Resources

A Student’s Guide to Looking Chic on the Cheap

Students and shopping – especially clothes-shopping – have a strange relationship. You don’t want to look shabby, nor do you have the cash to blow on a £50 shirt. If you, like many students, are struggling to keep up your style game and maintain your bank balance at the same time, here are a few tips to help you dress for less.

Shop Online
Retailers have never worked harder to get the attention of students. Many websites now offer student discounts, or some sort of reward schemes to their loyal customers – that’s you! Take advantage of this and sign up for their email alerts or follow them on social media so you get advance notice of sales events, discount codes, and exclusive online offers.

Shop at Thrift Stores
Made cool around the world thanks to Macklemore; thrift stores are the perfect places for finding stylish one-off pieces – you just never know what treasure you may find! Just make sure that you’re shopping at a genuine thrift store rather than a vintage clothing store. If you didn’t know, thrift stores sell secondhand clothing at a discount, while vintage clothing stores stock trendier fashion at a markup.

Shop Late
We don’t mean late during the day; but late in the season. Retailers put out-of-season clothing on clearance to clear the stock, so you’ll get a much better price if you shop what’s not happening. Sure, we understand that it’s exciting to buy things pre-season and it may feel weird buying a coat in the summer, but there’s a lot of cool cash to be saved from buying out-of-season fashion.

Swap Your Clothes
Why buy when you can beg, borrow, and steal? Well, maybe not steal but you can definitely swap your unwanted clothes for ‘new’ ones!

Host a clothing swap and invite your friends, roommates, and neighbours to come and trade whatever they don’t wear. Then take anything that you have left to a thrift store; you’ll end up with some ‘new’ clothes in your wardrobe and some extra cash in your wallet. Speaking of extra cash...

Sell What You Don’t Wear
If you can’t swap them, sell them! Just don’t let old, unwanted clothes gather dust. Go through your wardrobe, pack up whatever you haven’t worn in the past month or so, and drop it off at a thrift store, or stick it on eBay or Depop. You probably won’t make your money back, but you can at least expect to earn enough cash to put towards your next shopping trip.

Article By: Fusion Students.

A Bit About Our Contributor: Founded on the belief that student living should be about people and experiences, not just rooms and buildings, at Fusion Students we’ve developed a portfolio of vibrant places in some of the top student cities across the UK.