These Nordstrom, Zara, and H&M Items Look Designer (Without the Price Tag)

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(Image credit: @hoskelsa)

There once was a time when differentiating between expensive pieces and affordable ones could be done in seconds, no matter how trained in fashion a person was. The dramatically opposing fabrics, cuts, and construction gave everything away. But today, that's not exactly the case. Brands are savvier than ever, making it easy to be tricked and, in turn, to trick others with $20 pieces that look and feel like they cost $200 or even $2000. (I won't tell if you won't.) Therefore, looking like someone with a closet full of designer items no longer comes with a steep price tag. 

I've done the research and crunched the numbers, and by my calculations, the perfect budget for a designer-esque wardrobe is $150. And no, I'm not pulling one on you. To prove it, I went ahead and rounded up 35 under-$150 pieces from H&M, Zara, and Nordstrom that even the most discerning fashion critics would assume were from the designer floor. Scroll down for the receipts. 

Senior Fashion Editor

Eliza Huber is a New York City–based fashion editor who specializes in trend reporting, brand discovery, and celebrity style. She joined Who What Wear in 2021 after almost four years on the fashion editorial team at Refinery29, the job she took after graduating with a marketing degree from the University of Iowa. She has since launched two monthly columns, Let's Get a Room and Ways to Wear; profiled the likes of Dakota Fanning, Diane Kruger, Katie Holmes, and Sabrina Carpenter for WWW's monthly cover features; and reported on everything from the relationship between Formula One and fashion to the top trends from fashion month, season after season. Eliza now lives on the Upper West Side and spends her free time researching F1 fashion imagery for her side Instagram accounts @thepinnacleoffashion and @f1paddockfits, running in Central Park, and scouring eBay for '90s Prada and '80s Yves Saint Laurent.