Picking the right outfit for each occasion can be a challenging task if you don’t keep your wardrobe in check on a regular basis. There are many ways to spice things up and breathe some fresh air into your clothing style, and you don’t even have to spend a lot of money to get the job done if you know how to approach it. If you want to reinvent your wardrobe on a budget, there are a few things you’ll need to keep in mind.
Shop Off-Season
This might sound obvious to anyone who’s been an avid clothes shopper for a long time, but it’s also something that many people tend to forget about. Shopping for summer clothes during the summer itself is a bad idea if you’re trying to save money. Of course, that’s when the best pieces tend to come out – but if you’re patient enough, you can still snatch them up a few months later, and often for a fraction of their original price. Nobody is really going to notice that your clothes are from last season.
Use Online Tools
The internet is great for saving money on clothing. It can make it easy to keep track of websites and know when something is coming out that might interest you. Set up some Google alerts for specific products that you want to keep track of and subscribe to some forums with relevant discussions as well. It can take a while to set these things up at first, but they can significantly expand your horizons in terms of options. Use your smartphone as well – shopping on the go can be much simpler with a tool like that in your pocket.
Have a Wishlist
It can get challenging to keep track of everything you want to buy, especially if you’re trying to completely refresh your wardrobe. That’s why it’s a good idea to set up a wish list and keep it up to date on a regular basis. If you notice any changes in price trends, update your list accordingly and pay attention to points where your desired products are at their lowest price. You will sooner or later spot some trends that will allow you to direct your shopping much more efficiently. This is especially true if you pay attention to specific stores, product types, and more.
Technology can allow you to narrow down your search significantly in this regard. Use apps to help you source the items you want. The Finery app helps you to organize your wardrobe like a pro. Use it to help you put together new outfits using clothes you already own.
Swap Clothing with Friends
Are you a similar height and weight as your besties? If so, you have an easy way to reinvent your wardrobe on a weekly basis. Get together with friends and share your collective wardrobes. Obviously, it’s not practical to do this every day, but for special events, date nights, or work functions, you can pick and choose new garments from your friends’ wardrobes. Say, for example, one of your friends has a cute dress and another has some sexy boots you have been coveting for ages. Pair them up with your own accessories and your favorite leather jacket. That way, you can look hot for a date and avoid wearing the same old outfits again and again.
This can all be organized on social media. Create a private Facebook group for your friends and upload photos of your garments and accessories. Everyone can see who has what and then post when they want to borrow something.
Create Your Own Fashion
We don’t all have the skills to be a famous fashion designer or textile artist, but it is really not that difficult to make clothes or enhance existing items to give them a new lease of life.
You can buy simple patterns from your local haberdashery store or look for patterns online. Use them as a starting point for making skirts and other garments. Pick your own fabric and add a few personal touches. All you need is a sewing machine and some time.
Simple skills like embroidery and tie-dying are something anyone can do. Take an existing garment and jazz it up. Embroidery is a hot trend right now. Embroider flowers and motifs on to shirts, jeans, bags, and anything you like. If you are not sure how to get started, watch a few YouTube videos for inspiration.
Experiment with fabric paint and design your own statement tees. This is where you can have a lot of fun. Transfer paper lets you transfer any image you like on to a tee-shirt.
Be unique and wear garments nobody else has. It’s a great way to stand out from the crowd.
Don’t Forget the Accessories!
It’s not all about the clothes. Remember that you can go quite far with the right accessories as well, and sometimes they can make the biggest impact on your looks. Needless to say, pay attention to any new offers for accessories as much as for clothes themselves. Don’t forget that you can scout your local markets for that as well, as the internet is not all there is when it comes to little trinkets and other small accessories. In fact, it can sometimes be much more efficient for your budget to do this kind of shopping locally, while you leave the main clothes shopping for the internet.
It can take some time to get the hang of where you should be looking for each type of clothing item and accessory that you want to buy, but you’ll master this art sooner or later.
After going through this once, you’ll probably realize that there’s nothing scary about reinventing your wardrobe, and it can actually be a pretty fun ordeal even if you’re on a tight budget. Just remember to get started early, pay attention to as many different sources of deals as possible, and use modern tools to your full advantage to ensure that you’re seeing the full picture at all times.