The Faux Fashionista- Diary of of Shopaholic: The Sample Sale -Only the Strong Survive

The Faux Fashionista- Diary of of Shopaholic: The Sample Sale -Only the Strong Survive: "The Sample Sale –Only the Strong Survive If relapse is part of recovery, I am well on my way. Some people catch summer colds, well I caug..."

The Sample Sale -Only the Strong Survive

The Sample Sale –Only the Strong Survive

If relapse is part of recovery, I am well on my way.  Some people catch summer colds, well I caught a shopping bug.  How did I topple off the proverbial wagon? Well, as I said in prior posts, seasons change and so do our wardrobes. And unlike a good girl scout, when we had a June heat wave, I was not prepared! (What do girl scouts know anyway?)

So not wanting to spend retail (translation: top dollar) for spring clothes (or early summer clothes), I succumbed to the sample sale. A sample sale is when a manufacturer sells their samples and /or excess stock for near wholesale prices. Wholesale prices for a retail girl on a clothing budget? Sign me up!

Although there are many sample sale sites such as Rue La La ( click here)or Gilt Group (click here unless you are a shopaholic) which allow you to buy designer clothing at deeply discounted prices for a short amount of time . Living in NYC, the fashion capital of the world, I am privy to the brick and mortar sales, where you can physically see, touch and taste the clothing.( Just kidding about the taste part, just wanted to see if you were paying attention).

Spring apparently is sample sale season. The sales are sent via emails, advertised in The Post, and since I work in the Garment District, the latest sales are all the chatter by the water cooler. There was no avoiding it and off the wagon I went!

It started with one of my favorite designers, Tocca, (non-shopaholics click here to check out) which was quite a success. I scored two adorable dresses for $85 bucks a piece that usually retail for at least $300.00. Madison Avenue at Main street prices? I could not resist!

Next was Tory Burch, where the ghetto-fabulous wrestled with Upper East Side socialites for the same tote bags. I won’t say who won the battle of the bag.  I dashed there after work , only to find they did not have many dresses in my size. There were a lot of winter items , lovely wool dresses ,  cashmere cardigans, But I needed clothes to wear right here , right now! No way was I walking away with $500 of winter clothes!

The coup de grace was J Crew. I got there at 5:30pm and there was a line. The security guard,( yes, security guard) turned me away from the end of the line and motions to his left. There was another line half a city block long. It was a LINE to get on the LINE for the sample sale!

Really! What is wrong with women these days? Like people never saw a discounted tank top before! To wait in oppressive heat to possibly try on last season’s clothes in size that probably is not your real size anyway? You have to be crazy!

Call me Crazy.  I got on to the back of the line and waited 20 minutes to get in.

Once you get in, it is like being at the airport, you have to check your coat, and your purse, and relinquish all belonging except for your wallet. For the privilege of shopping below retail, you get to be treated like a criminal!

Chaotic, is an understatement. Girls pushing and shoving as if the never saw a cotton tank top before! As I am sorting through the disarrayed racks, I feel a sharp pain in my rib. A petite Asian woman, barely 5 feet tall jabbed me in the ribs! As if I was really going to steal the last sequined skirt in a  size Double Zero! As if I even look like I can fit into a double Zero!

A male staff worker looks at me aghast, and asks if I am ok. “Guys have Rugby, Females have sample sales. Bruised ribs are one of the hazards of the game.” I explained.

Since there were no try-ons, I had an armload of t- shirts (so what if I hated the colors), grabbed some of last-seasons jewelry, and found this season’s beloved cable sweater that was just too expensive retail. I also found an adorable pair of gold shoes, but had no room to try them on.

While waiting on the checkout line, a mile long, I was able to brace myself against the counter and slip the shoes on. Only to find out they did not fit!  I flung them to the side. For less than one hundred and fifty bucks, I walked away with an embroidered tee, a cotton cable sweater and two bracelets. Not half bad.

