Milly vs. Forever 21 Challenge

The Challenge: Create a look similar, but of course not identical to (that would be a dream) a $425 Milly dress seen on the runway.

The Rules: Pick one store, and one small budget of $60 or less to create the look!

I loved this Milly look when I saw it on the runway, so I thought I would create the entire look for a fraction of the price of what the dress alone would cost. I decided to turn to Forever 21 as the one store where I would have the best chances of finding a dress, headband, and jewelry for an amazing price. Of course not everything can be identical to the Milly runway look, but I must say I was impressed with how the two looks emulated each other. Here's what I found....

For $24.80....

I was actually really surprised with how close this dress was to the Milly one. Except for the belt of course, (which I actually thought gave a bit of interest to the dress) it has the same structured feel to it as the runway look. Unlike the Milly dress, I thought the belt gave it a nice separation between the top and bottom and would accent your waist making you look extra tiny which is always is plus.

For $11.80 and $10.80 respectively.....

Although this necklace is slightly different from the embellishments on the dress, I thought it added something to have the black lace and the pearls. Can't go wrong with that duo, right? It was similar to the flair on the dress, but I thought I'd add my own spin on the look. Each necklace gives a pulled together feel, but they each have their own identity.

For $4.80.....

The outfit wouldn't be complete without the finishing touch of the headband. Although it's a bit over the top in the runway shot, I think for this look, my headband choice was a realistic risk. I thought about perhaps toning down the size and "poof factor" of the headband, but I decided to stick to the challenge of recreating the look and play by the my own rules.

The Result:

The total of the outfit came to $52.20. However, what's equally important to the low cost factor is that the quality and overall feel of the outfit has been maintained and not recreated in a cheap or cheesy way. This challenge proves that with a little time and a little money (who's complaining about that), you can create a classy, elegant look without the elegant price tag to match.