It’s the weekend and you’re excited to grab dinner with your friends or to have a date night alone with your significant other, and your look needs to be on-point. As you go through your closet, you think to yourself “ugh, I have nothing to wear!” You want to look like a grown adult who has their life together, but not in an uptight manner. You want to appear polished and sophisticated, yet simultaneously flirty and fun. So how do you accomplish that? It’s simple really, by mixing high-end designer pieces with fast-fashion or low-end products. While it may sound tacky to some, when carefully thought out and done properly, no one will be able to tell. In fact, people will probably assume you’re wearing that blazer dress everyone’s been talking about from Balmain’s newest ready-to-wear collection when you got it from ASOS.
If you’re just dying to know how to pull off mixing high-end designer gear with more affordable wear, we’ve got you covered. In this article, we’re going to give you advice on how to shop for high-end designer pieces. On the other hand, we will also walk you through how to choose fast-fashion garments to combine with the designer pieces to create a look that is flawless. I’ll let you in on a few high/low-end styling tips and resources I use that are so easy, you’ll wonder why you haven’t already been using them in the first place!
Step One: How to Shop for Haute-Couture Designer Wear
- Before you buy, be aware of your true sense of style. Not your favorite influencer’s style or your sister’s, but your own. The biggest difference when shopping for designer goods, apart from the staggering prices, is the quality and the shelf-life. Most of us are so used to buying clothing that we wear maybe twice before we notice that our new sweater has a snag on it or the t-shirt, we bought last Tuesday suddenly has a hole in it. This is not the case with designer wear. Since it’s made with higher quality fabrics, it’s built to last much longer.
- Look at this purchase as an investment. Designer brands may be expensive, but they also have a much higher durability. When properly stored and cared for, these pieces can last for a long time, sometimes for many decades. We know this is true due to the popularity of high-end vintage retailers. Some families choose to pass down their vintage designer items from generation to generation.
- Choose pieces that you really love and that you know you will use time and time again.
- Opt for classic styles, rather than what’s trendy.
- Start off with timeless accessories that will pair well with a broad range of outfits. This especially applies when making your first designer purchase or when being mindful of financial decisions.
Here’s a List of Signature Accessories and Timeless High-End Pieces Every Woman Should Own:
- Belts
- Sunglasses
- Scarves
- Handbags
- Wallets
- Shoes
- Jewelry
- Winter Coat
Step Two: How to Seamlessly Incorporate Fast-Fashion with Designer Pieces
Lauren Messiah is a personal stylist who has been featured on many high-reputable publications for her work. She’s written books and has a blog and YouTube channel dedicated to providing styling tips and personal development advice to others. According to one of her videos, there are a few things to keep in mind when mixing high and low-end fashions.
- “No cheap outfits with Louboutins!” What she means by this is you can’t just throw on any outfit from Forever 21 or H&M and top it off with a pair of Louboutin shoes. You won’t be fooling anyone, and instead you’ll be looking like a fool. Being more thoughtful and calculated in your choices is necessary if you really want to pull off a head-to-toe, high-end appearance.
- Choose garments you would wear if it were expensive, rather than going for something that’s trendy or that you think someone else would wear.
- Make sure these garments are tailored to fit your body. This is what sets apart high-end clothing from everything else. The silhouettes you choose and how it fits your body specifically can make all the difference between a $90 look and a $900 look.
- Style accordingly. Choose high-end pieces to apply to your look that are cohesive and blend well with the fast-fashion garments you’ve chosen. This is not the time to be experimental or conceptual with your look. Make sure the entire look when all the pieces are combined makes sense. Keep in mind that less is more. So, if things aren’t coming together so great, then maybe you need to either start removing things one-by-one or completely start from scratch.
Resources to Further Help You
- StyleSnap with Amazon Fashion is a feature on amazon.com that you can use to help you look for similar items to any photo or image. All you have to do is go to https://www.amazon.com/stylesnap/ and upload a photo of any look you want to recreate and it will search for similar items to the image. This makes finding cheaper alternatives to high-end styles you want to emulate a breeze!
- Iamkoko.la is a vintage reseller that refurbishes all kinds of brands and even takes high-end labels and places them on lower-end garments, creating a completely unique and one-of-a-kind new piece. This is a great way to keep fashion sustainable, while also mixing high and low fashion.
- The Real Real and ThredUp are two online retailers that allow customers to both resell their gently used items. They are both great places to purchase used high-end bags. While ThredUp works with mainly lower-end brands, every now and then you can snag a great vintage Gucci or Marc Jacobs find for a fraction of the original price. The Real Real is specifically catered to reselling vintage high-end brands and allows for monthly payment plans upon credit approval.
