Sunglasses

Whether you're avoiding the sun, the paparazzi, or trying to rob a bank (a la the Barbie Bandits) sunglasses serve many purposes in addition to being stylish. Sure, you can pick up some cheap ones at the local dollar store, but there is just something about an absurdly expensive pair of sunglasses that makes you feel like you could take on the world. However, they are also easily misplaced, forgotten, or sat on. What could possibly be worse than having someones fat butt crush your $300 treasure (other than your own fat butt crushing them)? Allow me to explain how you can ease the pain by picking up everything from Gucci to Oliver People's for well under $100!

This part can be short and sweet since the havens for cheap, designer sunglasses are the same places where you can find many of my other favorite deals. Talk about one-stop shopping at it's finest! To keep you on the edge of your desk chair, I'll start from the less exciting deals and build up to the grand finale.

C-Mart- This is the one place I haven't mentioned previously. I will give C-Mart a full review at a later date, but it's basically a clothes/furniture warehouse. There are definitley some good finds there, but be prepared to make a day of it. Apparently they just got a big shipment of sunglasses including, but not limited to: Gucci, Dior, Versace, YSL, Kate Spade, and Juicy Couture. I have not made the treck to examine these in person, but from what I gathered from the advertisment they are marked down around 50% which places most of them at about $150. While that is definitley much better than paying full price, you can do better.

Off 5th-Normally there's a pretty decent selection at most of the stores. The sunglasses are priced around $70. If you are on the Off 5th mailing list there are ALWAYS coupons being sent out, so that can help knock the price down by up to another 30%. I would say the biggest plus to buying them here, is that you can actually get the matching case (make sure you ask at checkout, since they keep them in the back).

TJ Maxx/Marshalls-My first pair of designer sunglasses came from Marshalls. They were dark grey Dolce & Gabbana and cost me a mere $20. I think back then the stores hadn't caught on to what they had in stock. More recently though, I picked up an amazing pair of black Armani glasses for my grandmother for $40, which still is not too shabby. A secret to finding the good stuff: most of the sunglass displays are tall and generally have a bunch of sunglasses piled on top that I am too short to reach. One day while shopping with one of my taller friends, we were quite sad not to find anything good and then she started looking through the ones on top. Come to find out that's where they were hiding...

Last Call-If you hadn't picked up on it yet, I LOVE Last Call. So this is it...the best sunglass deal I have EVER come across. As I mentioned earlier, I adore Oliver People's sunglasses. Sadly, they cost approximately one arm and one leg. In a weak, foolish moment I actually broke down and bought a pair at full price (in my defense it was a Spend Some, Get Some day at Saks so I did get a gift card); I figured I would never find a pair on sale and I just had to have some. Once I had the black ones, I decided I needed brown ones as well. Oh I found a pair I liked; they cost one arm, one leg, and an ear (about $400). I had come to terms with the fact I would have to live without brown Oliver Peoples until one day while at Last Call, they had some sunglasses on top of an island in the jewelry display. My roommate and I did a doubletake and were shocked to find that Oliver Peoples were at the outlet store! Even more surprising was that the frames weren't in terribly odd colors or shapes; they even had some brown ones very close to what I was pining for. Well, because nothing is ever as good as it looks, we figured that they still probably cost well over $100. The surprises kept coming though! I had a sales girl give me a pair to try on (that I was instantly obsessed with), I asked the price having braced myself for bad news... low and behold they were only $35!!! Can you even find sunglasses at Target that cheap?! Needless to say, that probably goes down as one of my best finds.

With all this talk of sunglasses, I think I'm going to don mine and go enjoy some sunshine!

Outlet Malls

Outlet Malls: guaranteed place to find a bargain, right? True, I've found some a-mazing pieces; however, it's also easy to get duped by the theory that because it's at an outlet it's a deal. I'm sure this will be the first of many times I discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of outlet shopping, so consider this a crash course.

For those of you that reside in the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, you are within an hour or two of some excellent outlets. Leesburg Corner, Potomac Mills, Arundel Mills--three of my favorite places to invest my paycheck. While each of those have their own unique attributes, there are a few underlying principles to keep in mind while shopping at any outlet mall.

First, certain outlets base prices are better than others. For example, the Burberry store at the Leesburg outlet offers prices that are 50% less than their base! This is incredible if you're looking to purchase that timeless Burberry trench that normally sells for almost $1,000. At other stores, though, the outlet prices may actually be more than what you pay if you found that item on the sale rack at the actual store.

Speaking of sale racks...this is the first place I head in any store, outlets included. Off 5th (the Saks Fifth Avenue outlet) and Last Call (the Neiman Marcus outlet) always have TONS of stuff that's marked down from the outlet price, which has already been marked down from the store price. Not to gloat, but over the weekend I found maybe the best deal I've come across at Last Call (Arundel Mills). Alas, it was not something I purchased for myself, but it's better to give than receive, right? Anyways, as I was looking through the final sale rack I stumbled across a silk, Armani, bubble skirt that, according to the orignial tag, had been $1,295 marked down to....are you sitting down...$79.99!!! I couldn't believe my eyes; I kept looking at the skirt thinking there had to be something seriously wrong, but I found nothing! Being the wonderful daughter that I am, I of course thought of my mother (ok, so it wasn't my size), clutched the skirt dearly, and headed to the cash register. I'm such a good child...

Another thing to look for are the coupons that many outlet stores send out quite frequently. Off 5th is especially good for this; they routinely send out 20-30% off cards and they also give you a "Gas Money" card that is good for $10 off your next purchase of $50 or more. Last Call offers 5% off your entire purchase if you use a Neiman Marcus card; not a lot, but every little bit counts.

Now that you're all jealous over my current find, I've given you enough of a road map to head out and start scouring for your own treasures. However, it's important to not get discouraged if you don't find that $150 pair of Manolos the first time out. Sometimes you come back empty handed and others you're toting home an Armani skirt :)