Several days later, I learn J Crew retail store is having a sale. And guess what? My T-shirt is cheaper in the store, where they offer an extra 30% of all sale prices.  I wore my cable knit for the first time last week only to learn the inside is chalked in large block letters “SAMPLE”

Sometimes sample sales are great ways to get great stuff at nearly wholesale prices. But it is also a gateway to buy things on impulse that you probably don’t need. The “now or never mentality” can wreck one’s shopping budget, especially when you can’t try on or return, let alone exchange.

So the next time you get on  a line , a city block long , think twice , because you may end up with buyer’s remorse and some very sore ribs!

Who needs Kate and William? Cash will always be king!

Why Cash is King

I am proud to report that it has been four months since I used a credit card. That’s right, sixteen weeks of using my debit card, cash, and an Amex card that must be paid off in full every month. “If you can’t pay for it now, you can’t get it!” is my new mantra. So you can only imagine my despair when I received an email from Chase stating that my debit card had been compromised. “Click here for more info” the email read.  I freaked out, and assumed it was spam. No way and no how was I going to give these spammers my mom’s maiden name and social security number!

So rather than clicking, I call the microscopic number on the back of my debit  card ( reading glasses anyone?) and  lo and behold  the charming  customer service representative  , a-matter-of-factly  informs me , that yes, indeed , my debit card  was compromised.

He cannot tell me, who, what, where or when. But he can tell me that my card was cancelled two hours ago.  I literally have two dollars in my purse. Not enough for a subway ride in this town! And I don’t even CARRY credit cards in my wallet anymore.

“So you are telling me," I ask, "If I went to an ATM and tried to take money out, nothing would come out?"

"That’s right ma’am!"

“And if I went shopping to Macy’s after work, and tried to purchase something with a debit card, I would be out of luck?”

" That’s right ma’am!"

Did I mention I HATE it when people call me ma’am?

 So I run out of work after five, on a Friday, before a holiday weekend and run to the nearest Chase. I’m dying of thirst, but realize I don’t have enough cash for even a bottle of water!  No debit, no credit card card to fall back on!

At Chase, young guy who doesn’t look old enough to have working papers says he can issue me a new temporary debit card. Except the problem is, I can’t use it for debits! Only to take out cash from ATM’s. No personalization with my name. No fancy logos or holograms. I take out $140.00 wondering how long this will last me, since I now need to pay CASH for everything.  

Our reliance of checking and debit cards has grown in the past decade. I automatically debit, my monthly bill from my   drycleaner, my gym, as well as other routine expenses.  Who carries cash anymore? I go to Starbucks, for a $3 coffee and use my debit card. If I buy myself lunch, I use my debit card. And my metro cards? Debit card! Maybe that’s how my card got “compromised" in the first place?

 I spend $20.00 of my new crisp cash on a metrocard, so I no longer have to walk home 70 blocks. And for the rest of the $120? It lasted me an entire week! I saved so much money, not using a debit card for everything single impulse.  I passed Starbucks, because I only had so much cash. Macy’s was out of the question.  Checking and debit cards although convenient  can be used just as easily as a credit card, and lends itself to an ever shrinking bank account.

8 business days later I got my shiny new Chase card in the mail. But now I think twice before I use it. The Brits may have Kate and William, but cash is my future king!

Forty Days And Forty Tights: What to Do When Your Wardrobe is Flooded with Too Much Stuff.

Forty Days and Forty Tights: What to Do When your Wardrobe is Flooded with too Much Stuff!

I recently asked my husband if he had started taking martial arts again. “Why do I look more toned?” he asked. Well, unless you call a beer gut toned, the answer would be a definite “No!” I told him what prompted the question was the black and blue bruises he had on his body. “Oh, that??!” he explained, “That’s from walking into the dresser drawers you leave open that I accidently walk into! Why the hell don’t you close them???”

The answer is simple. I don’t close my drawers because I can’t. My massive mission dresser is filled to capacity. In short, the drawers are stuffed with too much “stuff.”

My husband then proceeded to ask precisely what I keep in these drawers that now can be classified as a lethal weapon. “Tights” I tell him. “Tights?” he responds incredulously? “How many tights can you possibly have?” he asked.

