Ossie Clark Georgia Silk Maxi Dress – £238

IRO Parnass skinny jeans – £85

Notify Opium high-waisted jeans – £54

Manoush Jersey Knit Sweater – £55.17

Castañer Zeta woven wedge sandals – £105

Anna Lou of London

I buy designer because I want quality, something relatively unique and because it is an investment. Vintage Prada bags will be worth so much more than H&M ones.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the highstreet and despite all the fussing I do about good quality, designer garments I always seem to have a wardrobe full of highstreet. Some of it higher end stuff from department stores and some of it from Primark. It’s not all great quality but some of it is gorgeous, stylish and very on trend.

However, if you buy a gorgeous t-shirt from Primark it is likely that 6000 other people have done just that. The odds of walking into someone in that same t-shirt is very, very high. I don’t like that. If the piece is very distinct it’s generally a no-no for me. However, cheap basics and shoes are very good. Who cares if they fall apart after two weeks they cost £1!

Cost per wear

Okay, so Primark flip flops last you two weeks in the height of summer. Let’s say around 10 wears and they cost you £3. That’s 30p per wear. Not bad.

I bought some gladiator sandals from Faith two years ago. They lasted two whole summers (and I’ve recently had them repaired for their third.) They cost £45 and I probably wore them 200 times. 22p per wear plus a love for them so dear that I spent 10p on super glue to hold the soles together.

Now if you think about that £1000 jacket you’ve been coveting. You’d probably wear that every day when you first got it. Then out for special occasions. It would last you way over 10 years. Maybe wear it 100 times a year, probably more. That’s 1p per wear.

Fashion

Designers tend to be more cutting edge, they are the ones denoting what fashion is. Therefore their ranges are about six months ahead of the highstreet. You could’ve been wearing nudes and donning big shoulders way before any of us had known about them if you’d gone designer.

Fashion changes very quickly but some pieces are timeless. A good mac, flat boots and jeans are all essentials. These are the items you could spend into the £1000′s for.

Unless you have a lot of money you aren’t going to want to spend £800 on shoes only to find they are old news two months later. So, if you can bear to buy during a trend rather than before it go for good quality shoes that will last the months that they are fashionable and then can be forgotten about without your purse leaving home.

Style

Fashion and style are different things, of course they overlap but you don’t have to be wearing the latest trends to be stylish. If you like something then buy it. If it is designer and expensive get it and wear it to your hearts content. Everything can be given a whole new lease of life by pairing it with accessories and different items.

I can’t stress how important it is to experiment with your clothes. Buy what you like and what you can afford. Match pieces you wouldn’t normally. If it fails then laugh at yourself and move on. There are some terribly stylish people that just look silly but they are still counted as stylish because they are doing something others aren’t.

Uniqueness

The joy of having designer clothing is that not many other have them. Either because there aren’t many of that piece around or they are simply too expensive for ‘normal’ people to buy.

Lower/mid end highstreet shops will sell lovely things, they really do, but it becomes less lovely when you are in a restaurant and someone walks in wearing the exact same Zara dress.

How can I get around this?

If you want quality, uniqueness and great cost per wear then you need to look for unknown designers. They put the same love and dedication into their fashion as the top designers to. The top designers however, have huge marketing budgets and a name to keep up with. There are huge markups on their clothes.

Look for the smaller designers who are still in this for love. More often than not they’ll handmake their clothes. No two items will be the same and they don’t have the £1000′s price tag. Well, some do.

Although I might not pay £1000 for a dress I would pay £250 for one. That seems like enough money to me to be able to buy something spectacular. It is enough and you can do that in House of Fraser but you still run the risk of meeting someone else in that dress.

I’ve felt passionately about this for a long time. I love what some big designers do. I love Burberry, I love Mulberry, I love Alexander McQueen. But, I also love everything that the designers over at Republika Fashion do.

I work for them and I’m so passionate about the designers we’ve found the clothes that they are selling that I want to shout to the world about it. The clothes on there are from those small, unknown designers. And every piece is exceptional. Prices range from £20 to £1500 but average probably somewhere around the £200. I can live with that.

Most pieces are unique and some are handmade. The site launches tomorrow. That’s payday for me.

I have my eye on a cotton, asymmetrical, white polka dot dress.

(If you are one of those passionate, relatively unknown fashion designers. I’d love to hear from you.)

All these fabulous item can be found over at Twist Fashion

I particularly love the Rose skirt and backless dress. Buy, my little fashionlings, buy!

http://www.mandmdirect.com

Loads of jeans on sale including diesel and levi. Ugg boots. Shoes, sport wear.

Blowfish Women’s Hybrid Boot
Was £44.99 Now £12.99
I love these boots, I’m not sure if it is good or bad that they don’t have my size. But rejoice! only £12.99 down from £45!

