your wardrobe

The first thing I wanted to do was ring up my insurer. We have home and contents insurance, but I had to know just what level of coverage would be provided on items like clothing, handbags and shoes, and if there was an upper limit to this coverage. But, like most insurers, mine would only be able to provide me with numbers. I had to know how much my wardrobe was worth first and go from there.

 

Valuing your wardrobe

So, step number one is to value your wardrobe and work out how much it might cost to replace it. The best way to do this is to sit down (with all those spare moments in your day) and have a miniature fashion show with all your clothes while writing down how much you paid for them. Okay, the miniature fashion show is optional, but obviously highly entertaining. At the same time as you’re doing this, track down any receipts you may have for the items, particularly ones that are unusually expensive. If you don’t have receipts for things you already own, make a note to keep your receipts when you buy new things.  Being as anal as I am about money, every time I buy an item now, I itemise it on a spreadsheet! Understand Insurance has some handy checklists & calculators that can help you with this.

 

Talking to your insurer

Once you have a good idea how much your wardrobe is worth, it’s time to either read the fine print on your insurance policy or talk to your insurer. In your policy, it should clearly outline how much coverage you’ll have for contents like clothing and wardrobe items. But, if you’re not certain, your insurer should be happy to help. Give them a call and find out if there is any coverage, and if so, if there’s a limit. In cases where there is a limit in place, most insurers are quite happy to allow you to add cover for additional items.

 

In the end

Once I started thinking about it, I realised just how expensive all the items in my wardrobe were. From my wedding dress to my FABulous footwear collection, I would be devastated to lose anything. Of course, I would be even more devastated to both lose the items and the money I paid. Luckily, we worked something out with our insurer so I can rest easy knowing my family, and my footwear, are safe and sound.