30 Under-$250 Finds That People Will Whisper "Chic" at Every Time You Wear Them

Eliza Huber wearing a fitted black blazer and black Donni capri pants.

(Image credit: @elizagracehuber)

There's nothing more satisfying than getting a compliment on the street from another woman. If you're into fashion, you probably put a lot of thought into what you wear, so to be recognized for that means something. Plus, it just feels good. Because of that, I'm always thinking about what items will garner compliments in the back of my head when I'm shopping. Even if it's a simple pair of jeans or a cute summer top, my mind goes straight to whether or not it has the subtle details and qualities that'll win me a compliment or two while I walk up Madison Avenue or down Mercer Street.

I've always been so intrigued by what makes an item noticeable and what doesn't, so to put my years of shopping for compliment-worthy pieces to the test, I set out to find a whole heap of them. To make the challenge even trickier, I put myself on a price limit of $250. Below, shop the 30 discoveries I made along the way, from capri pants to the pops of red that keep on trending.

This post was published at an earlier date and has since been updated.

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.