2020 has been the year where most people have stayed home more than they ever had in their lives. You might have lived in your pajamas for most of the past year, particularly if you worked from home and seldom left the house except for grocery store runs. This has been the pandemic lifestyle: careful and cautious.
It seems likely that will change in 2021, though. The FDA has approved multiple vaccines, and that should mean that things will return to something like normalcy within the next few months.
That’s great news for many reasons, but one of them is that you can probably start showing off your full wardrobe again. There will be fewer pajamas and Zoom meetings in your future.
However, maybe in the past year, you’ve looked at your wardrobe and felt like it’s time for a change. By the time you get back together with your friends and family, perhaps you’ll want to show off a new look. But how can you do it, particularly if you don’t have a ton of money right now, as is true for so many people?
Here are some fashion tips that can shake up your wardrobe as you get ready to resume your normal life again.
You Can Check Out Goodwill
Maybe you don’t consider yourself to be the most fashion-forward individual. You might not start looking into fashion careers in NYC anytime soon. Still, that’s no reason you can’t change your look without draining your bank account.
You can head to the Goodwill stores in your area. These can yield some treasures for you because:
- There are always new items coming in
- The prices are far better than you can expect if you buy directly from stores online
If you live in a decent-sized city, there are probably several Goodwill stores you can access either by car or public transportation. Once you get there, go through each section carefully and see if there’s anything you can add to your wardrobe.
The trick with Goodwill shopping is that you can go there looking for a specific item, like some new jeans, but if you do it that way, you will probably face disappointment. It’s true that you might find the perfect jeans, but it’s better if you go there not looking for any one item. You never know what you’re going to find, so it’s better to have an open mind.
You Can Check Out Overseas Marketplaces
You can also look at overseas clothing sellers like AliBaba. Alibaba is a website that makes all kinds of knockoff luxury items. It’s a great place if you’re looking for accessories like:
- Gloves
- Purses
- Scarves
There are positives and negatives if you shop through an overseas site. Most of the things you’ll find on Alibaba are Chinese-sourced, so they might take as long as 6-8 weeks to get to you.
The real positive, though, is that they are dirt cheap. You can get a handsome imitation Burberry scarf for about $30, where an authentic one would cost you $900. These imitations look exactly like the real thing, and no one will be able to tell the difference.
Ditch the Baggy Clothes
You could be at a point in your life where you’re ready to look more adult. You definitely want people to take you seriously, and you know your fashion sense and overall appearance makes a big difference.
One way you can do that is to get rid of the baggy clothing in your wardrobe. A loose-fitting hoodie is fine if you’re going to hang out around the house. If you’re going out, though, you want more form-fitting outfits.
Baggy clothes inherently make you look frumpy. They declare that you don’t have any self-confidence. If you want to seem more grown-up, a more custom-tailored look that fits your body is one way to do that.
Don’t Wear Gaudy Outfits
Another way to appear more mature is to look through your existing wardrobe and donate any outrageous outfits to Goodwill. If you have anything that makes you look like Tina Turner or Michael Jackson, that’s probably only suitable for a Halloween costume.
If you love spangles and sequins, that’s fine, but you have to understand that no one is going to take you seriously. They might say you have a “quirky” style, but that’s probably not what you want. Go for simple, understated elegance if you’re going to project a new, quietly confident version of yourself.