Planning to go to the Sales? Plan Ahead!

Far be it to encourage seasonal sales fever. Just let me give you a few tips that will minimise physical damage, mental anguish or pointless spending:

Photo credit STV

Tips*:

1. Check ^%$^.com site after midnight every evening (if you're still up) or first thing. The sale in the stores will almost certainly start the same day.

2. Check on-line sale inventory, buy on-line if they have what you're looking for, it will go very quickly and they may not have what you are looking for in store. If what you are looking for has gone or they don't have the size then you can think about the stores. 

3. Check the price and talk to yourself. Is 10-20% off really worth settling for your least favourite colour or the not-so-desirable version of the range?

4. If what you wanted is not on sale, but still showing at full price on-line, it very probably won't be in the stand alone stores either this sale, but you could check dept store concessions, because there have been some strange irregularities at sales particularly at dept stores when communications from brand to concessions get muddled. 

5. Some dept stores and big chains also 'price adjust' if you've bought the same item recently and is now on discount. It never hurts to ask (if you can get someone to answer a phone or email). 

6. If you intend to go to the large stores and you know what you want (and you know the store). Prioritise your strategy. Basically, if shoes are the most important go straight to the shoes area and then visit the other sections in order of want/need.

7. At many of the high-end designer leather goods and fashion houses, bags are the most popular trophies (followed by SLGs, fashion jewellery and accessories and shoes and then RTW). If you want a bag, go way before it opens, almost everyone in the queue will be wanting one, so count the people in front and that is your position regards bags.  Quota may apply, go with a list, number 1 being priority number 1. If they stop you from buying after 1 or 2, you won't be so heart broken. 

8. Menswear goes as faster than women's and there's less of it around. Some men will buy their entire wardrobe at sale time, so if you want anything specific, are a popular size (or are a woman needing a present for a man) get to it! Note too that trophy hunting guys tend to be the slimmer sort, XXXL guys will usually score the designer bargains way after everything small and average has gone. The last point doesn't always apply for shoes, as it's the daintier male feet that can afford to be later to the party. Ladies, men's shoes are often better made than ours, if your looking for a brogue, lace-up or loafer you may like to wander into a whole new world ;-). 

9. It's simple arithmetic, but it's hard to think straight at sales. The saving on higher priced goods will save you more money. Buying things which never interested you will actually cost you dearly. Get the thing you really really want or go home

10. Even when returns are possible consider the purchase as though they aren't. Do you really want the bother of hauling a set of 'stuff' back somewhere in/out of town unnecessarily or paying for shipping there and back for nothing? 

11. Nothing's worth losing an eye for and hideous experiences are harder to forget than positive ones, there's always next season. Please.  

* These are tips for seasonal sales and not sample sales which are entirely different, and which I shall pontificate on soon i.e. when the season's sales are over and people can think straight again 

TMI

So many wonderful style blogs, practical and purely inspirational, it has never been easier to check up on the latest offerings or feel empowered by the sartorial majesty of someone who doesn't look like a model and shops on a shoestring budget. Whatever image I'd like to create or recreate, it's all here at my fingertips. But while I'm shopping?  Browsing through on-line shopping sites from uptown-uptempo to high-street brands, I'm shocked by how many commercial businesses offer me 'advice'. I can 'get inspired' by the style of celebrities I've never heard about on Matches, I'm told to have a pedicure before you wear our "pretty ugly" shoes (Clarks) and stay away from bolder prints (M&S). When did the store that wants my money start to think it's alright to dictate my grooming habits, what I should be buying and how to dress? If stores spent more care making sure their items didn't fall apart and a bit more time making sure their merchandise fit a human figure and less thinking they were the next Vogue advice column, we'd all dress a lot better and I might decide to spend some money with them.  

Don't Suffer Unnecessarily from Sales Fever this January

Have you the dreaded fever brought on by the retail industry's need to de-clutter their space at your expense so they can fill it wholesale with more impulse and speculative buys for the Summer we never have?


Take this test to find out if you are suffering from this contagious seasonal illness:

1. Have you been thinking about that gorgeous jumper for the last 4 months, that you would have bought in a heart-beat had you had the full retail asking price?

Yes/No

2. Have you checked whether it's still available in your size, 12 times a day for the last month, just in case they're all sold out?

Yes/No

3. Did you put away every spare penny/cent instead of going out or buying anything over basic food stuffs turning the heat on in the morning?

Yes/No

4. Do you mind that hundreds of people have tried on that jumper leaving make-up marks, pulled threads, deodorant stains on it or that someone bought it wore it for  night out and returned it because of the stores 'great' return policy (or their mother owns the boutique)?

Yes/No



Answers below

Yes

1. You are obsessed so you probably already own it, in which case you have had the pleasure and comfort of wearing your jumper for months

2. You are obsessed so you probably already own it, in which case you have had the pleasure and comfort of wearing your jumper for months

3 You are obsessed so you probably already own it, in which case you have had the pleasure and comfort of wearing your jumper for months

4. You are obsessed so you probably already own it, in which case you have had the pleasure and comfort of wearing your jumper for months

Your behaviour may look mad to most but you are fever free and you always look fabulous

No

1. Then you never really wanted/needed it

2. You won't diet into it or prefer the baggy look, your average size will be gone to all the VIP customers who have first dibs on sale stock

3. If you do buy it now it will be in a consignment/charity shop by March, value is what we put on something we'd go to the ends of the Earth for

4. Try shopping in consignment/charity shops in March, people are always buying too much in the sales

Step away from the word 'sale' it will only re-infect you

Before Hitting the Shoe Sales

The other day someone asked me what kinds of shoes I liked. For someone who is not particularly a 'shoe-person' I seem to have acquired quite a collection but then don't we all? Plenty of fabulous heels (I can hear the applause - and yes some are clearly for photo-ops only) a few shoes and boots to actually walk in and a couple of pair able to run for a bus should the rare impulse propel me (a bus is a form of public transport for those of you who only do limousines to theatre and shoes to match).

