It seems like every day I hear about a new boutique, consignment shop, vintage store, etc. that I can't wait to scour! Often, though, I hear about a place that sounds amazing only to forget the name of the store or where it's located. Too many places were slipping through the cracks, so I started keeping a notebook of places I wanted to checkout. I include the name, address, phone number, website, hours, and any other info I deem necessary and I highly recommend doing the same; I don't know how I survived without it! I hope to check out at least one new store (window shopping only, I swear) a weekend and report my findings. This weekend, however, I managed to knock two off the list.
I don't spend a lot of time in Alexandria, so I'm not familiar with the stores in that vicinity. Recently I heard of two very intriguing stores, though, and decided it was worth an outing to Old Town!
The first store I visited was Treat. Personally, I'm very envious of my friends in NY that are blocks away from all those amazing sample sales. The girls behind Treat must have read my mind; Treat is a sample sale boutique! You may figure that since the items are from sample sales that the store is filled with 0's, 2's and size 5 shoes. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they carried a wide variety of clothing and shoe sizes. In addition, they had multiple sizes in some of the pieces, which was also very exciting. The website claims they have 1/2 priced Chloe bags and they do! I saw a Chloe bag for around $600 with my own two eyes; you know I could never lie about something like that. They also carried Marc Jacobs, Tracy Reese, Theory, Joie, and Nanette Lepore just to name a few. Things are spaciously arranged, so you do not feel overwhlemed having to dig through piles of stuff, like you might at an actual sample sale. The store is a great concept and definitley worth a visit!
My next stop was a mere hop, skip, and jump away: Diva Boutique. Within 2 minutes of walking into the store, I was informed that everything was 10% off (it was their birthday) and clearance items were an additional 50% off. I also almost immediately found this great grey D&G dress, that I had to pry myself away from; needless to say, things were off to a good start. The store is in a former town house and every nook and cranny has something in it. In addition to a great selection of clothes (Chanel, Armani, Tocca, Tory Burch, and more!) they also had an entire wall of handbags (I noticed several Kate Spade bags) and a decent selection of shoes. It's also worth noting the fabulous decor in every room; everything is fun and girly, making for a great shopping experience.
My favorite thing about places like Treat and Diva Boutique, is that they are constantly getting in new pieces! Department stores only get new things a few times a year and most of the time you keep seeing the same items over and over again. The beauty of consignment-type stores is that you always have an excuse to visit, because they'll always have something new!
Showing posts with label Dolce and Gabbana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dolce and Gabbana. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
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!
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