It is easy to look sophisticated and expensive when you wear well-styled high-quality clothes, however not everyone can afford to keep up with buying pricey items to incorporate into their daily style, so how can one always look lavish? First and foremost knowing that you need not have designer labels to appear refined and expensive, which has been mentioned severally in my previous articles, is the starting point.
Realistically, most ladies would love to have elegance and luxury incorporated in their style but cannot afford high-end fashion. Thus, by being more strategic, creative and intentional about what you buy and wear, I believe you can stay on a real-life budget whilst looking incredible. Therefore, based on my research and studies here are eight (8) strategic steps you can take in incorporating sophistication and luxury into your style without having to break the bank.
1. Monochromatic Outfit
Want to instantly look expensive, try a monochrome look. It is one of the common and easy ways of looking expensive without overthinking it, and this is because all you have to do is wear the same coloured outfits from top to bottom. Nonetheless, I would advise you stay clear of loud bright colours or mixing prints and patterns because it may make your outfit look cheap, instead, stick to the earthly colours/tones or neutrals like black, beige, brown, camel etc., because they give off a sophisticated vibe. Other colours you can also consider are wine, emerald green, brown etc. but this should depend on individual preferences.
2. Pay Attention to Fabrics
The texture of fabrics varies, while some fabrics look expensive others do not, as a result, It would definitely be more tactical to have clothes that seem to possess this natural fabric richness to look expensive. Good examples include leather, fur, suede, silk, croc etc. so this way the fabric does the talking for you. Therefore, when next you go to the market/ store/ shopping to buy fabrics or clothes let the fabric be your guide especially since the end goal is to look expensive.
3. Consider Locally Made Quality Pieces
In a world where luxury costs a fortune, homegrown high street brands present themselves as a way to buy inexpensive locally made and desirable items. Hence, instead of splurging on that designer item that might not be convenient for your budget, why not consider a quality piece that is locally made? You’ll be supporting local artisans and look good doing it!
4. Invest in Quality Basics
Basics are those day to day safe silhouettes like a buttoned-down white shirt or basic tees, camis, jeans etc. that complement everything we wear. More so due to it being repeated more often than your other clothes I would say, invest in quality ones rather than cheap ones that would fade within a few washes. This is because apart from looking expensive, in the long run, what you would realise is that you have saved more money from having to keep replacing your basics.
5. Groom your Physical Appearance
Your physical appearance refers to those small details on your body like your hair, nails, skin etc. that require just as much attention, which will, in turn, adds quality to your expensive appearance. An affordable way to glow up your skin for instance, is to drink tonnes and tonnes of water if you cannot afford skin products; for your nails, keeping them plain and well-groomed is very good or better still painting them with neutral colours and not bright colours are equally as good, and for your hair keeping it clean, moisturised and tidy would definitely improve your appearance altogether.
6. Avoid Hardware
Hardware are those metal objects that come with some clothes for example gold buttons on a blazer or gold zip on a jacket, iron on a belt or etc. I say avoid non-expensive clothes with visible hardware because their quality can immediately be spotted as inferior which would affect the end goal of looking expensive. However, if you already have some like that a quick tip is getting good buttons in the market for instance and swapping them to improve the quality of the outfit.
7. Minimal Jewelry
When it comes to accessorising with jewellery less they say is more, hence to look more expensive wear very minimal jewellery. I would also add that you go for gold, even if it is not real gold it does not matter because you would still come out with your desired result.
8. Be Confident
Confidence, they say is the key to a good personal style. So no matter what you wear you still need to feel confident to make being expensive work for you because the way you carry yourself would make a lot of difference in your clothes and how the outside world would perceive you, cheap or expensive you decide!