I had no clue. So I set to find out how many actual pairs of tights I own. His guess was forty.  Mine was twenty. So I dump my drawer out onto the bed and despite my math-phobia, I counted. And guess how many tights I had?

Forty! I own forty pairs of tights. Opaque, ribbed, matte, fishnet, shiny.  Forty pairs!!! And that does not count pantyhose!  And the kicker, which is no surprise, for a NYC girl, is that TWENTY-NINE PAIRS were BLACK!

2 brown, 3 gray, 1 purple, 1 pink, 1 leopard print (yes, leopard print) and 3 were colors I just don’t have the vocabulary to describe (muddy beige? Speckled Sand? , Ugly Mushroom? I don’t know).

So basically, my husband, concludes, that I can go forty days, without doing laundry, and never wear the same tights twice.  41 days, if you count the pair of reversible SPANX (A brilliant invention: one side is black, the other grey, it is two pairs of tights in one that make you look five pounds thinner!)

Then there is the drawer that holds my workout clothes. I can get a workout just trying to pull that damn jammed drawer open myself! I like to work out. Okay, maybe I don’t like to work out, but I need to. Having appropriate workout gear is a great motivator. So over the years I bought a lot of workout pants.

So once again, out go the drawer’s contents, onto my bed.  I learn that I have a lot of workout pants. 30 of them! Capris, Yoga Pants, classic sweats. And no, I am not counting the ones I sleep in, or the trendy velour ones the fashion marketers classify as “lounge-wear.” Like really, who wears sweats to a lounge anyway? I usually wear a little black dress, but that’s just me!

So basically, if I worked out every day for a month, I could wear a different pair of workout pants each day and not have to do any laundry! But then my apartment would really smell, wouldn’t it? So I tossed ten shabby pairs from my not-so-shabby- skinny-years and bought a gallon of Tide.

My point is that it is important to know what you have in order to know what you need. If you think you need more tights or sweatpants, you are going to inevitably buy them, regardless of whether or not you have 30 pairs in your closet! So I embarked on what I call Project De-clutter (see next month's post) where I am taking inventory of all my “stuff” before I buy one single new thing.  Although J. Crew did have this great pair of pink tights on sale….please don’t tell my husband!

Me in my famous leopard skin tights! A must-have for every woman's wardrobe!

The Faux Fashionista- Diary of of Shopaholic: Fashion Week in NYC-What Happens in Bryant Park should Stay in Bryant Park

The Faux Fashionista- Diary of of Shopaholic: Fashion Week in NYC-What Happens in Bryant Park should Stay in Bryant Park

Fashion Week in NYC-What Happens in Bryant Park should Stay in Bryant Park

ok, I know I been MIA again, hence the life of a part-time blogger. since I am brain-storming my next blog post thought I would share an old faceboook post I wrote last fall in honor of NYC Fashion Week, because it is that time of the year again, and nobody reads Facebook "notes" anyway.

What happens in Bryant Park-Should Stay in Bryant Park- Top ten reasons why Fashion Week should NOT be at Lincoln Center

 

by Nicole Rackmill on Tuesday, September 14, 2010

New York's Fashion Week has been held iin Bryant Park since 1994. This year for some unknown reason they moved Fashion Week  to Lincoln Center on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Here are my reasons why I think this was an awful mistake.




10. Call it the "Yupper West Side", "Stroller City" or a "Culinary Wasteland" if you will. The Upper West Side is charming albeit not hip and happening. It may even be boring. Too boring. But it took the relocation of the Fashion Shows for me to finally appreciate the mundane.  Cops are stationed at my subway station.  Rude nasty fashionistas and their midtown attitudes own our quiet streets. And Starbucks is now crowded. Go home!!!!!

9. In Style magazine is sold out at the flagship Barnes and Noble??!!!

8. Bag Envy. Chanel. Gucci.  Marc Jacobs .  And the alien Birkin on the UWS? You girls stand out like sore thumbs. And I am jealous of you. Go back to midtown!

7. Carrie Bradshaw look-alikes. I was walking down Columbus in my Joe's Jeans and trendy sparkly Anthropologie eighty- dollar tank top accessorized by some Gucci shades. And I felt FRUMPY!

