Achieve the look for less

Anatomy OFadiVA

by Adi Kolev

Why spend more money to look like you spend less? The grungy “hippy” style isn’t new, having made its debut in the modern fashion world last year, but it’s still everywhere. Fortunately for everybody, this style doesn’t include tie-dye shirts, center parted greasy hair and floods. This take is a more earthy, relaxed style.

Flowy cotton shirts, peace-sign jewelry and ultra-floral prints are all fine, but this trend goes too far. Clothing stores like Urban Outfitters are selling these hippy-inspired clothing to teenagers for ridiculous prices. The goal of the shoppers is to look care-free and natural, yet they try to achieve this look by spending hours deciding what pair of “earthy” gladiator sandals to wear with what pair of pre-ripped jeans. What’s the point of representing yourself to your peers as a free-spirit, or the “modern hippy,” if you’re going against what the style is really based off of?

Spending 58 dollars on a shirt to make it look like you don’t care about you wear is a bit of an oxymoron. Instead of spending your cash on cheap-quality pieces, go to a thrift store. With the money you could have spent on one pricey replica, you can get six authentic pieces of clothing that the replica is initially based on.

Not only is ridiculous spending a problem, it’s also a bit odd that people want to spend money on clothing made to look like it’s falling apart. Clothing falls apart when it’s old and worn in; you can do that yourself. You don’t need to spend excessive amounts of money so you can look like you’ve had your new pants since you were in the fifth grade.

If you’re really into the ripped-jeans look, create the look yourself by grinding sandpaper against them. Or if you like flower hair clips, go to Michaels, get a fake flower of your choice and use a bobby pin to keep it in place. It looks exactly the same, and you can use the 20 dollars you saved to go out with your friends and show it off.

Stop spending more money to look down-to-earth. It’s not practical to spend 40 dollars on a T-shirt that is made to look like it cost three dollars. Do your research on a trend before you back it up, and stop wasting money kids!