Do you need money to look stylish?

[LesleyPumpshaft]

I think it certainly helps, but then you get people who buy off ebay and pick up bargains and they always look great.

Let's face it, it's easy to look good if you have lots of money to spend on hair, beauty treatments, clothes and the like. However, I also think that if you have a nice figure, or a natural sense of style then you can look good in just about anything.

Some people just seem to look great and have an individual sense of style. I went through a frump crisis a while back, and Ive sorted that out. However, I've started out freelancing and my income isn't great, although things are moving along in the right direction. I still want to look stylish despite being skint right now, but I don't want to look like a fashion victim.

I would love to have lots of disposable income to spend on clothes, hair and makeup, but it's tough titties really!

I don't think you do need lots of money, necessarily, but knowing what suits you and having a pretty defined sense of style is essential. I would agree it is harder to look stylish in very cheap clothes, and it is probably wiser to try and buy less but better.

Dress agencies and second hand shops are fantastic for designer bargains. Yesterday, for example, I bought a pair of pink patent Louboutins from my local dress agency for no more than a high street pair, but they with dress up my largely monochrome work wardrobe no end.

I am also a champion sale shopper. Large department stores, like Selfridges, reduce by 70-80% during their sales so you can grab some great stuff for minimal outlay.

My mother has mastered the art of looking stylish and no spending a lot. She has great eye for color, and can buy very inexpensive clothes and make them look expensive and polished by sticking to classic cuts, selecting only good materials and accessorizing are the keys. She knows all about sales and outlets and thrift shopping.

While some people have inborn style, some of it can be learned by watching (analyzing what very stylish people wear and how they construct outfits helps).

Ironing is also a great way to look a bit more polished.

I think it's still possible to be horribly unstylish with lots of money - lots easier to make fashion mistakes, for instance!

I don't have a huge amount of disposable income, but I buy incredibly carefully, and probably only buy perhaps a dozen or so items of clothing in a year (it has been a bit more this year as I lost lots of weight and wasn't pregnant or breastfeeding for the first time in 5 years, but normally it's about that). Obviously I can buy far nicer things only buying a few than people who buy a couple of things every few weeks.

The biggest thing I find difficult is regular haircuts - a decent haircut is £40+ (for me - I have uber-straight hair and anything less than a perfect cut looks atrocious as every flaw is visible), and because I have quite a sharp bob it looks scruffy after only 6-7 weeks. That is a bit outlay! But I budget it in and it works, kind of.

Also I find time for beautifying (for example, painting my nails a nice neat nude colour, putting a face mask on) much harder to find. I suppose if I was rich i could pay for some childcare so I could beautify more easily

Actually, I think I would say I would find being stylish easier if I had more time, rather than more money, actually.

The other thing that has made being stylish remotely possible for me is having my colours and style 'done' by an image consultant - I never ever buy things that don't suit me any more, and everything in my wardrobe goes with everything else, so I can have a really quite stylish capsule wardrobe without having any tops that don't go with any bottoms, or accessories that only match half my outfits.

Sorry, typos

Be very selective. Know what works. Fewer mistakes lingering in the wardrobe will lower costs.

I don't mind spending on stuff but it has to work. And love the 70% off sign for the right things.

Yep, gotta love -70%
I have plenty of childcare and still never find the time to do my nails

yep it's good for the soul.

When you get older it definitely helps. When young no!

AmberNectarine - I've actually picked up some lovely vintage and second hand stuff this year. I have two bags from the 1970's and a 1980's bag, and I love the fact that I don't see everyone else with the same bag as me

I also picked up a couple of lovely silk Victorian style blouses. They arent exactly fashionable, but having been a goth in my younger days, I like them and feel good in them. I think they go well with skinny jeans and long boots. I love a sales bargain too!

Hopefully - I think you're right, just because something is expensive and fashionable, it doesn't mean you should wear it! I like the idea of getting your colours done and I'm going to check this out. Thanks.

Sorry for typos

I think being thin makes the difference more than money.

My thin, much richer friend spends a lot less on clothes than I do. I'm fat and it takes a lot more care/accessories to look passably good.

The slimmer you are the easier it is for sure. Less effort and consideration involved you can just throw things together and they just work. I think when you are heavier(inc me here) you can over accessorise trying to look good and it often looks messy and not stylish at all. Less is more whatever size. Big bold jewellery and jazzy scarves can ruin a lovely outfit.

