By Brighton Garrett and Phoebe Corgiat, Sports Co-editors
Starting off school and adjusting to the rules again is not easy, but adding a few pieces to your wardrobe can transform a summer statement to a back-to-school head turner. The difficulty of dressing within dress code parameters in the heat is hard but with a few additions it can be done. We saw the challenge and decided to grab it.
We visited Target and Tj Maxx in hopes of finding two female school appropriate outfits for under $20 each.
Target- This is where our search began and it wasn’t easy. The day was hot and shopping was long. We went into Target with hopes that the challenge would be easy, but at one glance of the price tags our mindset quickly changed. Tops on average were $15 and bottoms were $20. Considering we had to buy an outfit for $20, this seemed near impossible. One of the target employees noticed us recording and shared with us an ongoing sale. Mossimo and Xhiliration, the two most popular brands of target, were being discontinued. This meant these brands were 30% off. This opened new opportunities for us because we were worried about the cost. We shopped for 40 minutes in all of the sale racks and found a total two pairs of shorts, 3 tops, and one dress. After trying on the clothing, we decided the black t-shirt dress with a knot cutout in the middle was our best option for $13.99. We hoped to add some accessories but once again we ran into a price wall. As we were about to checkout, we decided to look one more time and found a black and white polka dot wrap dress for $7.43. We decided to buy both dresses for a total of $23.07.
Tj Maxx- Walking into Tj Maxx, we could already tell it was going to be ten times easier. Even though we were hot and tired, taking a glance at the price tags instantly lifted our spirits. We started looking at dresses and there were so many we liked, clothes just started flying off the shelves. We went on to tops and even though there weren’t as many, there was still a ton we were interested in. As we were walking to the dressing rooms, we realized we had no bottoms, an essential to school dress code. We instantly saw jean skirts, totally in fashion, and knew that’s what we needed. Back to the dressing rooms we went, with our arms loaded with clothing. We had gathered five dresses, two jean skirts, one jumpsuit, and one tank top. Right as soon as we tried on the multi-colored striped tank top and the Billabong jean skirt, a crazy find in the fashion world, we knew this was THE outfit. It had a retro vibe for back to school and covered all the right areas. The price came out to be $9.99 for the top and $13.99 for the skirt with a total of $24.76
Although we didn’t meet the challenge at either store, we finished with cute and in style outfits that were reasonably priced. Overall, we believe that Tj Maxx was easier to shop at due to the abundance of options and low prices. Also, they have nice brands at a fraction of the cost, whereas Target has brands selective to their store.
This challenge was definitely not easy, but with continuous searching and persistence we were able to find outfits for under $25. Even though this did not include shoes, undergarments, and accessories the prices were relatively cheap. Our new outfits are school appropriate and fashionable.