Real vs. Ideal Style

Just was reading Marie Claire's site on fashion (I subscribe to those style sites to keep updated and don't really buy fashion mags anymore) and I saw in the fashion blog how boots for $825 were worth it because they had several looks. 

Now I am sure that the blogger means it - but that's more than a month's RENT for me.  I could LIVE on that! 

Boots were much more important in the E. where it gets so cold - but what with the salt on the streets, would I want to pay $825 for a pair of boots that would be easily ruined? 

I just did buy myself some ankle boots - at a thrift shop for $2!! they have leather toes and back with the rest nylon and I have another black pair in vinyl (you COULD wear those in the salt and wet and I got them for a trip to NYC a winter ago)...Otherwise in S. California boots don't make too much sense for me, as it is almost always too warm for them.  

That's the real vs. ideal world.  Now the writer probably got the boots gratis for writing about them - or a deep discount...But some teen-aged girl longing for them won't know that unless she grows up to be a journalist fashionista herself. 

That's where my mother's practicality comes in.  She is the voice in my head asking me if those boots are really practical in the snow and on salty streets.  It makes more sense to get a cheaper pair (in vinyl, maybe) for those times and this of all the rest of the $ you have left to pay your bills!

If you find a rock bottom deal on boots to DIE for, and you can wear them non-stop, then stretch your budget by all means.  But I warn you that it's sometimes hard to find fashion favorites without playing the field.  And I find that much easier when I accumulate lots of choices in my wardrobe (my husband may say too many).  But I never know that the cute shoes I picked up for a song will turn out to be my mainstays for a season...And I could just have a really boring wardrobe and stick to expensive basics...but - ugh...

Last weekend while we were out at our favorite thrift shops, I actually dragged my husband into some trendy boutiques to show him REAL prices.  Like the $325 bag of which mine is a $7 knock off - And I also share my research on the designer things I snag & what they would cost REALLY.  ($250, not $2)....OK, I spent something like $70 last weekend - but but that I got $250 shoes, and $80 shoes and $30 handbag,  and a $40 silk designer scarf, to mention a few items....And no one will know except my blog readers! 

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Amelia Earhardt Style Setter

Make your own chic on a budget. You can do it.