Style Tip #1
#1 Be willing to shop almost anywhere. I say almost because I understand if you are opposed to a brand due to ethical or moral reasons. For me, “shopping anywhere” means that I'm not persnickety about where I find my clothes. I'm not bougie in that way at all. If I love it, it fits, and won't break the bank, then I'm all in. This means that the clothes and accessories in my closet come from Longchamp, Tory Burch, COACH, Gucci, Nordstrom, J.Crew, Anthropologie, Wal-Mart, Target, Burlington, Ross, and even Dirt Cheap (yep, I love a DC run-- shoutout to Fairview, TN), etc. I grew up knowing that if you wear it well, you can make a $14.00 dress look like a $1,400.00 dress.
That’s one of the many things I love about Gen Z, they will hit up Goodwill, estate sales, and discount retailers without shame. They are into getting a great deal while being stylish. This doesn’t lead to the type of ridicule that I remember happening at school, at least in my community, when I was growing up in the 90’s and early 2000’s.
With the way the fashion cycle and business currently works, those things on your wishlist make their way down (authentic and/or dupe) to discount retailers faster than ever. And believe me, most folks don’t have any clue just by looking at you where you bought your clothes. Put that out of your mind. I love surprising people by informing them my latest look was less than $20.00 from Ross. And, whatever feelings they have about that are not YOUR problem.
Some will state that they’d never shop at certain places due to the quality of the clothing. I hear this AND I know that unless you take care of your clothes, ALL clothing items can fall apart after a few wears.
The truth is that restricting yourself to shopping at a certain caliber of stores and spending the money to do so does not equal taste and it certainly does not equal style. Because of this, where you get your clothes from doesn’t matter as you develop your style.
The outfit below is a perfect example of Tip #1. The sweater is from J. Crew, the jewelry is from Kendra Scott, the shoes and the jumpsuit (Vince Camuto) were purchased from Dirt Cheap, and the purse I carried that day was from T.J. Maxx. The sweater was actually the most expensive purchase. I took a Junior League Past President photo in this outfit while attending our annual luncheon.
