Style Copycat: What to do when you “Get the Gimmies”

Remember that Berenstain Bears book called Get the Gimmies? Well sometimes that is me when I am out shopping and I have had to learn some self-discipline. Honestly, its not even that I want to look cool it is just that I really love the design part of fashion and how clothing can help you reflect who you are

Anthropologie is hands down my favorite store of all time. I wish I could just wallpaper my house with their catalogs and pretend like I was living in one of their dreamscapes they create every month. I drool. But, the reality is, I am a real person and have to find other ways to feed my fetish: enter Forever21.

As I was leaving Forever21 the other day, without making any purchases might I add (mostly because I was sick, not because I didn’t have bloodlust for the clothes) I saw this great color-blocked skirt on one of the models in the window. I loved so much about it: the bright spring colors that make you feel warm, the chiffon material that screams femininity and especially the accordion folding on the fabric lines: all for the great price of $23.80! But I walked away thinking, “Would I wear that? Is that popular? Huh?” About 30 minutes later, I walked into my house to find the new Anthropologie catalog haunting me on top of the breakfast nook. I snatched it up and what should I behold, but a very, very, very similar looking skirt, right there, smack dab in the middle of the front cover paired with an amazing denim top, screaming to me about how much I must love it! I am a Forever21 junkie and this skirt is for sure one of the things I would rather pay $23.80 for than $148.

“Hello Anthropolgie, have you met your copycat friend Forever21? Her store is messy and loud, her return policy is lousy and you don’t get good service, but her prices overcome those obstacles!”

Find something you love at an expensive store? Shop around, especially if it is a trendier piece that you don’t need to invest a lot of money into. Bargain hunting is a game I like to play but finding style copycats only work if you have general vision of a piece that you want. Sometimes I fall in love with an expensive piece and cannot for the life of me find something even half close to what I want. Going through this search process makes me realize what I actually need and helps me weed out what I actually just want.

For me it boils down to this: If I can only wear something for one season, I will try really hard to not spend a lot of money on it. The upside is I actually end up saving more, the downside, I don’t get to give into to my “gimmies” quite as much as I would like to.

Do what you can to find your style copycat.

Rebecca Alexander Pickrel, Fashion Contributor