Tell me if this sounds familiar: you’re relaxing in bed on a Sunday with a cup of coffee, coaxing the knot out of your brain left after five margaritas at Cabo Cantina, and flipping through the latest issue of Vogue, Bazaar, or Elle. After two hundred pages of Zac Posen dresses, Louboutin heels, Marc Jacobs bags, and “Smart Splurges Under $500,” you begin to cry.

Even if you traded in that hard-earned internship for a paid job delivering pizzas; even if you dropped out of school and stopped paying tuition; even if you sold a kidney, maybe two, on the black market in Thailand you still wouldn’t be able to afford a pair of $14,000 knee high alligator boots from Manolo Blahnik, or a $20,000 Hermes “Birkin” bag.

If you’re a dedicated follower of fashion like me, but poor as hell (like me), you need to know about these discount shopping websites: (In alphabetical order.)

amazon.com This site isn’t just for discounted books anymore. Amazon’s apparel and accessories department offers equally amazing deals on clothing, bags, and shoes from all the top labels. There are deals for every price range from over-the-knee patent boots from Jimmy Choo for $379 ($620 off the original price) to Seven7 skinny jeans for $18, a 70% mark down.

asos.com As Seen on Screen is a British company that specializes in trendy fashion items that are based on (or the same as) items worn by your favorite celebrities. They’ve got ASOS brand leather knee-high gladiators in the style of Ashley Olsen for £55 (about $102), a studded belt identical to the one Carrie wore in the “Sex and the City” movie for £15 (about $28), and an amazing selection of items from independent designers like a sheer chiffon floral top by To Love Kuvaa for £30 (about $56). Read More »

If there is one new trend I love, it’s the scarf. Weird that it became uber popular during the summer - as if I don’t sweat enough already in this humidity/heat combo. But, now that we are transitioning to fall I am all about the scarf.

It makes a schlumpy outfit look instantly pulled together (perfect for class) and it makes a dressy top that you would want to wear on a weekday (read: walk home from that cute boy’s place) a bit more casual (and not so obvious).

They keep you warm, spruce up an outfit and cover up hickeys (do people still even get hickeys anymore?!). Pretty much - scarves are perfection.

Jessica Alba jumped on this trend long ago and I think it’s time we all follow suit…er…scarf. I know this week I’m neglecting an entire ‘fit, but that’s the beauty of the scarf/wrap: it really goes with EVERYTHING. Read More »

Love fashion magazines but hate the fact that you can never afford anything in them on that college budget? We feel ya, sister. The CollegeCandy office is filled to the brim with stacks and stacks of magazines that we can’t get enough of…even if they are as close as we will ever get to the Diane Von Furstenberg dresses we covet.

Lucky for all of us, Lucky magazine, only the best magazine for shopping (or drooling if you are anything like us), heard our cries. And you are going to L-O-V-E this.

With the help of dozens and dozens of fashion icons, Lucky is hosting their annual Lucky Shops event on November 7th and 8th. No more flipping through hundreds of pages thinking, “OMG! I wish I could afford that!” Now you can.

Entrance to the event is for ticketed ladies only, but Lucky is giving two very lucky (pun intended) CollegeCandy readers tickets for FREE.

First prize winner will receive 1 pair of tickets to the first day of the event November 7th (value $130). Second prize winner will receive 1 pair of tickets to the second day of the event, November 8th (value $40).

Hell yeah.

How do you become one of those readers? All you have to do is head over to the Lucky Shops site, answer the following questions correctly and you will be heading to shopping heaven.

Submit your answers to Lauren@CollegeCandy.com by October 1st. We’ll let you know if you win by October 15th. Simple as that. Read More »

Wake up at 7:45. Throw on sweats, a hoodie, and flip flops. Throw your hair in a messy bun. Check Facebook. Grab your bag and get to class by 8 AM.

Does this at all resemble your morning routine? I know how tempting it is to get that last fifteen minutes of sleep and run out the door looking like you just rolled out of bed. Fashion is probably the last thing on your mind when you’re trying to remember things like, Where on earth is my physics book? And, Why can I only find one shoe??? However, it is important to put at least some effort into the way you look before class.