This is the thing, fashionable isn't always good. You can pop down to Primark, pick up some very current trends, put them on and look like an absolute dog's dinner. Much better for the majority of the wardrobe to be good quality classics which suit you and have a few less expensive, trend-led items to help you feel more relevant (if that bothers you, I know many people don't care).

Grooming also v important, as stated above. Like Hopefuly I also have a sharp bob, but am lucky to have found a very competent Korean hairdresser who does mine for £18.

Apols for typo Hopefully

Actually I agree with LaurieFairyCake and noddyholder about the weight issue. I've lost a stone and a half over the last year and that's quite a bit on a person who is 5'3". This took me from a 12-14 to an 8-10 and I don't feel as though I have to try as hard now.

AmberNectarine Primark isnt great tbh. Last time I went in their, some of the clothes had snags and holes in them and they were on the rails! I did buy some great PJ's and socks from there though.

Yes, hair is important. If my hair looks good I feel great in any clothes. Mine is poker straight too, but I like it long.

Agree easier to look stylish for less if slim and also tall. Can buy standard things (see white linen trousers thread ), and they will fit, big boobs, fat arms, chunky thighs and jelly belly are not a problem to 'dress around' IYKWIM. So easier to find things that suit that will be cheaper, in sales etc. also can get away with flats with skirts/wide leg trews etc, which I think can look more effortless and stylish.

Weight definitely counts - I find it much easier to look groomed when i'm slim (am size 10 atm) than when I'm huge (biggest I've been is a 16 I think). So much harder to look neat.

I think as Amber says, classics which are right for you are really important. I like to think of it as finding your version of a little black dress, your version of a white shirt (which, for me, is crisp, an oyster/off white colour and slightly military), your version of smart black trousers (which for me is dark green or brown soft leather skinnies - will go with everything) etc etc etc. Accepting that for me actually a white shirt looks shit, a shift dress looks frumpy and a little black dress needs to be anything but black was a really important step on the way to being (a bit more) stylish.

It's definitely easier to look good when you are slim with pert breasts. It takes a lot of work to hoik my norks up these days.

Knowing what suits you, and what is on trend atm, if very important, though.

I work with someone who wears things which she keeps telling me really suit her body shape, but to me she looks like some sort of crazy bag lady.

LynetteScavo

I hear you! I'm 5'3" have huge norks and no waist or hips but I'm a size 8-10. It's a difficult shape to dress! I would love to have small pert breasts!

Hopefully is spot on there, with the 'finding your version of things' and wearing colours that suit go a long way towards that. I have met Hopefully, and to look at us we are not that different, similar dark hair, similar shape and size (though she is taller ), but the creams, browns, oranges etc which look so good on her make me look like the living dead. I need the crispest White shirts, the black skinny trousers, the ruby, cobalt, emerald tops etc. If you are wearing something which doesn't suit you, you will never look stylish. I could be wearing the most amazing diaphanous Chloe creation costing thousands for example, and I would always look unstylish, because it just wouldn't suit me!

Yep, agree, big breasticles = dowdy. I loathe and detest mine and long to be able to wear nice crisp white shirts but I look like Dolly Parton a right dogs dinner in them.

Aye Charliefox dowdy or just downright tarty, depending on what you wear. There's a fine line!

Then there's the problem of even finding a nice crisp white shirt that has enough room for boobies and that fits nicey everywhere else.

Good underwear is the key if, like me, you have huge boobs. I always felt frumpy till I got properly measured, and splashed out on fabulous underwear that fits and supports.
Still struggle to find shirts to fit though.....why is it so fucking difficult for manufacturers to understand that just because you are large chested you are not large everywhere else. If I was to buy a shirt from the average shop to fit round my boobs I'd probably be looking at a size 22 or something ridiculous, and it would absolutely bury me everywhere else!

Being properly measured was a revelation! All of a sudden my back ache and posture improved 100%

I agree with you ladymariner. Most shops don't even consider the fact that size 10 people might have large chesticles

Its the same when you try to buy swimwear, I could no sooner buy a bikini from M&S or somewhere like that than fly to the moon. The bikini tops would just about cover a nipple, even in a size 20!
Thank god for Bravissimo, I buy my bras and swimwear from there, thanks to them I was finally able to wear a bikini when we went away a couple of years ago, prior to that I was either in a costume or a tankini with my boobs squashed to my chest like two massive pancakes!!!!! The problem is that they're expensive, my flat-chested friend bought 4 complete bikinis from Primark for less than I paid just for one bikini top......HOWEVER they do last, i wore them on the holidays weve since had, and the difference it made to my self esteem and confidence was priceless