Weekend Recap

I really got around this past weekend. I scouted out the Cusp sale at both the Georgetown and Tysons locations, I managed to cross several stores off the list of places I've been wanting to check out, and made it to Arundel Mills and C-Mart on Sunday! Since I have so much to share, I may be a tease and spread my findings over several posts.

Depending on what you're in the market for, the Cusp sale is rather hit or miss. If you're looking for jeans, it is definitely worth going tonight or tomorrow (the sale ends tomorrow). There were a decent number of Joe's, Seven's, and True Religion jeans for around $100, which is not bad at all considering their original prices of almost $200! After the jeans, the second best selection was of T-Bags tops and dresses for around $90ish. Other than that, there was a smattering of dresses, tops, etc. from Milly, Trina Turk, and some others; however, I'm still on shopping probation, so I went home empty-handed.

C-Mart is always quite the adventure, because you really have no idea what you're going to find. Given the discombobulated racks, you have to have somewhat of a shopping system unless you want to spend all day there. For instance, I started with the shoes: Ferragamo, Cole Haan, Delman, Kate Spade, Coach, Hollywould, Betsy Johnson, and none of them in my size (did I mention they were almost all under $100?). In a futile attempt at organization some of the clothing racks have the names of the boutiques the liquidations came from: this is only somewhat helpful since many of the stores are not local and you have to look through the clothes to figure out if it's from a decent place or not. Amongst those racks you can find some great pieces. What you have to keep in mind, though, is that while some of the prices still seem high, if you saw that same skirt at the actual boutique marked down that much, you'd be ecstatic! For instance, I saw a See by Chloé skirt for around $80 (and immediately scoffed "I'm not paying that much for a skirt from C-Mart"): the original tag was well over $500. My roommate had the same reaction to this really cute blazer, so I guess it just comes down to how you look at things and how badly you want/need the particular item.

I promise I'll post again soon to share what I found at the other places I visited last weekend!

P.S. I do believe I just saw an email about Neiman Marcus' First Call Sale, which means Sale Season is fast-approaching!!!

Weekend Recap

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!

Weekend Recap

Due to budgetary constraints and a new knitting project, I did not do quite as much research as intended this weekend. But nonetheless, I did do a little exploring.

Shoes by Lara
I had heard from a shopping buddy that this was a place I just had to check out; after viewing her finds, I was sold. I visited the store on 14th St, NW and was rather skeptical at first. When you walk in, you have to go downstairs to get to the shoes. At first I saw many many boxes of nothing terribly exciting. My friend quickly grabbed my arm and guided me to "the back wall." The back wall is 50% off all shoes AND that's where the good stuff is hiding. The shoes in the rest of the store are what you might find at a mid-level department store, and they're not any cheaper. On the 50% off wall, though, you'll find Stuart Weitzman, Betsy Johnson, French Sole, Delman, Sigerson Morrison, and Roberto Cavalli, just to name a few. Apparently the turnover is high, so it's a good place to drop by on a regular basis to see what's in stock. One of the best things about this store is there are 4 of them! So, I mean, if you don't find something at one location, you can simply check out one of the others. Who am I kidding: go to all of them, all the time! However, if you wear a size 8 you should probably steer clear or at least go at your own risk, because I may have to fight you for those really cute quilted French Sole's...

While in the vicinity, I felt it my duty to go to Filene's to see what they had to offer. The one downtown was overhauled recently and is quite nice now. Just to give some quick highlights...Upstairs they still had some of those wonderful Missoni scarves, that I previously wrote about and they had a large selection Spanx footless pantyhose for 50% off! Moving onward and downward, in the basement there were not really any shoes that caught my eyes except for a snazzy snakeskin pair of Sam Edelman t-bar flats for $60 that were really hard to leave behind. It gets better. Lurking in the racks of clothing from Barney's was this amazing giraffe-print, Valentino, wool cape. Sadly, it was still almost $1,000 a.k.a. not in my budget. There were some affordable pieces in the Barney's section, so it's definitley worth a look.

All in all, it was a productive weekend, and I can't wait to scope out the other Shoes by Lara locations to see what they have in stock!

Weekend Recap

This weekend there were some things old and something new. I checked out the Vintage Trunk Show at Project 4 on Friday and I finally made it to the new Bloomies on Sunday.

Some Things Old...
Last week when I found out about the Trunk Show, I really wasn't sure what to expect; I was braced for the worst and hoping for the best. Friday after work I rushed home, grabbed a few trusty shopping buddies, and we were off to U St. ! When we arrived at the gallery there were ample mojitos, champagne, and other delightful cocktails, so things were off to a promising start. There was one main rack of clothes, a smaller rack with coats and then a display of shoes and another of handbags, hats, and scarves. A quick glance at the clothing and one could spot some lovely dresses, but with vintage things it's always the question of "is this thing actually going to fit me?" I ventured off into one of the changing rooms with an armful of dresses, a cocktail, and a fully loaded bank card. Several of the dresses looked quite nice, but a mustard colored wool dress from the 50's (complete with a leopard belt) was the obvious choice. Needless to say, I was quite excited!!!

Several girls were milling about "modeling" some of the dresses, but the atmosphere was light and fun like a bunch of girls going through their grandmothers' closets finding each new dress more fun than the last. I found out that Uesa Goods provided the vintage pieces and had an upstairs room fully stocked to replenish the racks as needed. Since the trunk show was all weekend that meant that Saturday and Sunday were prime shopping days as well! It took every ounce of restraint for me to not go back...

Something New...
I had heard good things about the new Bloomingdale's in Chevy Chase, but obviously I had to go see for myself. Everything is nice and new and shiny and wonderful, but more importantly the selection is quite impressive! More than anything, though, I was excited by the large contemporary section. It's organized primarily by designer/brand, with the jeans having their own section and let's just say they definitely needed a section all to themselves! The store was very spacious and the layout made everything easy to navigate. Low racks and few walls also make it easy to spot your shopping buddy across the store eyeing a jaunty ensemble , allowing you to intervene and save you both some embarrassment. I did not purchase anything on this visit, but I'm anxiously awaiting their sales!!!

All in all I'd say I was relatively well-behaved this weekend; at least in terms of shopping...