The way you dress affects the way people perceive and treat you, whether you care or not. It can also affect your attitude and level of performance in class. If you are wearing pajamas, you aren’t going to feel awake enough to fully participate in a class discussion. If you look like you don’t care, people are going to think that you don’t care (including your professors).

Obviously you aren’t going to head to class decked out from head to toe in your Sunday best (unless you never made it home, you dawg), but there are easy ways to update your outfits so you look a little less messy and … sleepy.

10 Easy Style Updates For Class This Fall

1. A scarf - throw on jeans and a plain colored fitted t-shirt. Add a scarf and voila! Instant fashion. Scarves are really in this year and there are tons of cute ones out there to pick from. You can’t get an easier shortcut to style. Find them at American Eagle, H&M, or Limited Too (yea, it’s for little kids but they have a lot of cute scarves that are only $10!). Read More »

So we’ve all seen the trends for the fall.

Every time I’m in a store, I feel like I was thrown back into my time machine and should be busting out a version of High School Musical of my very own: The 1990’s edition. Okay well, actually, I was in middle school when plaid/flannels and all that other 90’s garb was popular, which left everyone questioning if that girl in the flannel button down and the hiking boots was actually a girl.

But at least this time around some of the 90’s fashions are coming back with a feminine twist. Like Vanessa’s plaid dress: it’s edgy, yes it’s plaid, but it’s gives you a waist AND shows some cleavage (cuz we know V. Hudge wouldn’t go out in public in a drabby table cloth-y thing).

So this week I bring you: Celebrity Chic On The Cheap: Punk-Rock Plaid Goes Glam. I never thought those words would come out of my mouth (much like, “I really like the taste of beer”), but the world of fashion is always surprising me.

Plaid Dress: So this dress isn’t plaid, but it’s tweed and has the adorable bow. Throw it on with some pumps or some chunky black tights and, as it gets colder, a black or white longsleeve shirt under it to give it some texture. It’s adorable and afforadable. (and the same price as a High School Musical DVD)

Other plaid Options: The neckline is on this fabulously plaid dress is retro, the plaid pattern is discreet, and the dress is rockin. Rock it out with a leather jacket in the fall, or keep it sweet with dainty shoes and delicate jewwlry. Read More »

Remember when the end of the summer meant a shopping trip with your mom and a first-day-of-school photo shoot to chronicle the beginning of first/second/third/fourth grade?

Then high school hit, and you took your own initiative to blow your money on the perfect ensemble to make a statement on day one. Freshman year meant something eye-catching enough to grab the attention of a studly senior, whereas by senior year, your wardrobe had to scream, “I’m a senior. I own this school. And I’m f***ing graduating, bitch!”

Now that college is just around the corner, is it time to retire the tradition of back-to-school clothes, or do you simply need to step it up a notch?

On the first day of college, the campus will be filled with tens of thousands of students, frantically trying to change their schedules, pay their financial aid, and find the right classroom in the right building. It was easy to get noticed in high school, when you were one fashionista among only a few hundred, but in college, the people you meet on the first day are most likely to be a nameless, faceless blur who were kind enough to give you irections to the registrar’s office.

If you are thinking about going all out for a first day of school ensemble, ask yourself what your motivation is. Do you want to look professional to impress the teacher? Give yourself a little extra self-confidence to make it through the day? Find a nice college boy to walk you from one class to another? The following are some broad categories of BTS-wear that I have encountered year after year. You might fall into one of these groups, or you may notice a few hundred students who do on the first day of college. Read More »

If any of the producers of What Not to Wear ever happen to read this article, please accept my personal cry for help and send me to Stacy and Clinton asap.

Though I can usually throw together something appropriate for work or special events, about half of my clothing inventory consists of utterly ridiculous garments. It doesn’t help that I’m sentimental and can’t discard my prom dresses five years later, or that I’m waiting for certain trends to come back (though I’m pretty sure sparkly, sleeveless, turtleneck sweaters were never in style to begin with). And it definitely doesn’t help that I went through a goth/punk phase that a small part of the “professional” me desperately wants to revert back to.

As we all get ready for back to school, many of us will rummage through our closets and get rid of last season’s most shameful shirts, skirts, dresses, and pants in order to make room in our tiny dorm closets for upcoming styles (that we will undoubtedly regret in 2009 or 2010).

Here are some of my particularly embarrassing items.

