Affordable Fashion Archives - Page 38 of 48

Blush Cardigan

October 25, 2017 by Katie Haller

My entire wardrobe is all about layering. The weather in Las Vegas in the fall and winter is cold in the mornings, but the sun is always out, so I easily get hot in the afternoons. That’s why I love cardigans so much. They are so easy to throw on over a t-shirt or tank top. Last winter I bought this blush cardigan at Target. I love how it has the cozy sweater feel, but it’s easy to remove if I get too hot. For today’s look, I wore it with distressed jeans and a simple white tank top that I bought at Old Navy last spring for $2. I accessorized with my taupe ankle boots, black satchel purse, and a silver statement necklace.

*This post contains affiliate links, which means by clicking and/or making a purchase through a link, I will receive a small commission. Thank you for your support!

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life- blush cardigan with distressed jeans

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life- Layered look with blush cardigan with distressed jeans

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Cardigan- Target (similar similar) || Tank Top- Old Navy (similar) || Jeans- Express (similar similar) || Shoes- Burlington Coat Factory (exact) || Purse- Last Call Neiman Marcus (exact similar) exact) || Necklace- Savers (similar)

3 Ways to Accessorize a Simple Little Black Dress

October 19, 2017 by Katie Haller

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life | Making the Most of your Wardrobe | 3 ways to accessorize a simple black dress for a special occasion

October seems to be flying by. I can’t believe that it’s already time for another Year of Color linkup post. In case you just started following along, every 3rd Friday of the month I team up with some of my fellow blogger friends to host a link party called A Year of Color. Each month there is a color theme and you can share ANYTHING you like on that color. I always like to share an outfit post, because that’s what I feel I do best. This month’s color is black!

*This post contains affiliate links, which means by clicking on and/or making a purchase through a link, I will receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!

I can’t lie, I was so excited about this color. Black is always my favorite color to wear. It’s easy to accessorize, you can wear it with anything, plus everyone looks good in black. With that said, I had a difficult time narrowing in on what kind of outfit posts I would do for today. I ended up deciding on one of my favorite wardrobe pieces in my closet…..a Little Black Dress a.k.a. LBD.

In my mid to late ’20s my weekends were filled with going to weddings. All my friends were getting married, and to be honest I couldn’t afford to go buy a new dress for every wedding I attended. I bought this simple empire waist black dress for my rehearsal dinner (similar). Instead of going with a traditional bride rehearsal dinner dress, I played it safe and went with a black dress. I’m so happy I did because I’ve worn this dress on a number of other occasions since then.

Today I am going to show you how easy it is to accessorize an LBD like this.

The first way is a very classic traditional look. I wore black patent leather pumps, rhinestone jewelry and a satin clutch with rhinestones. This is perfect for a more formal wedding. I wore this exact look at my husband’s cousin’s wedding in Chicago a few years ago.

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life- Accessories for a formal occassion

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life | Simple black dress accessorized with rhinstones

Shoes- Ivanka Trump- Von Maur (similar) || Necklace- Target (similar) || Clutch- Jessica McClintock (similar)

For my second look, I chose leopard accessories. I wore my gold sandals, with my leopard clutch and gold jewelry.

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life | Gold and Leopard accessories

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life | LBD accessorized with gold and leopard

Shoes- DSW (similar) || Necklace- LC Lauren Conrad- Kohl’s (similar) || Clutch- H&M- ThredUp (similar)

For my final look, I accessorized with some color. I always love how turquoise looks with black, so I wore turquoise jewelry with my turquoise clutch. For shoes I went with my nude pumps. I think that this look would be great for a destination wedding.

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life | Turquoise accessories

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life | LBD accessorized with turquoise

Shoes- Target (similar) || Necklace- Kohl’s (similar) || Clutch- Hand-me-down (similar)

Hopefully this will give you some ideas on how to accessorize your black dresses and maybe help you out next time your stumped on what to wear to a wedding or special occasion.

I hope to see everyone back here next month for the color Orange. Don’t forget to leave your link below!

An InLinkz Link-up

How to: Distress Your Own Denim

October 16, 2017 by Katie Haller

Today, I want to share my latest obsession with distressing my own jeans. I love the look of distressed denim, but I’ve had bad luck finding distressed jeans that I really love. They are either too distressed or not enough. I feel like the ones that I really like are way out of my price range. I feel like you shouldn’t have to spend $70 + for a cute pair of distressed jeans. That’s why this fall I started looking over some of the jeans in my closet that I never wear anymore and I decided that I would make them new again by adding some holes to them and distressing them a bit. (sounds weird to make something new by destroying them, but hey it’s the style.)

I started searching on Pinterest for how to distress your own jeans and I was confused by some of the articles I found. Some talked about using a cheese grader or sandpaper. Luckily, I was able to find a good video on YouTube that broke it down for me.

So here are the steps I took to distress my jeans.

Step 1: Pick out a pair of jeans that you want to distress. I would go for an older pair or a cheaper pair of jeans that you wouldn’t mind if you messed up. The jeans I picked for this post are a pair of Express jeans that I’ve had in my closet for probably 10 years. They needed a makeover! I recommend that you do some research first on what style of distressed jeans you want. I personally don’t like too many holes, so I kept it simple with 2 holes on the knee and a small hole on the upper leg on one side.

Step 2: I used a white eye shadow to mark where I wanted to make the cut. (I read to use eye shadow instead of a marker or pencil because it washes out easily.)

Step 3: Once you have your spots marked, start cutting.

Step 4: After you’ve made your cuts, use your fingers to fray the material a little until you see the white fibers.

