How to be a Budget Fashionista

Find Fashion for a dime

Being a fashion icon in your own right is a desire for women and girls the world over. This is why fashion models, magazines and runway shows have grown to such popularity. Everyone wants to be that girl; everyone wants adoring crowds to wonder what she’s wearing. The paramount problem for most of us is that to dress like a fashoinista costs more than the average Jill could ever dream of spending.

When the allowance dries up

Woman the world over hit this bump sooner or later. The good news is that there is no need to sacrifice the fashion must haves to what the budget can’t afford. To be a true fashoinista means you can dress just the way you like and never have to worry about cost. This does not mean selling your kidneys on the black market to foot the bill. It means getting creative and finding the clothes to complete your look at bargain prices.

The Strategy: Copy Cats

One of the best ways to get that runway look for yourself is to become an exert copy cat. Invest a bit of money on a big glossy fashion magazine or some time hunting photos online. Gather your favorite ensembles together and take them shopping. Avoid high priced designer stores. Head instead to Target or K-Mart. Armed with these photos you can piece together the exact look at a fraction of the price.

WHAT?! You don’t have spare time to devote to meticulous clipping of photos and the corresponding hunt thru blue light special racks? There is good news. Some store shave done the footwork for you. Check out Kohl’s and the Daisy Fuentes collection are a fashionista’s dream come true. These clothes are copy cat heaven at a fraction of the price.

Look on the Label

If you’re all about the name brand label then this copy cat stuff just isn’t for you. You want to flash the DKNY label or Armani tag. You can still have your closet stuffed to the gills with name brand clothes, and not pay name brand pricing.

In this case you need to adopt the persona of a super sleuth and head out on the hunt for Hollister. Don’t go to the mall and don’t go to free standing department stores of either the posh or bargain variety. Your destination is the back alleys of the fashion world. The best kept fashionista’s secret source of name brands for pennies on the dollar: the consignment store.

That’s right, high priced quality and cutting edge garments are routinely sent to second hand shops. This is your best bet to find what when you really need the label. Shopping for Vera Wang at Goodwill can be a gamble. Odds are you’ll need to visit and revisit in order to get what you really want.

In some of the larger cities there are specialty second hand stores devoted to designer clothing. You will pay more at a specialty second hand store, but you will save time and the price tag will still be a fraction of what the garment would have cost new.

You can have the look you want even if you don’t own a money tree. It just takes a bit of creativity.