The only thing that causes more damage than a virus in my inbox, is an email advertising a shoe sale at an outlet mall!
January 30 through February 13 at Off 5th it's Buy 1 Pair Get the 2nd Pair 50% off!
I know that sometimes the shoe racks at Off 5th can be extremely disappointing. There are countless times that I have scroured rack after rack looking for something to catch my attention, only to find that either
A) Nothing strikes my fancy
B) Any shoes that do get me hot and bothered are either a size 5 or a size 11 (I'm an 8)
or
C) The price tag is still to $$$ for my pocket
BUT then there are the $140 Manolo Blahnik's and the $160 Christian Louboutin's that make all those futile trips worthwhile.
For those of you in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, you have 3 Off 5th's within a 60 minute drive: Leesburg Corner, Arundel Mills, and Potomac Mills.
Personally, I can't think of a more perfectly productive weekend than one spent outlet hopping!
Showing posts with label Off 5th. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Off 5th. Show all posts
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Monday, September 24, 2007
Foundation Garments
The best of outfits can be completely ruined if you're not wearing the proper pieces underneath. While I am not going to delve into the depths of women's lingerie, I do want to take the time to sing the praises of Spanx; a product line that has salvaged many a rather snug ensemble. Also, it is necessary to note that wearing Spanx has nothing to do with being fat. Sara Blakely, the esteemed inventress, is very thin; the whole idea is to create a smooth look underneath your lovely clothes. While out shopping, a very common phrase amongst my friends is "this looks great, but with Spanx under it, of course!"
In my opinion Spanx are truly a girl's best friend. We should all thank Sara Blakely for coming up with a product that is slimming, comfortable, and doesn't make you feel like you're wearing your grandmother's girdle. The story about how Spanx started is pretty neat, so you should definitely read up while perusing the website. If you're not familiar with the line and feel overwhelmed, I will give you a crash course on my favorite products and some tips on where to find them at a discount!
Power Panties
The original Spanx are reminiscent of the granny panties sported by Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jone's Diary. However, don't laugh, they are good at their job. An updated version has recently come out called girl shorts and don't come down as far on your thigh. These are highly recommended if you're wearing something shorter and don't want someone to accidentally see that power panties are the reason you're looking oh so slim.
PantyHose
I detest pantyhose: they're a pain to get on, you're afraid of running them, the waist is always too high and then it starts to roll down, and they're just an all-around hassle! However, in many workplaces and in colder months they're a necessity. Thankfully, Spanx hosiery is just a amazing as the power panties. Yes, they're a tad on the pricey side, BUT they don't run as easily as normal hose so they last much, much longer. Another huge plus is the waist band. I'm short waisted, so with most hose I can pretty much pull them up to my neck and then they roll into a nice inner tube-like band around my waist. Spanx, on the other hand, hit at a perfect level and they don't budge!
Tights
Spanx has your normal every day selection of tights with the wonderful features of all Spanx hosiery. This year, however, they also have several very snazzy patterend tights to choose from. My favorites, though, are the 2-sided tights. Being the money savvy girl that I am (or attempt to be), these reversible tights are like getting 2 for the price of 1! I can't get away from this section without mentioning the footless tights, otherwise known as leggings. I admit, I'm guilty, I love them.
The articles I've mentioned above are merely some of the ones that I am familiar with, but I have yet to find a Spanx product that has let me down!
Now, let's chat cheap. Spanx are rather pricey (but worth every penny); however, occasionally you can find them at a discount. Loehman's probably has the best selection, but you are still rather limited in styles, colors, and sizes. Off 5th usually has a couple of slips or body shapers, but I've never seen more than a handful. All in all, Spanx are one of the few cases where I think it is best to just go ahead and buy whatever you need at full price. It pains me to say that, but it's true...
Fret not,though, I'm not going to leave you on a pricey note! Occasionally certain organizations will run specials with the Spanx website where you get a discount and a portion of the purchase goes to charity! It just so happens that the Junior League of Washington is running a special during the month of October: see below for details.
"During October, SPANX is again offering Junior League members a special limited-time 25% discount on the company's entire product line and the opportunity to earn $5 per order for JLW. Select your purchases at www.spanx.com . When you are ready to place your order, enter JLW's unique code, " Washington ," into the promotion code box found on the last page of checkout and a 25% discount will be applied. For each order placed using this special online promotional code of "Washington," SPANX will donate $5 back to JLW. Last year, JLW was the number one League in orders placed and received $1,400!"
In my opinion Spanx are truly a girl's best friend. We should all thank Sara Blakely for coming up with a product that is slimming, comfortable, and doesn't make you feel like you're wearing your grandmother's girdle. The story about how Spanx started is pretty neat, so you should definitely read up while perusing the website. If you're not familiar with the line and feel overwhelmed, I will give you a crash course on my favorite products and some tips on where to find them at a discount!
Power Panties
The original Spanx are reminiscent of the granny panties sported by Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jone's Diary. However, don't laugh, they are good at their job. An updated version has recently come out called girl shorts and don't come down as far on your thigh. These are highly recommended if you're wearing something shorter and don't want someone to accidentally see that power panties are the reason you're looking oh so slim.
PantyHose
I detest pantyhose: they're a pain to get on, you're afraid of running them, the waist is always too high and then it starts to roll down, and they're just an all-around hassle! However, in many workplaces and in colder months they're a necessity. Thankfully, Spanx hosiery is just a amazing as the power panties. Yes, they're a tad on the pricey side, BUT they don't run as easily as normal hose so they last much, much longer. Another huge plus is the waist band. I'm short waisted, so with most hose I can pretty much pull them up to my neck and then they roll into a nice inner tube-like band around my waist. Spanx, on the other hand, hit at a perfect level and they don't budge!
Tights
Spanx has your normal every day selection of tights with the wonderful features of all Spanx hosiery. This year, however, they also have several very snazzy patterend tights to choose from. My favorites, though, are the 2-sided tights. Being the money savvy girl that I am (or attempt to be), these reversible tights are like getting 2 for the price of 1! I can't get away from this section without mentioning the footless tights, otherwise known as leggings. I admit, I'm guilty, I love them.
The articles I've mentioned above are merely some of the ones that I am familiar with, but I have yet to find a Spanx product that has let me down!
Now, let's chat cheap. Spanx are rather pricey (but worth every penny); however, occasionally you can find them at a discount. Loehman's probably has the best selection, but you are still rather limited in styles, colors, and sizes. Off 5th usually has a couple of slips or body shapers, but I've never seen more than a handful. All in all, Spanx are one of the few cases where I think it is best to just go ahead and buy whatever you need at full price. It pains me to say that, but it's true...
Fret not,though, I'm not going to leave you on a pricey note! Occasionally certain organizations will run specials with the Spanx website where you get a discount and a portion of the purchase goes to charity! It just so happens that the Junior League of Washington is running a special during the month of October: see below for details.
"During October, SPANX is again offering Junior League members a special limited-time 25% discount on the company's entire product line and the opportunity to earn $5 per order for JLW. Select your purchases at www.spanx.com . When you are ready to place your order, enter JLW's unique code, " Washington ," into the promotion code box found on the last page of checkout and a 25% discount will be applied. For each order placed using this special online promotional code of "Washington," SPANX will donate $5 back to JLW. Last year, JLW was the number one League in orders placed and received $1,400!"
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
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!
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!
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
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 :)
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 :)
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