Women’s Superdry Skinny Jeans
Was £47.99 Now £14.99
Love Superdry but it’s always been so expensive. £14.99 is a great price for such sexy jeans.

Killah Women’s Melody Jean
Was £129.99 Now £20.79
Such a discount on these jeans. And what a flare, so 70′s!

www.getthelabel.com

Bubblegum I love NY
Was £34.99 Now £12.99
Would it be really cliched to buy this and wear it in New York? I love blue and pink together!

Chilli Pepper Dress
Was £39.99 Now £9.99
Love Chilli Pepper, love wet look. This is stunning. Wear with some feathers and you have a rock/flapper look.

Full Circle Samantha Skirt
Was £54.99 Now £24.99
This pencil skirt has edge. I love it and I want it. I’ve never owned a pencil skirt before.

Rare Two Colourway 80′s Dress
Was £44.99 Now £10.49
The two tone is pretty. And I love yellow. Seriously tempted.

Rare Cross Back Dress
Was £49.99 Now £15.99
Love the colours on this.

ASOS Floral Skater Dress

£30
I used to have a similar dress from Primark. I loved it but being the cheapy shit it was the zip broke. However, I did get a lot of wears out of it. But this dress is tasty. I want.

Pepe Jeans Oversized Jumper

£60
I must have a bit of a jumper fetish at the moment. Anything woolly and cuddly is on my list of want… Yes, including sheep.

Pa:nuu Starburst Jumper

Was £80. Now £32
This 80′s jumper is delicious. It also looks super comfy.

Steve Madden Knee Cowboy Boot

Was £160. Now £96
You have to buy them. If not for yourself then for me! I’ve been searching for a nice pair of low heeled, knee high cowboy boots for years. Plus, these are in the perfect colour. Camel. I can see you in the skater dress, grey tights and these babies. Yes!

Louise Markey Cotton Twill Pencil Skirt

Was £70. Now £21
There’s something about everything Louise Markey designs that has a sense of childishness to it. For this I love everything she does. This skirt is beautiful. I love yellow, I love zip detail and it would go perfectly with an outfit I’ve been trying to find a skirt for. Plus look at the reduction. Buy eight of them.

Chilli Pepper Cotton skirt

Was £45. Now £10
I love Chilli Pepper clothes despite not owning any. Everything I see is brilliant. Especially love this skirt, it’s so simple. I need to wear more skirts. Wear it with boots, heels, leggings, anything! I love versatile.

$1089 (£680) from Alexander McQueen

Dresses:

£40 – Here

I love the nautical feel of this dress.

£86 – Here

This is just stunning. If I had the figure for it then I’d spend £86 on it. That shape and neck line is just fab.

Jackets

£45 – Here

I like the roll up sleeves. It would go superbly with a little brown or grey vintage tea dress.

Trousers

£8 – Here

I’ve never worn patterned leggings but maybe I should.

Skirts

£32 – Here

This is so sexy and could be worn as office wear too!

Shoes

£96 - Here

I need these boots.

£43 – Here

And these. The shape of them is so unusual.

Stitching

-On hems the more stitches per inch the better.
-Stitching should lie flat, not rucking, twisting or folding.
-Stitching should be invisible unless on garments where there is stitching for decoration (i.e. jeans.)
-There should be no loose threads and all seams should be neat.
-Designer work is often hand finished.

Seams

-There should be a generous fabric (a good amount is 3/4 inch+) allowance on all hems/seams. This means they are less likely to come undone.
-No rough edges
-Should lie flat.
-Always sewn straight and then finished to prevent unraveling.

Buttons

-Quality buttons.
-On coats, sturdy buttons that have been sewn on by hand and are backed by another, smaller button.
-Button Holes should be finished off cleanly with no threads hanging.
-Bound buttonholes or keyhole buttonholes rather than straight buttonholes.
-Sturdy materials such a metal or mother of pearl.

Linings

-The more the merrier. In trousers, linings to the knee, in skirts linings at least to the back. In coats and jackets, full linings including silky sleeve linings. Extra linings for coats and jackets to extend the season of the garment.

Cashmere

-Hold them up to the light and put your hand behind it – you shouldn’t be able to see your hand through a thick, quality cashmere.
-Stay tape should line the shoulders of a cashmere sweater (or any other stretchy fabric) this stops the garment stretching in the wrong places like the shoulders.

Fabric

-Garments with a high thread count are best, they will feel really light to touch and will move through your hands like silk.
-Patterns should match all over the garment.
-Fabric should have been cut / sewn on the grain.
-It shouldn’t look or feel cheap.
-If it is coarse in feel then it’s probably not designer.

I’m going to need some help from my thrifting team here. I have little idea about what stitches are good quality ones. More research is needed.