That is a rhetorical question, but really, who has time to pay full price anymore? Having worked in the fashion industry for almost 10 years has exposed me to some great bargains where I no longer feel comfortable paying full price. As much as I love clothes, it’s not worth it to me. Also, with these uncertain times you may want to purchase something that isn’t going to break the bank. Now a good shoe?! That’s a different story! Lol Unless it is a classic piece, which I will discuss another time, that you know you will always wear no matter how long you’ve had it. I have to really love it to splurge. I do most of my shopping at sample sales, thrift stores and online. I’m sharing some of my favorites per category.
Sample Sales
www.Chicmi.com is typically where I find the sample sales that are currently happening in NY or the ones that are approaching soon. For now New York and Los Angeles are the only places that host sample sales. If you are not familiar with what a sample sale is, it is when wholesalers want to get rid of older merchandise and/or samples they have received from their manufacturers. There are also online sample sales you can look out for.
Thrift Stores
Some thrift stores that I shop are: Salvation army, Beacon’s closet (they have an online store also), and Buffalo exchange.
Thrifting is one of my favorite things to do, on top of that re-usable fashion helps to save the environment. Helping to save the environment is also something dear to me, so it is a win win for me. As we all know fashion is one of the main contributors to the pollution in the world through green house gas emissions, overuse of water, dyes being spilled into our waters etc. Which gives you something to think about the next time you buy something from fast fashion. Contrary to popular belief you will find a lot of brand new items with tags in thrift stores.
I have spent most of my quarantine time in Florida and there are so many thrift stores there but my favorite is Plato’s closet.
Online shopping
Online retailers have made it so easy to shop online due to the easy return policies. I usually plan ahead if I am going away and am using this method to shop. Some of my favorite online shops are:
- Asos.com
- nastygal.com
- forever21.com
- bloomingdales.com
Black owned
I’ve also been more intentional with how I spend my money, I have been making more purchases from Black/Hispanic owned businesses. I’ve listed some that I have shopped with so far and love their items.
- shopwithcz.com
- shopiccon.com
- dejrounemilan.com
- swimcocoa.com
Shop my look
I bought the Derek Lam jeans at Barney’s closeout sale (which was amazing and I went crazy lol). I was able to find these jeans only on Poshamrk, they have a few sizes and I’ve included the link under the photo.
Kenzo had their first online sample sale 2019 and that’s when I purchased this top. Below I included the exact shirt but they only have it available in green and I’ve included a similar top from Kenzo as well.
