£25 Outfit Challenge With Clarks Village

 

Clarks Village is a place that I associate with my childhood. I have so many memories of car journeys down the M5 to buy new school shoes during summer holidays. I even bought my prom dress there. And who could forget the Cadbury's outlet shop? As a kid, I was in awe of this place. It was like chocolate heaven. It was full to the rim with every chocolate bar known to man and even had a little chocolate train that would chug along over your head. What kid wouldn't love that?

So, when I saw Clarks Village were looking to work with bloggers for their 25th anniversary, I knew I couldn't let this opportunity slip between my fingers. I pitched to them the idea of doing a £25 outfit challenge and, much to my delight, they got back in touch saying yes!

I haven't actually been to Clarks Village since I was 16 (many moons ago) so I was excited to see if it was as good as I remember. In all honesty, it was better! There are now more chocolate shops (including a Lindt outlet shop that do pick and mix truffles) which I was very happy about and an awesome pasty shop. Most of the same clothing shops are there but I especially loved browsing in Sugarhill Boutique, Yumi, and Next (which stocked reduced items from brands like Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing as well as their own range). So, I was quietly confident that I would be able to get a full outfit for the £25 and a cute outfit at that.

The first place I looked in was Next as both my parents and my grandparents told me that this was going to be the best place to find a whole outfit within budget. They were right. After about 10 minutes I found this burnt orange leopard print shirt and absolutely fell in love with it. They only had it in a size 8 but I didn't want to let it go so I vowed I would squeeze myself into it by any means possible. I decided that this shirt would look great with a black skirt and shortly found a very wide range of black leather skirts. I chose this shiny fake leather skirt as I thought it was more interesting than just a regular, non-shiny one and I knew these items would look awesome together - albeit slightly Kat Slater-esque. The shirt and the skirt were £6 each bringing my total to £12 so far.

I then headed off in search of shoes and accidentally fell into the Body Shop outlet store where I stocked up on my go-to matte tea tree foundation for £7 instead of the usual £10. I may have also found Ava the cutest little jumpsuit and sunhat set in M&S for £6. But the shoes were definitely still on my mind.

Unfortunately, I didn't find any shoes that fit within my budget. I did find some gorgeous black boots for £24 but I decided to leave them there in favour of a yellow striped t-shirt from Sugarhill Boutique (for just £19!). The shoes I am wearing with this are old Primark heeled boots which, I believe, I bought for £15 which brings our total to £27. Slightly over budget but not far off which shows that you really can put together a smashing outfit on a budget. Especially if you live near Clarks Village.

Disclaimer: the outfit pictured was bought using a gift card gifted to me by Clarks Village