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Fashion magazines might have you thinking that you’ve got to pay out the nose to be fashionable. That isn’t the case. It is true that the lifestyle of wearing all the latest designer outfits and changing your wardrobe each season requires a substantial bank account, but style itself is independent of the capacity of your wallet. With some creative thinking and persistence, it’s easy to look great without spending a fortune.
The most important thing to remember is that fashion is about the effect various articles of clothing have on each other, and on you – not the individual pieces of clothing themselves. It’s possible to have a cool sweatshirt or a cute skirt, but a great “outfit” requires just that: an outfit. This may seem intimidating, but it’s actually liberating, because it means that any piece of clothing you have, no matter how you feel about it, can be fashionable if paired with the right other clothes.
This means the ability to coordinate is far more important than the actual items of clothing, which means you’re free to get them from whatever source! Whether you buy them here or there, at a big department store or at a thrift shop, you can find what you need. Just be imaginative and see what you can put with what. A great strategy is to study the latest fashions and figure out what their basic elements are. Then see if you can replicate that with other materials. It might be a particular color combination or a mixture of clothing types. Practice and persistence are key.
