All owned by the umbrella company URBN, Anthropologie, Free People, and Urban Outfitters dictate the style industry. With each brand targeting a different age and income range, URBN has been able to influence the fashion and lifestyles of people from their early teens to their late 40’s and beyond.
However, while they have seriously impacted the fashion industry, it’s not a secret that their clothing, accessories, beauty products, and home décor are extremely pricey. With basic tops starting at around $15.00 at Urban Outfitters, $20.00 at Free People, and $24.00 at Anthropologie, the typical college student can’t always afford to keep up with the constantly changing trends.
This is where I came up with the idea for URBN Unwrung: the series where I’ll be showing you how to get the URBN look, without the URBN bank account. For each of the companies, I’m going to be doing at least one post on how to get their style and maybe one on how to get their décor as well (it depends on how much their home looks differ from one another).
I’m going to start with the most expensive, Anthropologie.
Anthropologie was founded in 1992 by Richard Hayne and Scott Belair, who had already opened Free People and Urban Outfitters in previous years. After being approached by a friend who desired a clothing store that catered more to her creative and educated sense of style, specifically in Philadelphia, the men opened Anthropologie. Aimed towards women in the 30-45 age range, the first store was originally an automobile shop which had been redone to better suit the new space’s occupants.
The clothing store’s products are all said to fall under the categories of easy-cool, soft and delicate, modern-sporty, boho-chic, and elegant-classic.
Keeping these adjectives in mind, I created three looks from clothes I already had in my closet.
Two important things to mention:
- None of these clothes are actually from Anthropologie.
- I didn’t buy anything new for this project.
Now let’s see what I came up with:
1. The Easy Cool Look
Anthropologie loves a good statement piece, and for this look I used an old, bright sweater that I kept as the focus of the outfit. Everything else was easy — a white button-up shirt, a pair of jeans, white sneakers, and a chunkier necklace.
Sweater: American Eagle
Button-Up: J.Crew Outlet
Jeans: Abercrombie and Fitch (on sale)
Necklace: Macy’s
2. The Soft and Delicate Look
Mimicking their love of mixing textures from tweeds to denim, I paired a soft velvet button-down with an equally soft grey midi skirt. From there I added some delicate gold necklaces to offset the heavier fabrics.
Velvet Button-Up: Soft Surroundings
Skirt: stolen from my mother with the tags cut out, but there are so many gray midi skirts out there right now
Shoes: Aldo loafers
Circle Necklace: H&M
Necklace: Macy’s
3. The Modern Sporty Look
I love this one because of its simplicity. Again, we see a statement piece, the orange sweater, which would have been considered the ugliest thing about 10 years ago, but now is enviable. I’m sure there are a ton of similar, chunky, fisherman sweaters out there. I would try a Goodwill or Savers before springing for an expensive one from Anthropologie.
Sweater: stolen from my mom who’s had it since before I was born
Jeans: T.J.Maxx
Shoes: Adidas Stan Smith
Hat: Gap (but also as old as I am)
I love Anthropologie and wish I could wear their clothes on the regular. But sadly, it’s hard to afford a $200 sweater when you think paying $5.00 for laundry is too expensive.