So I mentioned a while ago the fact that I love nice things, but as you probs know I’m on maternity leave…which whilst the stat mat pay is better than nothing, it does not cover my pre baby cravings for the odd designer treat.
In light of this I’m writing a post, sharing all of my tips and fave sites to find designer goodies at a fraction of the price – I’ll include my usual disclaimer here: when I say “fraction of the price” I used that phrase cos it sounds good- most of my finds are still expensive if you compare them to PRIMARK & H&M but if you could buy designer stuff at those prices, designer stuff wouldn’t exist! (I do still love Primani and H&M FYI)
I’m just going to list them and tell you my tactic…(if you are a size 5 shoe and a size 8 dress then you better not steal my bargains!!!!…jokes (no jokes!)…
1. The Outnet – I’m pretty sure most people have heard of this one (but I did actually introduce a friend to it the other day so thought I’d include it) as it’s the sort of the outlet site for Net a Porter. They have an app to make browsing all the more simple and have all the top designers on there. They also do flash sales where they knock additional % off certain designers or styles – I have a notification set so it tells me when these happen. They also do mega clearance sales around the time normal shops have a sale. I tend to filter on the designers I like & my size then sort low to high price (I sometimes set a price upper limit so I don’t see something I can’t afford) then just scroll and save items. Then I do a brutal checklist in my head… “will I ever wear this”, “is it a wardrobe staple”, “will my husband be able to find it if I hide it” before adding to basket and buying. You have to pay postage which is a flat rate of £5 (3-4 working days) or £8 (next day) but returns are free.
2. Farfetch – this is a sort of hub for all international designer department stores/online boutiques I guess. It brings them all together on one site for you to browse as if it were one store. I tend to go into the sale section, filter by designer and price then sort low to high. It allows you to see sale items across the globe basically, which is ideal as every country has a sale at different times so there are always great pieces to find. You have to pay varying delivery costs but they do promotions now and again where it’s free deliver, I have a notification set to tell me when this happens on the app. To make it work you have to spend time browsing and go on there a couple of times a week I’d say, but if you love shopping and fashion then it’s a nice past time 😍
3. @Fashionbugblogclothessale – this is an example of one of many clothes sale accounts in Instagram. This one in particular is Laura Wills aka @fashionbugblog and she sells off her designer stuff, often worn once or sometimes never at discounted prices. You just message her, pay on PayPal (you have to pay p&p) and she sends it to you by recorded delivery. I have only bought a Maje dress so far and it was in pristine condition and arrived the day after I paid. There are a lot more of these sort of accounts out there and you can find them if you search for hashtags like “blogger sale” and just do a bit of searching.
4. Small independent designer boutiques’ online stores – this is something I have discovered fairly recently and is an absolute dream for finding really discounted items as the smaller boutiques tend to need to sell off the stock to make way/room for the new season stuff, compared with massive online stores who can just keep it in the warehouse until it sells. I have found that these types of stores often have 2/3 rounds of discount so if you aren’t too picky and like a quirky style you can often wait until the final sale and grab a real bargain. I find these by searching for “small designer boutiques near me” I then end up a million clicks down the line and after some serious graft, on the websites of some super little boutiques, some local some not.
5. Finally, a super obvious one but one that I feel requires constant dedication haha and time investment is just classic sale scouring. All the big stores have fab sales and I always find some amazing bargains…these are my go to’s:
wwww.mytheresa.com (better in their app)
For maternity www.nineinthemirror.com
www.netaporter.com (better in their app)
I think even if I won the euro mills I’d still shop for a bargain as I get such a sense of satisfaction from it…don’t get me wrong I’d also make it rain in Selfridges but if you can get something you love for less money then surely you’d be a fool not to?!
What Sophie Sees 