Hey collegiettes, it’s finally April! Can you believe how fast the semester has gone? Every weekend, I find myself looking back at the week and wondering where the time went. The days are flying by faster than ever, which means only one month left until graduation and, in two short months, I will be making my debut in the real world. Sounds kind of scary doesn’t it? Out of all of the sadness of leaving my best friends behind, all of the nervousness of starting over (again) in a new city, and all of the anxiety of starting my big girl job, one positive aspect prevails: the real world requires a real-ly new wardrobe!
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I started prepping my wardrobe for the real world about a month ago by adopting the age-old mentality “out with the old, in with the new.” After spending a few hours sifting through everything in my closet and dresser, I acquired a massive pile that will soon find itself a new home in some other App fashionista’s closet after the upcoming AFG clothing sale (April 18 in the College of Education Building from 11-4 p.m.) The rule to cleaning out your closet is: if you haven’t worn it in the last 6-8 months, GET RID OF IT! Sticking to this rule of thumb and avoiding agonizing over every little t-shirt in my closet, I was able to make some room in my closet to prepare for the new professional pieces that I will invest in over the coming months.
When I began shopping over spring break, I initially went where the deals were. If you are a young professional like myself, I would suggest starting at stores like J. Crew, LOFT, Zara, and Banana Republic. Avoid investing at places like Forever 21 and H&M. While the prices may be attractive at these retailers, you will definitely be sacrificing quality and will find that your fresh new dubbs will fall apart after the first couple of washes.
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After identifying what kind of stores I was interested in shopping at, I took a quick inventory of my closet to determine what exactly I needed to avoid only splurging on things I wanted. Lucky for me, I will be working in the fashion industry post-graduation, which means that in many cases my work wardrobe and my play wardrobe will overlap. For my shopping endeavors, I was specifically looking for cute and colorful pants, trendy tops, a few easy dresses, comfortable heels and flats, and a few new pieces of jewelry.
After a couple of trips to the mall, I ended up with two new pairs of colored jeans, one pair of work slacks, four tops, one skirt , three pairs of shoes, one pair of shorts, and a few new necklaces all for under $500. A small price to pay for the amount of use I will get out of these pieces over the next…well forever! I am so pleased with how versatile and professional my closet now looks. While my wardrobe rebuild is still mildly incomplete, I feel so comfortable stepping into my new clothes and into my future. After all, the best part about fashion is it can truly transform you and give you and awesome confidence boost in any situation. So if you’re like me, freaking out about graduating in a month and moving on, treat yourself to a little retail therapy to prepare for the real world. I highly recommend it!