Step 5: Once you’ve frayed the ends, you will be able to see the blue fiber ends. Use a pair of tweezers to pull the blue fibers out. This is the time-consuming part. I recommend you do this part in your bathroom or somewhere you can easily clean it up because it gets a little messy.

Step 6: Once you’re done with one hole, move on to the next and do the same technique until you’re done. I was very pleased with how my second pair of jeans turned out. Now a pair of jeans that I was ready to put in my Goodwill bag a month ago are my new favorite pair of jeans.

I hope that was helpful. Let me know if you have any questions. I’d be happy to help!

Favorite Fall Look

October 13, 2017 by Katie Haller

Hi everyone! I feel like I’ve been so busy lately, but you probably can’t tell by the number of blog posts I’ve been putting out. I feel like I have so much that I want to share, including all my favorite fall outfits. This time of the year, I am always inspired more with my wardrobe. I love it when the weather starts to cool down and I can start layering again. I have so many new clothes that I’ve purchased in the last 2 months, plus I’ve been working with some of my old wardrobe pieces and reinventing them.

For today’s blog post, I’m sharing one of my favorite fall looks. It’s a mix of new and old. I bought a couple items at Old Navy last month for my birthday. I’m obsessing over leopard right now, so I picked out this leopard scarf that is the perfect fall accessory. I also bought this long t-shirt at Old Navy. I like how it fits and it’s perfect to wear with scarfs. My jeans are old, but I’ve been into making my old jeans new again by adding a distressed look to them. (I promise to have a how-to post on that soon!) These were a pair of jeans that I was debating getting rid of until I reinvented them and now I’ve been wearing them all the time. My boots are from last fall. I find ankle boots to be much more practical in the fall, instead of tall riding boots. Don’t get me wrong, I love my tall boots, but they do make my legs hot, especially when the temperatures warm up in the afternoons. My sunglasses are from my glassesshop.com post that I did back in July (post HERE). I love the style of them with the cat-eye frames, which are super popular this fall. My purse is also from last fall. It’s from Last Call Neiman Marcus and unfortunately, they sold out of this style bag, but I did link some similar options because everyone has been asking me about it.

*This post contains affiliate links, which means by clicking on and/or making a purchase through a link, I will receive a small commission. Thank you for your support!

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || Fall look with black top, distressed jeans, ankle boots and leapord scarf

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Top-Old Navy (exact) || Jeans- old (similar) || Scarf- Old Navy (similar, similar) || Purse- Last Call Neiman Marcus (similar, similar) || Boots- XOXO- Burlington Coat Factory (exact) || Sunglasses- Glassesshop.com (exact)

What are your favorite styles for this fall?

Casual Blazer Look

October 6, 2017 by Katie Haller

One thing that I always hear people say to me is that they wish they could be more stylish. When I googled the definition of “stylish” it says that it is to be “fashionably elegant and sophisticated” or to be “neat, confident and skillful”. To me, being stylish means that you can create an outfit and make it into a look. I feel like once you can do that you will feel confident, sophisticated and elegant. I think that most people are overthinking their outfits. It’s not hard to put together a polished look. I know that it can be confusing when you are always seeing new trends, but really you just need to stick to the basics and work with what you have.

For today’s “my closet” post, I recreated a look similar to many of the pins you will find on my Pinterest boards. It’s a very simple look. I pulled my gray T-shirt, an older black blazer from Forever 21, a pair of LC Lauren Conrad jeans that I bought on clearance 4 years ago, my old BCBG black pumps that I bought when I was still in college, a thrifted statement necklace and my black satchel purse. I love this look, because it’s so simple, yet it’s stylish enough to wear out on a date with my husband or to a blogger event. I could also wear it with booties or flats to dress it down a bit.

*This post contains affiliate links, which means by clicking on and/or making a purchase through a link, I will receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life Gray Tee shirt with blazer, jeans and black pumps.

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || Affordable fashion- casual blazer look

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || Affordable fashion- cuffed jeans

Shop my closet

Top- Zappos (similar, similar) || Jeans- LC Lauren Conrad (similar) || Blazer- Forever 21 (similar) || Shoes- BCBG’s Marshals (similar) || Purse- Last Call Neiman Marcus (similar) || Necklace- Savers (similar)

This weekend, I challenge you to be more stylish with your wardrobe. Try to think outside of how you usually wear your clothes and make sure that you feel confident, sophisticated and elegant before you walk out the door.

Gingham Shirt with Shorts

September 22, 2017 by Katie Haller

Hey everyone! I’m so excited about the recent cool down in the weather that I’ve been getting a little ahead of myself in the outfit that I’d like to share. I just get so excited to put together fall outfits, that I have more outfits to post than I can keep up with. That’s why today I needed to backtrack a little to this cute transitional fall look that I put together a month ago, wearing my gingham button-down shirt.

I love this gingham shirt. I feel like gingham is just one of those closet staples that you should have. It’s so perfect year-round, but I especially love wearing it in the fall. Because our falls in Las Vegas are still pretty warm, I like to wear my button-down with my jean shorts. I also like to wear it with jeans and as the weather gets cooler, I like to layer it with a cardigan over.

*This post contains affiliate links, which means by clicking on and/or making a purchase through a link, I will receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || Gingham Shirt with shorts and convers

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life || Gingham shirt

Shop my closet

Top- Target (similar, similar) || Shorts- Abercrombi, thrifted from Goodwill (similar) || Belt- Old Navy (similar) || Purse- Last Call Neiman Marcus (similar) || Shoes- Convers (exact) || Bracelet- Kate Spade (exact)

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