Hi! I’m Christina, and I’m a clothes hoarder. No, really. I have two closets, a dresser, a trunk, and an armoire overflowing with clothing. It’s ridiculous, I admit, but I’ve always been into fashion in some way, shape, or form, and I’m a huge advocate for embracing personal style.
While scrolling through Instagram one day, I came across a pair of pants I loved, worn by current country It Girl Kacey Musgraves. She linked to them in her post, so naturally, I clicked. The price casually read $1,495, as if that was an affordable purchase for us mere mortals. My jaw dropped, and I quickly exited the page with a sigh. I was irritated, but out of my frustration came an idea: I could raid my own closet and try to re-create celebrity looks I love with the massive selection of stuff I already own. Duh. No need to dish out thousands upon thousands in cash.
So I chose five celebrities — some because their style was similar to my own and some just 'cause — and scrolled their social media profiles until I found looks that caught my eye.
What I'm Workin' With
Like most people, I don’t have money to blow on extravagant pieces. The bulk of my wardrobe comes from thrift shops, cheap fast-fashion retailers like Forever 21, online retailer PrettyLittleThing, and the menswear department at Walmart (a good pair of scissors can go a long way, y'all). For the most part, I rarely (if ever) spend more than $30 on a single item. This general rule of thumb is essential if you’re trying to expand your wardrobe on a budget.
Look 1: Emma Roberts
Emma’s look is chic but simple: denim, white tee, animal print trench, and nude shoes. The problem is the cost of such a deceptively simple look. The leopard jacket and jeans alone would run you close to $800, which is about the cost of rent.
Look 2: Chrissy Teigen
Chrissy is the epitome of effortless beauty. While I have no idea where she bought this maxi dress, I’m fairly sure I couldn't afford it.
You have no idea how bizarre celeb Insta photo poses actually are until you try to re-create them. This pose took an embarrassing amount of effort, if I'm being honest. But awkward posing aside, I enjoyed this look. There’s no way I’ll ever look as effortlessly beautiful as Chrissy Teigen, but this maxi dress from Target that I found in my closet, paired with a bedazzled pair of sandals from PacSun, did make me feel quite feminine and elegant. Plus, a maxi dress is an easy warm-weather outfit that always looks chic! I’d give it a 7/10.
Look 3: Miley Cyrus
My, oh Miley. It was tough finding a look of Miley’s that was even in the realm of everyday fashion, but the Nashville icon came through with this denim-on-denim look.
Denim on denim is a bold choice unless you’re Britney Spears circa 2001 or a country music star, but — not to toot my own horn or anything — I think I pulled this off pretty well. I threw on a pair of $15 shorts from Rainbow, a thrifted denim jacket, and the same white tee I wore for the Emma Roberts look. I liked the outcome, although I felt like I needed a cowboy hat to complete the look. If you’re into the denim-everything trend, I’d advise checking out your local secondhand store. Thrift stores = denim heaven.
Look 4: Kylie Jenner
Kylie Jenner's looks have become fashion inspo for aspirational younger generations, but while scrolling through her Instagram feed, I noticed something: Her style is incredibly basic. She predominantly wears neutrals, sweatpants, and crop tops. This look was one of the only ones that caught my eye.
I felt 100% ridiculous posing on a car. For one thing, I own a Mazda, not a Ferrari. For another, it’s unreasonably difficult to sit on top of a black car when the sun is blazing. But I did it for #FASHION. This outfit was closest to my own personal style, besides the pigtails, and I definitely wore it the rest of the day. I replaced the white sneakers with my five-year-old Doc Martens, because I strangely do not own any white sneakers, and chose a $5 black ribbed top from Rainbow and printed harem pants from T.J.Maxx. It might not be an exact match, but it works if you work it.
Like my Teigen pose, this photo took more tries than I’d like to admit. It’s tough work pretending to be a celebrity. Most turned out something like this.
Look 5: Rihanna
Rihanna has a knack for rocking the craziest clothing combinations. She’s the queen of personal style and can pull off things other people only dream of. I scrolled her Instagram and found this little-black-dress look, paired with a sporty jacket and heeled boots. What a combo.
While I have a ton of black dresses in my closet, I chose this $15 romper (it’s lightweight and pairs well with EVERYTHING) instead. And since I had nothing even resembling Rihanna’s weird sock-boot things, I went with these acid wash denim boots from Forever 21. The jacket is a $5 thrift find from a few years back. While I would never think to combine these three items in my closet, Rihanna is clearly an innovator. Naturally, I ended up loving this look.
Who needs a stylist when you can just scroll through Instagram and raid your own wardrobe?
As it turns out, re-creating celebrity looks is surprisingly easy! All it takes is a deep dive through the depths of one’s closet, a little bit of creativity, and an open mind. Confidence doesn’t hurt either. Re-creating celebrity poses, on the other hand, is unusually difficult, if not utterly impossible. Hard pass.
