New season, new shoes. That’s my motto! With spring at its peak, and summer quickly approaching, it’s time to stock up on new sandals. I covet the designer styles I see on the pages of Marie Claire and Harper’s Bazaar, but seeing as to how I work retail part-time, I have become skilled at getting my luxe for less. I refuse to spend more than $50.00 for a shoe.
The challenge is in the search. In order to find an alternative to the designer sandals for under $50.00, I always browse websites like Forever 21, Charlotte Russe, UrbanOG, Lulu’s, and GoJane to scope out new arrivals. Forever 21 is known as the top retailer for fast fashion. This means that Forever 21 will adapt faster to trends, offering merchandise similar to what is showcased on the runway. Charlotte Russe is also a fast fashion retailer, but instead of creating merchandise that is similar to designer, they adapt trends from the runway to design unique, fashionable shoes. UrbanOG and GoJane provide alternatives to designer shoes by offering an inexpensive knockoff. Lulu’s has a mixture of designer and moderate priced shoe offerings, oftentimes showing both the designer version and a lower priced alternative.
My favorite designer sandals for Spring/Summer 2013 are the Fendi Polifonia, Stuart Weitzman Gladiator, Christian Louboutin Cataclou, and the Nicholas Kirkwood Low Heel sandal. When finding an alternative sandal to each designer style, I ensured that the sandal captured my favorite details of the designer shoe and cost $50.00 or less.
My favorite details on the Fendi Polifonia are the pyramid studded heel, ankle strap detail, and metallic leather upper. The alternative to this shoe is the Qupid Immortal in Nude. This shoe has the ankle strap detail and tri-tone upper like the Fendi Polifonia, but replaces the studded heel with a sleek metallic heel. An added bonus is that the Qupid Immortal only cost $28.00 at Makemechic.com.
The gladiator sandal is back for Spring/Summer 2013, and this time around I decided to go tall or go home. My favorite details on the Stuart Weitzman Gladiator are the height of the shoe and buckle details. The Breckelles Knee High Gladiator sandal is a great alternative to the Stuart Weitzman Gladiator because it has both the height and buckle detail of the designer sandal, but only costs $28.99 on Ebay.com.
The Christian Louboutin Cataclou is another of my favorite sandals for Spring/Summer 2013 because it incorporates an unusual pairing of the espadrille and stud detail. The Charlotte Russe Studded X-Front Wedge sandal uses the similar espadrille and stud details of the Christian Louboutin Cataclou with a cost of $36.00.
My final pick for Spring/Summer 2013 is the Nicholas Kirkwood Low Heel Sandal. My favorite details about this shoe include the metallic heel and ankle strap detail. The alternative the Nicholas Kirkwood Low Heel sandal is the Timeless Low Heel sandal available at Asos.com for $42.00. This shoe has the metallic heel and ankle strap detail similar to the Nicholas Kirkwood version of the shoe, but it adds a unique metallic upper.
Keep a Bauce shoe game and search the websites above to get your Luxe for Less!
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