Believe it or not, I was never into fashion brands. I never cared whether I was wearing something from Prada or something from a small store in Mexico. I like to dress stylishly, but I’ve always hated spending over $500 for a clothing item.
These days, being an Instagram personality (or influencer as some prefer to call it) isn’t helping, as most girls tend to change their outfits for every photo and stories of unboxing and shopping trips seem to be praised (not that I agree with this part). Where does everyone get money for it, one would ask?
As you might have noticed, most of the time I wear dresses when I travel. I’ve always found pants slightly less comfortable than dresses, and I somehow avoided the ‘elephant pants’ backpacker fashion. Some jeans are way heavier to carry in your suitcase than a few dresses. I get asked the question “Where are all of your travel dresses from?” very often through my Instagram and emails.
Where Do I Buy Stylish & Cheap Travel Clothes?
Travel clothes are usually more expensive than those without the word ‘travel’ in them. Clothes that I use for traveling need to be comfortable, wrinkle-free, lightweight and easy to wash. Plus, it would be nice if I use a dress, shirt or romper to dress up or dress down.
Over the last couple of years, I tested more and more clothing companies and quickly found a few favorites that combine feminity with practicality.
SheIn
SheIn is my number one store these days. It’s very cheap, and they often have the same exact clothes that you can elsewhere, but for a small fraction of the price (I don’t mean fake copies, but it’s THE SAME.
I even compared the quality of SheIn clothes with other more expensive brands and I swear – it’s the same exact material with the same sewing. It looks like they came from the same factory (which is probably what happened).
While the clothes are cheap, the quality isn’t actually bad and I can’t say the same thing about items from fast-fashion shops like Forever21 or H&M. I have some SheIn dresses for a few years and they’re still good.
I usually get the 95% Polyester & 5% Spandex clothing, occasionally Rayon. Cotton tends to wrinkle more, so even though it could look great I avoid it (ironically, cotton is also not more sustainable than polyester).
At 5’7 and 117 lbs I order most items extra smalls, or small if that’s the smallest size available. For swimwears, I usually get size medium, according to measurements listed on the website.
Best for: dresses, tops, rompers, accessories.
Return Policy: Returns with SheIn within the US are free, quick and painless. I’ve never had an issue and they always refund on time.
Here are my favorite items:
SheIn Dress – $33
Lulus Jacket – $97
SheIn Dress – $16
Amazon Handbag – $32
Amazon Shoes – $35
SheIn Jumpsuit – $34
SheIn Dress – $28
Peacock Maxi Dress – $16
SheIn Faux Fur Coat – $37
SheIn Dress – $18
ShowPo & HelloMolly
Australian brands have cute & well-priced clothes. While HelloMolly tends to be the leader with their cute dresses (they have a great Instagram campaign), I personally prefer ShowPo as they often have the same items, but about 20% cheaper than Hello Molly.
I tend to order size 4 from both brands and they usually fit. However, I’m only 5’7 and a lot of dresses from Hello Molly are way too short in my opinion.
Best for: dresses, sweaters, shoes.
Return Policy: Both stores’ returns aren’t free and work only for store credit, but once you’re ok with that it works just fine. Never had an issue and they process everything quickly.
Here are my favorite items:
HelloMolly Dress – SOLD OUT. Similar here for $60.
HelloMolly Dress – $85
HelloMolly Dress – $67
Amazon Suitcase – $145
HelloMolly Dress – $67
Lulus
Lulus has beautiful dresses that can be used for a formal setting or city exploring. After all, I even got my wedding dress from Lulus for just $89! They tend to ship within 2-3 business days so your clothes arrive in 7 to 10 business day.
I usually wear XS size. At 5’7 most of their maxi dresses and pants have to be altered, as they’re slightly too long.
Best for: dresses, sweaters, shoes.
Return Policy: Although I like Lulus, their return policy is quite strange and unfair. You can return your items for free for store credit or cash-back, but if you used a discount code for purchase they take it off your return, which is absolutely ridiculous. For instance, your items were $100, but you used a code for $20, so you paid $80.
When you return an item that originally costs $50 (so it would come down to $40 after the discount code), instead of giving you $40 back they’d deduct the entire discount from the items you’re returning – so you’d only get $30 back.
Here are my favorite items:
Lulus Dress – $49
Amazon Suitcase – $143
Lulus Dress – SOLD OUT. Similar one here for $84.
SheIn Shoes – $26
Lulus Shoes – $99
Lulus Dress – $89
BooHoo
I started shopping at BooHoo back when I lived in London as they were always offering something slightly different than other brands on the market. Their clothes are lightweight and rarely get wrinkled.
Best for: shirts, dresses.
Return Policy: Returns aren’t free, but haven’t experienced problems. Everything processed just fine and I got my refunds quickly.
Here are my favorite items:
BooHoo Dress – $19
BooHoo Dress – $14
BooHoo Dress – $14
ChicWish
I was reluctant to try ChicWish, but I’m glad I did. Their shipping takes a while, but their clothes are vintage and cute. Sweaters tend to be slightly heavy, but they’re very warm.
Best for: skirts, dresses.
Return Policy: Returns aren’t free, but they just implemented a new returns system so it’s painless and easy.
Here are my favorite items:
ChicWish White Sweater – $75
ChicWish Skirt – $45
Draper James
Beautiful, timeless, classic collections by Reese Witherspoon. Surprisingly affordable as well. Quick shipping, incredibly easy returns with gimmicks. I’m yet to order something that wasn’t great from them.
