Who says you can’t dress well on a budget?
I had a very successful shopping trip yesterday. I partly want to write this entry to boast about the bargains I found. I also want to express what it got me thinking about shopping and buying clothes...
Fashionista’s will probably scream ‘blasphemy!’ when I say it, but I think it is ridiculous to spend big money on designer label clothes.
Already, the fashion nazi’s want to shoot me, I’m sure.
Don’t get me wrong, I love fashion. I love reading fashion magazines. I love looking at the clothes and the outfits. If someone gave me a designer piece I would wear it and flaunt it and love it because, lets face it, I’m a woman, I love fashion and owning a designer piece would make me feel pretty snazzy. But I would never spend the money to buy it myself because frankly, I think it’s a complete waste.
The quality of designer brands may be a bit better than regular off the rack clothes. But the superior quality does not in any way merit the ridiculous mark up that comes with the label. People, it is cloth stitched together with thread, just like any other piece of clothing. Who cares if a famous person designed it?
If you spill sauce on a Chanel top it’s still just as ruined as if you spilled sauce on a Dotti top. I’m sure I’d rather only to have suffered the loss of the Dotti top than the Chanel top (That I probably would have still been paying off. )
A watch from a regular jewellery store will tell the time just as well as that fancy name brand watch you were looking at.
A silver necklace will look just as nice as that Tiffany’s piece and it won’t cost you thousands of dollars.
That $3000 leather bag you saw in the fashion magazine? It’s just a bag. It doesn’t last any longer than a regular bag. Trust me, I have rich friends who spent big bucks on designer bags that didn’t last any longer than one of my bags. And to be honest, when I look at pictures of some of those bags, they don’t even appeal to me. THEY ARE JUST BAGS. They look the same as the ones hanging in Bags Only. Honestly, you might feel special carrying around that $3000 bag but most people aren’t giving it a second glance. It looks like any other bag. Yes, other fashionista’s will stop you on the street and lust after it, but the majority of the populace wont even notice.
I think that even if I did have a fancy high paying job and called myself rich, I still wouldn’t be able to justify spending that much money on designer clothes. The fashion magazines tell you which pieces to ‘splurge’ on. Sorry, but I don’t want to ‘splurge’ $700 on that dress. I’d rather take a trip, or spend it on multiple items of reasonably priced clothes!
You probably think I don’t dress well, seeing as I take the liberty of scorning a holy grail of fashion – designer brands.
In fact, I get comments on my outfits, clothes, bags and accessories all the time. I often hear the words, ‘Only you could pull that off’, and ‘WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?’
I am not claiming to be a walking fashion plate or that I would be stopped on the street and interviewed about where I bought my clothes, or that I would ever be considered a style icon. I don’t presume to claim any superior knowledge of fashion. I also don’t make a point of constantly updating my clothes to fit in with whatver ‘look’ is in. I have my own ‘look’ and I wear what suits me and what looks good. It is still fashionable to dress well even if you don’t look like a carbon copy of the girls on the cover of this month’s fashion magazine. In fact I prefer to look different. It’s fun. I wear a lot of big jewellery, statement pieces and sparkly bling. This happens to be in style at the moment. But I will be continuing to wear it when it isn’t the latest look because I like it and I look good in it.
Also, please don’t get me wrong, I love looking at designer clothes and I admire them as much as the next girl. I love looking at the outfits women wear in movies and watching the extras when they talk about dressing the characters. I circle pictures in magazines and write comments so that when my friend reads them, she gets my thoughts on the outfits. I would love to go to fashion shows and watch the high end designer clothes be modelled in real life.
But I still wouldn’t spend my money to buy them. it’s my hard won money and I think it is a waste to spend masses of cash on owning the brand name clothes.
I am an advocate of buying that once-off special piece. But I think it’s unrealistic of the magazines to push constantly buying those over the top items that you wont even be able to wear next season, just so people will think you are in style. When I look at those outfits, I just use the ideas for when I buy cheaper clothes. You can still achieve that killer outfit without having to buy designer clothes.
I went to DFO yesterday with my best friend. We didn’t plan to catch any particular sales but we happened to go at the best possible time as the midyear sales were on. Why the midyear is in August I don’t know, but the sales were spectacular. Portmans had the best sale I have ever seen. I picked up two skirts and a pair of dressy shorts that usually retail for over $90 for $10 each. I also picked up two pairs of jeans that are usually around the same price, also for $10 each. Plus a pair of shorts for the grand total of $5.
At Cotton On, the sales continued. It is winter now but in the store I found 4 pairs of short-shorts in my size. They cost me all of $2 each. In summer, I can never find shorts that suit and when I do they are expensive. This summer I will have my wardrobe ready ahead of time for a laughably low cost. You couldn’t even buy clothes secondhand for that price!
I also managed to pick up a pair of Billabong (Australian surf brand) shoes for $5, a Speedo swimwear top for $15 and two belts from Dotti for $5 each. With food, petrol and some stationary I bought, I still spent under $100 for the day and left with 6 pairs of shorts, 2 skirts, a swim top, two belts and a pair of shoes, plus some funky stationary from Typo (2 picture frames, 2 pens, a notebook and 5 cards for a total of $7)
You may think that I was just lucky to have caught such good sales and that I usually have to spend a lot more on clothes. In actual fact, this is not an unusual occurrence for me. I am a very smart shopper, a skill I have honed over the years, and I always shop so well at sales that I rarely find myself so in need of something that I have to go out and buy whatever I need at full price.
I shop at Tightrope for t-shirts, leggings and pants. Most of their items are under $10 and for everyday items I am able to buy more and varied clothes that I can mix and match and have fun with.
In the past I have picked up dresses at post-christmas sales that draw a lot of comments and cost me something like $15 each. I have two pairs of Sketchers shoes that cost me about $20 each, down from well over $100 each. This winter’s jeans were picked up at Just Jeans in a two-for-$10 sale at the City DFO. Yep, I have been wearing jeans every day that cost me $5 each. My new bathers for summer cost me $10 at a sale in Bondi when I went to Sydney for a holiday. I buy belts and accessories to jump up my outfits. And as I said, I often get comments on what I wear. My clothes don’t look cheap. I took a friend shopping a few weeks ago, and halfway through the morning she turned to me and said,
“I cant believe it, I thought I wouldn’t buy anything today. I thought you spent a lot of money on your clothes! But you don’t!”
That’s right, I don’t. But nobody can tell and I don’t have to tell them!!
I also buy one-of-a-kind pieces off Etsy and eBay, as well as making my own jewellery, and get more comments on those pieces than anything else. I LOVE wearing something nobody else has.
I work part time and pay rent and car costs, as well as going out with friends, taking weekends away, buying craft and beading supplies and lots of clothes. I am able to do all of this on a budget. If I bought designer brands my wardrobe would have about 3 items in it. Instead, it is full of fun and variety.
So, while I love looking at designer clothes and I will admire them if I recognise that you are wearing a label piece (I seriously wouldn’t know the difference from sight most of the time, even though I read a lot of magazines) I could never justify spending the money myself. I guess I have been brought up to really consider the value of money and how to spend it wisely.
I’m happy with my clothes and I never regret buying them or have to mourn the passing of an extravagantly expensive piece. I never have to look at my credit card bill and feel regret as I watch the piece get old while I am still paying for it.
As far as I’m concerned, that’s the best way to be ^_^
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