How to Style Clothes from Budget Friendly/ “Thot Shops”

I recently posted an instagram photo that everyone raved about. This photo has nearly 1000 likes and all the comments reference the pants. Pants that I purchased at Rainbow Stores. Yes, Rainbow. One of my go-to shops!

After reading that, some of you will smile in appreciation and others will scrunch up your face in disgust and judgement.

Trust me. I know. It’s ok.

My name is Jennifer Jean-Pierre and I shop at all the “thot” stores or as I like to call them “budget friendly boutiques”. I have never been one to only rock labels and I have never believed that paying more for an item meant it was higher quality. On the other hand, I do also know that many of these stores do carry some low quality items as well in order to keep the prices low. I am not ashamed to make my money stretch and I know when I need to invest in pieces and when I can just buy it from “wherever”.

I have shopped at Five Below, Walmart, Rainbow, Citi Trends, Meijers, Charlotte Russe, Ross etc….

Wallet friendly and cute are the name of my game!

So here is a short post on my tips to shopping at these budget friendly stores and still get your money’s worth.

• When buying shoes, always look at what is holding it together and the threading. Often times, the shoes are glued and frankly if they are exposed to house heat for too long, will fall apart. I mostly purchase my trendier shoes or flat summer sandals at these stores for this reason.
• These stores are excellent for basics such as little t-shirts and lightweight palazzo pants in all sorts of colors.
• I would not recommend the jeans at these stores because they are often that thin, super stretchy material that just look like jeggings. If jeggings are your vibe then cool, purchase on but choose some in darker colors. Darker colors look richer!
•  My favorite thing to find are summer worthy wide leg pants. The materials are always soft, light and airy and perfect for warmer weather. Check the threading and seam stitching to make sure it will not come apart quickly.
• I would not recommend purchasing sweaters. Material is often itchy.
• Jumpsuits are always great there and you can find a variety of prints, colors and leg styles (wide leg or cigarette)
• You can always find great trendy sunglasses or classic aviator styles for like 5 bucks. Load up!
• Dresses are always a great idea from these stores. I love slipdresses and maxi dresses from here.
• This past winter I stocked up on turtlenecks in a variety of colors from these budget friendly boutiques for less than 10 bucks each. They are the most soft shirts and I wore them all winter with no problem!
• Dusters: I own at least 6 dusters from Rainbow and Charlotte Russe. From thick ones for winter to lighter ones.

Back to the outfit though.

I wore this look to attend District Winery’s Rose launch party with all the hoyty toyty folks of DC in attendance. I was stopped at least a dozen times about my outfit and I had absolutely NO problem stating most of it is Rainbow and some thrifted. I have no shame in my game. If you can dress, you can dress. End of story.

While writing this, I did a quick calculation of the cost of my outfit and was shocked to find it was……

drum roll please

LESS THAN $100 dollars

Yup. Glasses. Shirt. Pants, Headwrap, Shoes, The whole shebang!

Inhale Fashion, Exhale Style isn’t just my fave saying but my way of life. I do not wear anything straight off the mannequin. It’s a must that I add my own flair to anything I wear. Why? Because clothes should show your personality and it’s not that personal if every mannequin in that particular storefront is rockin’ it too.

So for the sake of always being transparent…

Did you scrunch up your face in disgust and judgement or did you smile in appreciation when I said I love Rainbow Stores?

(no judgement on my part either way)

Past outfits rocking items from “budget friendly boutiques” lol

Thank you for reading.