 So, what shoes do I like? I like them all my dears, happily usually more on other people than myself. I had a quiet word with myself a while ago and kept just a few exquisite possible museum pieces more suited to adorn coffee tables than feet and rid myself of many examples of the many pairs of almost fabulous, almost fits, almost the right colour, almost high/low enough. I also let go of the the footwear that have served me well but had had their heyday, been re-heeled, re-soled and patched up until they were no longer the same shoe (tear in eye as a I write).

Never mind the clothes issue it's the wall of shoes that give us guilt (and space) problems. We are now in sale season and nothing tempts more than a shoe sale. With a little preliminary footwear editing and psychological preparation you and I CAN buy shoes we will actually wear. Never mind your feet, shop with your head. These are my rules but they have been fashioned out of years of (bad) practice. Enjoy, but don't forget if a pair of shoes is now half price is does not mean you should buy 2 pairs unless of couse you are a four legged animal. Before buying:

 1. Never buy shoes in the sales that you wouldn't consider normally. They are not a bargain sitting in your wardrobe.

 2. Make sure they fit. Never buy shoes that are even half a size too big or small (or narrow) no matter how much you love them. Your feet won't shrink or (since you are not a child) grow.

 3. Don't buy boots or shoes you can't put on or pull off by yourself or take longer than 5 mins. There is a reason why button-up boots went out of fashion when lady's-maids did.

 4. Don't make do with a colour that you only quite like, brown isn't black no matter how dim the light.

 5. Don't keep choosing styles that don't suit you. Doesn't matter how good your best friend or fave celeb looks in them

 6. Fashion is flippant, if what suits you is 'in' buy, if nothing is out there that makes your heart beat faster or you can walk in don't buy until the fashion changes again.

 7. Don't buy the cheapest designer option just because it's the only pair you can afford from that brand. Don't buy the 'inspired' or diffusion copies either. Wait for the sale, stalk *bay or save up for the pair you really want.

 8. Know your heel limits, even if it breaks your heart it's better than breaking your ankle.

 9. Don't buy shoes you can't wear in the rain, sun, snow, on carpet and on pavements, shoes that precious should beni a museum not in a normal women's closet.

 10. Know your feet, know your next pair of shoes. Write down all the things you need in a shoe and the occasion you need it for - then go shopping.

 Editing your existing shoe wardrobe: Observe the 'rules' 1-10 above and go 'shopping' in your own wardrobe, just change the word 'buy' to 'keep'. Don't worry so much about having lots of similar styles or colours, what will suit you will suit you. Plus, keeping a couple pairs of fantasy shoes just for 'looking at' is OK

Hunting for vintage bargains is not what it used to be

When I was a teen, so called thrifting is what my friends and I did every time we met, like a 'place' to hang out. Endless days were spent at markets and charity shops in the same way other girls marched up and down Oxford Street in London. Things have changed and not all for the good. Vintage or pre-loved may be the new posh names for second-hand goods but developments in the practice of hunting out the odd fabulous find at a bargain price are lees than classy, especially when it comes to being charitable. .

First we have the bargain hunters whose sole aim seems to be to buy at a penny and sell for pound on an on-line auction. Triumphant stories abound, celebrating a win over some unfortunate volunteer by buying a possible 'Picasso' for 50 pence. Extra squeals of delight as the hunter recounts extra percentage off for lying to the octogenarian help that it came out of the bargain basket. It's good to know that these precious things have a second life and continue to be enjoyed after their original owner no longer can or wants to, but not just to make a quick buck on-line.

The other development in charity shops is the so called designer, vintage or boutique rail. Where once there was a mutual gratification of both the charity and often poor people doing well out of the trade of decent clobber, one has to be fairly rich or have a degree in fashion history to an find overlooked sartorial gem. Over priced and usually the worst examples of any era, the shop treats their precious stock as though it was Dame Shirley's own wardrobe when in reality their rail usually comprises of 90% of yesterday's high street designer rip-offs. Who needs a Karen Millen Dress from 1999 at double what it cost in the sale? Not everyone values a multiple-coloured maxi dress over last year's Gap effort, why should the vintage maxi cost so much more just because some idiot pop star is wearing her stylist's-own version?

And where have the desirable labels and kooky precious things gone that should be on the bloody boutique rail? They are lifted out by keen fashion student and car booter volunteers, who devote an hour a week of their expertise in the back room during the process of supposedly sorting the 'wheat from the chaff' as a 'reward' wardrobe or new stock for next Sunday morning's cash-in-hand 'hobby'.

The problem is balance and fair play seem to have lost their way. While charities become 'smart' businesses trying to maximise their profits with their boutique rail so only affluent trendies can buy something that looks like it comes from a charity shop or grandma's closet the seasoned hunter will of course fell gleefully victorious if they find an item that 'got away' from the self-proclaimed expert.