Sample Sale Report

As you know, today was Sample Sale Day, and I guess you could say I had moderate success.

I started the day at the Manolo Blahnik sample sale.  I went there fully expecting a lengthy wait–maybe an hour or two–but a two hour wait there would’ve been akin to a miracle.  I arrived at 11:45, which was probably a mistake.  I was given a ticket with the letter “W” written on it.  Everyone received a ticket, with maybe about 10 or so people assigned to each letter.  By 11:45, they had only called up to the letter “C” (they had called group A at about 10 am).  You do the math . . . I wasn’t prepared to wait for 20 more letters to be called at that pace.  AND, the sale was supposed to end at 3 pm, so it was very possible that my group would not get called at all.  I considered the situation for about 5 minutes (which was probably 5 minutes too many) and decided it wasn’t worth it.  The decision was especially easy considering that the sale had already run out of all size 37-38 shoes.  I was pretty confident that by the time I was let in (if ever), there would no shoes left in my size.

So, on to Shoshanna!  Upon arriving at the sample sale, I was pretty surprised by how small the space was.  It was pretty crammed with clothing, and there was no fitting room, so everyone just had to find a spot in the room to try everything on.  It was a bonding experience.

There was a pretty good selection of dresses.  Prices for dresses and blouses started at $75 and went up to about $150 (I think).  However, there were also a few racks of samples, with dresses at $50 and shirts at $35, and those were the deals.  The sale also had bathing suits.  The suits were $50, but there were also a few boxes of samples.  One box had two-piece sets for $25, and another had separate pieces for $5 each.  Pretty good deal, except you were not allowed to try on the bathing suit.  In fact, signs all over the room informed shoppers that they were not even allowed to hold the bathing suits up to see how they looked (how crazy is that?).

I wound up buying a sample dress for $50, and am pretty pleased with my purchase.  It’s definitely from an earlier season, but it’s the type of dress I know I’ll wear often.  I found it on sale at Bluefly for $210 with a listed retail value of $350, so the $50 I paid was undoubtedly a good deal.  I also saw a few dresses (in the $125 range) that are actually still being sold in stores for the full retail price (around $350-$400).

My dress! (I think it looks better in person--it has more "gunmetal" in the fabric than the picture suggests)

This dress was what I call a sample sale compulsion buy— a dress I probably wouldn’t have bought had I seen it in a store, but because I was at a sample sale, I felt compelled to buy something.

My last stop of the day was Nanette Lepore.  I didn’t buy anything, but there was a pretty large selection, and the space itself was large and spread out (a nice change from Shoshanna).  I would classify a lot of the inventory as work attire–I saw quite a bit of tweed, so if you’re in need of cute suits, I’d definitely recommend the sale (tomorrow is the last day!).  Jackets were $195, skirts, shirts, and pants were $95.  I couldn’t find a sample section, but I’m not sure if that’s because I waited too long to hit the sale.

Sample Sale Day is officially over, but the season is certainly not over.  I will likely be visiting a few more in the next few weeks (specifically DVF and Lauren Merkin), so I’ll be keeping you posted!

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