FASHION
Get The Look
Fashion is the most important part of anyone's identity. The way you dress shapes you as a person and is the first thing you notice about someone.
But as a student trying to keep up with the latest trends can be difficult when scraping for money. Going out constantly can become a task as you start to realise you have already gone through your entire wardrobe more than once, and of course you want to look your best.
Dressing for night and day can be tricky, trying to sort out what is meant for what occasion.
So we have gone and found the best clothes on the market, all of them for a cheap price, and we have sectioned them to help everyone with their fashion problems.
Student Lauren Fashion Advice
Making your own clothes is so much fun and can be so much cheaper than buying highstreet clothes! There is so much choice when it comes to where to buy materials from so you can shop around finding the cheap alternatives! My personal favourite place to shop for materials are markets; the 2 I use mainly are Coventry Market and The Rag Market in Birmingham. The people on the stalls are so lovely that if you tell them you're a student they help you out with abit of discount! So markets are a really good way of creating my own clothes for cheaper! I get a lot of inspiration from highstreet fashion and current fashion trends but as I'm quite outgoing with how I dress, I enjoy making my own clothes so I can put my own spin on things for cheaper!
My name's Lauren and I'm a 20 year old Fashion Design student at Birmingham City University. I first found an interest in fashion and textiles in year 9 when choosing my options for GCSE and I fell in love with learning about fashion. I went on to study Fashion Design for Performance at Stratford-Upon-Avon College and I learnt so much about the costumer and theatre side of the Fashion industry and fell inlove with it more. I'm now in my second year at Birmingham City University, study Fashion Design for theatre and performance and am absolutely loving it, I've experienced so much that I never thought I'd have the opportunity to do so and it's really helping me learn more and more about what I love and want to do in the future which is to work in the Fashion industry focusing on costume and theatre because I love having no restrictions when designing.
I love a night out; purely for being able to get all dolled up and put on a pair of heels and enjoy feeling nice! I always think that you can make any outfit work and finish it off with the perfect bag or earrings. They're my go-to accesories! I love to try and coordinate my earrings to match my bag, colour wise and then match them to my shoes. I have so much fun with make-up aswell as accessories on a night out; if you're wearing a little black dress, an instant way to make it work is to choose a colour, for example we'll use red, go with red shoes, red bag and red statement earring and finish the look off with a red lip and you're sorted! An instant way to change just a simple dress into a stunning outfit! And these, you don't even have to spend that much money to make an outfit look incredible! My go-to shops for accessories like earrings and bags are Primark, H&M, New Look and my all time favourite is TK Maxx! Forever finding absolute bargains there!
I've always loved a bargain and it definitely helps when being a student! A lot of high street shops sell similar items of clothing but they really vary in price so you have to shop around to find a true bargain! Places I always go to for cheaper alternatives to the more expensive high street shops like Topshop and River Island are shops like Primark, New Look, H&M and TKMaxx. They sell just as good quality clothing but for a little bit cheaper which is really helpful being a student! My favourite cheaper alternative that i swear by are Primarks Jeans! My favourite style being the simple super high-waisted stretch skinny. Although they are a cheap alternative ranging from £10-£14 (sometimes being on sale for £8!) I find that the black colouring doesn't fade as quick as the more expensive Topshop jeans! They're super comfy and can get them in all different styles and colours. But if you do like Topshop, they do offer 10% student discount which helps.