I once walked into Sears to buy a lawn mower and walked out with a skirt that still hangs in my closet many years later. Is it a gift or a curse to find fashion on the way to the hardware department?
To me, it’s simply evidence that fashion, like beauty, truly is all around us. This is why there’s no need to spend top dollar to update your wardrobe as much or as little as you like.
If fashion is your thing — or you simply want to look good while you’re doing everything else — it pays to know the brands that consistently deliver the season’s trends in budget-conscious variations.
We don’t often have the chance to tell you about them in this space because these styles sell out quickly. The minute a fashion forecaster decrees that red is THE color of the year (it is), these labels will be picked clean faster than you can say Tango Red.
So here are some affordable brands you want to pick through as quickly as you can:
Mango: With a limited but growing number of brick-and-mortar locations in the U.S., this Barcelona-based retailer may not be familiar to you yet but it’s worth getting to know. Their design team has a savvy sense for delivering seasonal trends in wearable and accessible ways. To maximize that accessibility, plus sizes are available and prices are easier on the budget.
When midi-length skirts started coming down the runways for fall, I popped onto the Mango site to check out their options.
I was rewarded with a black pleated number in a wool blend for $60. Everyone else apparently liked it too — none were left in stock. Thanks to Mango’s notification feature, I was alerted when the skirt became available again, and immediately pounced when the email arrived. It pairs nicely with nubby cropped sweaters and, for a little edge, black cowboy boots.