All you young fashionistas out there will know that trying to afford all the fashionable and designer pieces you want on your entry-level salary is seemingly impossible.
Yes, it might be a while before you can buy every single piece on your wishlist, but there are ways that you can still afford a few bits and pieces now.
When I was on a graduate salary, I slowly managed to buy a small collection of designer pieces. Here are the top tips that I used to build out my wardrobe on the cheap!
Be strategic about op-shopping
Since op-shopping became popular and “cool”, especially in gentrified suburbs like Newtown and Redfern, it’s become harder to find the real gems. There are too many other people sweeping the stores of anything good before you get there.
The solution is to go op-shopping in areas where it’s uncool to do so. Try wealthier neighbourhoods, places where most residents have no need or desire to shop in charity stores. You’ll find much more at these stores than the ones in Newtown.
eBay is one of the best resources
If you want high fashion pieces without paying top price, you have to be okay with second-hand items. And if you are okay with this, eBay should be your go-to shopping destination. I’ve bought most of my designer pieces, including my Alexander Wang boots and my Saint Laurent handbag, on eBay.
If you’re scouting for a high fashion wardrobe, you need to shop eBay in a specific way.
- You can set up alerts for all your favourite brands by saving searches. You’ll get notified anytime something matching the description is listed.
- Search for brands, not products. For example, search “Gucci” not “black belt”.
- Set the search to international. Other countries often get better prices on designer items and will therefore sell them for less.
- Always filter searches by newly listed so you can see new things as soon as they’re listed.
- If you find something amazing with a low price be prepared to make the seller an offer to end the listing or someone else will!
Dye it all black
Have you ever noticed that whenever there’s a designer sale the pieces are only available in really weird or unwearable colours? That’s fine. Just dye it black. Problem solved.
There are a few different types of dye: stovetop dye, soaking dye and washing machine dye. I like the washing machine dye because the machine does all the rinsing for you. You can buy it at Spotlight or Lincraft.
Make an effort to go to those warehouse sales
Warehouse sales are often far away, they start early and more often than not you don’t find anything good. So it’s rather tempting to not go. But you should. Every now and again, you’ll turn up to a warehouse sale and find the most stunning dress in a $10 bin. These moments are definitely worth those times you found nothing.
Know when the sales are and save for them
You need to know when the sales are and save up so you actually have cash to spend when they come up. To help, here are the basic cycles.
Mid-year/End of financial year – All the big designer sites like Farfetch, Net-a-Porter, Matches Fashion etc. have sales during this period. This is the time to pick up your Gucci and Saint Laurent.
Post-Christmas – This is when the Australian designers will be on sale as part of the Boxing Day sales. Think Bec & Bridge and Maurie & Eve.
Start saving now so that when these sales come up you can actually take advantage.
Mia Steiber is Shopping and Beauty Expert at finder.com.au, the site that compares virtually everything.