Best for: dresses, sweaters
Return Policy: Instant refund via Fedex.
Here are my favorite items:
Peach Blossom Asymmetric V-Neck Frilling Dress – $59
Brown Coat Dress – $67 (sold out)
Yoins Dress – $33
Yoins Shorts – $17
Amazon
Amazon is a good place to buy affordable clothes for women and men. I like that returns are easy and you can usually rely on other people’s reviews.
Return Policy: Amazon returns are always great.
Here are my favorite items:
Amazon Jeans – $75
Lulus Shirt – $46
Amazon Dress – $19
Amazon Dress – $33
Amazon Two-Piece Outfit – $18
Amazon Two-Piece Set (sold out)- $75
Amazon Stud Shoes – $114
Amazon Dress – $19
1950s Vintage Dress – $27
Amazon White Dress – $39
Amazon Furry Coat – $80
Lulus Boots – $49
JessaKae
Whimsical and stunning dresses that can be affordable as well. I stumbled upon their company a while ago and got instantly hooked.
Here are my favorite items:
Tiered Embroidered Tulle Dress in Blush
Climbing Blossom Embellished Embroidered Tulle Mini Dress
Mosquito
Mosquito is a Polish brand that offers many cute dresses and other clothing for Polish prices, which means a few times cheaper than those from the US. The quality is amazing and I never had to return anything yet.
Here are my favorite items:
Skater Sweater Dress – 80 PLN ($21)
Wrap Skater Dress – 60 PLN ($15)
Any questions? Ask ahead in the comment sections below!
I’m impressed that SheIn offers free shipping to Canada. I usually find it hard to shop online for clothes if I’m not already familiar with a brand’s fit because shipping and returns can be expensive. I’ll definitely have to give SheIn a try. Thanks.
I love their returns! It’s so easy, no games. I had some bad experience with a few brands, but never with them 🙂
Interesujący wpis, pozdrawiam serdecznie 😉
You must have a really big wardrobe. What do you do with all those clothes? And isn’t that complicated while travelling to have so many things?
Nope, I actually don’t 🙂 I travel with one suitcase only.
not true!! she travels with a huge luggage and a matching secondary suitcase! also asks for an iron (!) in remote places.
I don’t normally reply to comments made by people using fake emails and names, but since we both know who you are from your IP and comment 😉 How dare I get a carry on that’s matching my suitcase and pay less for it when they’re sold together? How dare I take 17kg of luggage including tripods, three cameras and other things for events for entire 1,5 month of travels? Oh, hold on a second, that ‘remote place’ you’re talking about had an AC and perfectly ironed towels and sheets – they definitely didn’t have one iron, more like 6 of them, LOL! That said, I’m sorry that you were jealous of me during the entire trip and talked sh** about me while standing next to me – that’s very classy of you.
While you are constantly traveling, is there a site you recommend that had quick, worldwide shipping to hotels? I am currently in Vietnam and will be staying in a hotel for the next month, but would like to order some clothes.
In those cases I recommend Amazon, but I’m afraid Amazon doesn’t ship to Vietnam. Try Aliexpress actually! Btw, Vietnam has so many knock-off brands!
Great suggestions! I’m always looking for places to find cute clothing. Unique Vintage is my current favorite. It’s a bit expensive but their sales are great and they have items for curvy gals like me.
Just checked Unique Vintage – so adorable!!
Oh my gosh thank you these are such great tips! Honestly trying to shop while being oh so poor is probably my biggest struggle in life. I mean I’m literally a shopaholic! Have you ever seen the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic? Literally Becky is me down to a tea! So honestly I mean it when I say live for this kind of inspiration! Just to know there is a way to budget and a way to shop without literally blowing my entire monthly salary! So honestly thank you for this – I’ve already bookmarked the page for inspo and motivation haha! Actually I was quickly wondering though if I could ask you something? Mainly about a site called HEWI (the like designer ebay site) – I was just wondering if you’d used it or knew anyone else who had? I just wanted to know if you’d recommend it? I read an Elle article about it and was wondering if it was good for like ‘regular’ people so to speak aha? Like you always read about stuff like that but I was just wondering if it was legitimately as good as it sounds? But yeah would be great to know your opinions on that, or if you had any other similar sites/businesses/companies you used it would be amazinggg to hear about them too! I literally love alllll the fashion hacks haha! Anyway sorry for rambling on! Keep up the amazing work xx
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yeah agree, SheIn is one of the best online store where i have purchased all my summer apparels.
I want to know how you managed to take a picture in the glass ballroom in Versailles with nobody in it.
I had the pre-booked tickets for 9am when they open. There’s another line for it and many people have the same tickets, so I was there there at 8-8:30am. Once you enter there was a lot of people inside already but since everyone is listening to audioguides they were moving slowly. I walked passed everyone quickly to the Hall of Mirrors before other people got there (you can come back to this part of the palace later and listen to your audioguide). It’s possible 😀
Highly descriptive post, I loved that bit. Will there be a part 2?
Pretty! This has been an extremely wonderful post. Many thanks for supplying this info as I need more dresses now!
Hi, I really want to wear more stylish clothes but whenever I go travelling/ when I’m not travelling, I see most people wearing really ordinary causal clothes. Since you always wear really fancy chic dresses while travelling, do you ever feel out of place?
Nope, but it depends on where are you going and what’s your style. For instance, maybe you’d feel weird wearing a fancy dress at Walmart in the middle of nowhere, but so you would wearing sweatpants in European cities.
SHEIN is great! I really love their dresses and accessories. I’ve also found super cute jewelry on there!