page
arts 14{spotlight bvwnews.com
Driving Forward in Fashion
Spotlight reviews popular clothing stores in the area JOURDAN GISH Reporter
Charlotte Russe
C
harlotte Russe is a funky store in the Oak Park Mall that not many people know about. The store is pretty small, but it packs a lot of great items. They carry pretty much everything a teenage girl needs to build her closet. The clothes there are also reasonably priced and the store is often holding sales. The store has a dressy, urban style to it. The downsides to this store are that the items they carry are either very
revealing or too modest. They also have low stock for items and the shirts are very low quality. Every shirt I’ve bought there rips or shrinks after 2 washes. However some of the other clothing items are higher on the quality scale. A pair of heels I got there are still in good condition, and my favorite pair of shorts came from the store. Charlotte Russe is definitely worth checking out, but I would not recommend buying the shirts.
Love Culture
L
ocated in the One Nineteen shopping center by Town Center, Love Culture is a store that popped out of nowhere. The store itself is huge and is full of many different styles to please anyone who walks in. With styles ranging from classy to grunge to comfortable, the store has almost everything. The clothes there are cute, comfortable, reasonably priced, and fit well. For example, jeans that would normally cost forty dollars or more at Aeropostale (or other brand name stores) cost
about twenty seven dollars at Love Culture. They have selections of colored pants and knockoffs of the popular “Miss Me” Jeans that are extremely comfortable. There are also dresses and shirts that are stylish, unique and tough to find anywhere else. The accessories and shoes are also funky and fashionable. The only downside for me was that the shoes I found were too big and didn’t fit right. Otherwise, Love Culture is a must check out.
H&M
T
he last store worthy of checking out is H&M, which is located at the Plaza. It’s certainly more well known than the other two stores I’ve reviewed but not many people know exactly what it is or think that it is too expensive. The word most used to describe H&M has been affordable. H&M is basically Forever 21, if it grew up a little bit and its quality was much higher. The store itself is certainly much more organized and has more variety than Forever 21. It carries men’s and kid’s clothes in addition to the girl’s clothing. They also carry more types of styles than the “hipster” style that Forever 21 may be more known for. H&M also carries more sizes, which can be helpful for some Photos by Coleen Bost, Abby Krstulic and Léa Puech.
teenagers shopping there. The Kansas City Star recently did a style review and one teen boy said that H&M is the only store that fits him; one of my friends also has the same feeling about the store. The style is very clean cut and nice. They keep up with the trends, and I rarely see anything my mother wouldn’t approve of me wearing. The only downside for this store is the location. I don’t ever feel like driving to the Plaza to go shopping at just that particular store. Gas is expensive and I’m not a big fan of driving on the highway. It would be much more handy to have an H&M at Town Center, espsically since they need more “cool” stores down there. However, even though it’s kind of far away, it’s a lovely store and worth the time to go drive down if there is a need for a nice outfit.