1. Drawstring Khakis

I think that any pants that don’t have a numerical size should be left alone. So, why I bought these “Size L” drawstring pants with floral embroidery at the bottom is beyond me. They don’t go with any shoes, the trim is tacky, and they are so baggy that they make my ass look like a misshaped Volvo. I used to wear them to lounge around, because a lack of a waist obviously equals comfort; however, I made the mistake of wearing them out of the house one extremely hungover day. In public. With friends. My friend turned to me and said, “If you ever wear those pants again, I will cut them off your body.” Point taken. Read More »

At 10 AM I had my morning cup of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal, read the day’s news on CNN.com, and decided that I would write a post for collegecandy.com about the best websites for procrastinating.

Cut to eight hours later: I’ve clocked about four hours of Internet browsing time and haven’t gotten any of my post for College Candy done. This is because I am an expert on using the web to waste copious amounts of time.

Here’s how I do it.

My top 5 websites for wasting time:

1. Wikipedia
I spent the summer after my junior year at Emerson working as a receptionist at a post-production office in Los Angeles. We rarely had guests and the phone only rang a few times a day, so aside from picking up people’s lunches I didn’t have much to do. Instead of doing what I should have done (using the time to write a novel or a screenplay or whatever) I decided to learn all human knowledge on Wikipedia.org. I would spend hours clicking on “Random article” again and again. I am now a master at Trivial Pursuit.

2. Facebook
This one is pretty obvious but I feel it deserves to be at the top of my list since I waste so much time on it everyday. I obsessively check Facebook. I’m not exactly sure why. I get just a handful of notices every day about new friends or events, and I don’t actually spend that much time reading other people’s profiles, but it’s the News Feed that sucks me in. I’m not sure what I’m waiting to read, but I find myself checking it again and again, just in case some crazy shit in the life of a friend went down. Read More »

Remember the days of the LL Bean backpack? You really weren’t cool unless you had one; and you were even cooler if yours had your initials embroidered on it. I had the deluxe size. Which not only made me cool, but it also most likely permanently damaged my posture and caused me to knock over any small child who crossed my path.

In high school, I went through the, “I’m too cool for a backpack” phase and I carried my books everywhere, stopping at my locker in between every class. But that wasn’t really feasible in college. Walking across campus to class, it was impossible to juggle my books, laptop, cell phone, snacks, Venti Latte and various other staples.

Unable to carry it all - and completely unwilling to pick up another LL Bean monstrsity - I needed something cute and functional.

I searched high and low. The good news is: there are tons of cute bags out there. The bad news is: I bought them all.

5 Hot Bags For College:

1) Kate Spade Belle Meade Cana Tote- Kate Spade will have you actually feeling excited to gather your books and head to class. The Belle Meade Cana Tote is made from tumbled cowhide, which pretty much just sounds awesomely luxurious. Of course, the tote packs a pretty price tag at $425, so you may not be able to afford your books after purchasing it. But hey, you can always throw in a few sheets of loose-leaf paper and borrow a pen from the kid who sits next to you. This tote is worth it.

Read More »

As a kid, I was never really a fan of shorts. Unless they were my brothers mesh Umbro’s or later, the - who knows why they were trendy but they were - mesh bulldog shorts.

I found shorts to ride up, leaving me constantly trying to pick a wedgie when no one was looking (yet someone always managed to see). And let’s face it- unless you have legs like Gisele Bundchen walking around on a summer day can be more than quite uncomfortable in a pair of short shorts.

But these past few season’s shorts have been unavoidable. They have been everywhere and they have been CUTE. With heels? Cute. With sandals? Also cute!

Much like that annoying tag-along friend of yours, shorts have found their way into every occasion. From bars to the beach shorts have become appropriate (and trendy) attire.

So it would only be appropriate that before it gets too cold (although I’m sure some freshman girl will be wearing them to the bar- in January- with no coat and you will obviously spend at least five mintues talking about how ridiculous she looks before you realize that you did that too) that I bring you:

Celebrity Chic on the Cheap: YOU Wear Short Shorts!

High Waisted jean shorts- High-waisted shorts make your legs look like they go on forever. Not to mention these are so super affordable! So ladies- start NAIR-ing! (Seriously when was the last time you thought about Nair?!) Read More »