6. The Fashion Week  tourists teetering on Manolos annoyed at ME for telling then Lincoln Center is SOUTH of 67th street.Not my fault you can't walk in your heels!

5. Which leads me to.. Shoe  Envy.

4. While leaving my favorite local Juice Bar,( crowded with fasting fashionistas) , I pass  an Anna Wintour look-alike in the doorway. As I pass, she says in the most obnoxious Brittish accent " You are so GRACIOUSLY WELCOME."  Have your driver take you back to 7th Avenue,and eat something.   Bitch.

3. Everyone makes me look fat and you can't park anywhere.

2. They  Leave their copies of Woman's Wear Daily EVERYWHERE!

1. No gratuitous  admission for us boring ,frumpy Upper West Side residents. it's ok, I  will be watching on TV.Maybe even with my nice neighbors.

Very Good Old Things!

I know, I know, it’s been a while since I blogged. A bad cold, a trip to Florida, holidays and a day job had me distracted. But I am back. Since I have been gone, I fell off the wagon a bit. I did end up getting some new trendy Hunter rain boots and those over the knee Julia Roberts boots, (which really don’t look all that whorish when you pair then with a twin-set and pearls, although I have to admit I did get some second-glances in Starbucks).

 

 I also had to have a new pair of everyday black leather boots because my old ones left me in crippling pain. Three pairs of boots are a bit much in one season, I admit, although they each have different functions. (A work attire function, a function to protect against the elements and the function of getting noticed in Starbucks). I also bought some fabulous resort-wear at a Sample Sale. Never mind the fact I don’t even have a vacation booked. So now I am stuck with the realization that I don’t have a new coat to keep me warm, and my hat, gloves and scarves are all mismatched. I guess I am going to have to spend the frigid winter months wearing linen dresses and hooker boots with clashing winter accessories. I made my wardrobe, and now have to live in it; which brings me to the topic of this post: “Very Good Old Things”.

American culture dictates that we always have the latest and greatest; the newest lightest fastest computer, the trendiest most inventive cell phone, the just–released tiniest camera with the most mega-pixels in the world.  I don’t really care all that much for technology. But fashion is my middle name. I hate wearing last year clothes. And even worse, I hate wearing accessories from seasons past. Maybe it is because I live in Manhattan where the sidewalks are virtual runways. People are wearing the latest collections and trends, sometimes before they even hit the stores. I feel like my fellow fashionista Manhattanites can just give me a four second once over and declare “She is soo 2007!”  So historically, I update my wardrobe. Every season. Then someone pointed out to me how ridiculous this is. Not to mention expensive.  So alas, this season, my main shopping destination… was in my closet!

I found some pretty interesting stuff. Like a Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dress I bought last year for a pretty pricey penny. It looked pretty dated to my fashionable eye. But then I realized the dress was a re-issue of a 70’s print and part of her 2009 “vintage collection.”  I had a classic vintage dress! I put it on, and remarkably it still fit…and if the dress fits…wear it! So I did. Oddly, I got dozens of compliments. It was a real show-stopper. Same goes for a lovely grey wool dress by my favorite designer Michelle Smith. A coworker sent me an email saying my outfit was an “A+” and thought it was a Halston! Really who needs Bloomies when you have a walk-in closet full of very good old things?!

Then there were the three-year-old waterproof Merrell leather boots, I forgot I had. They were almost in perfect condition. So I tried them on. And they hurt like hell. Maybe because they were a size 8 and I have not wore a size eight for years. Apparently our feet get wider as we age (I wish someone sent me that memo before I splurged on ill-fitting shoes). I was about to toss them when my husband (who buys everything except maybe used underwear on EBay) suggested that I sell them. So I list them on EBay and a minor bidding war ensued. I ending up walking away with eighty bucks! One woman’s garbage is another woman’s treasure.

Who knew the things in my Goodwill pile would fetch me both compliments and cash?  My austere new year’s budget looms ahead. My goal for 2011 to clean out my closet, try on and try out some old things and see what happens when history repeats itself. And if the experiment fails, here is to hoping there is money in my mistakes. Happy 2011!