#10 Sample Sale?!! Privilege of living in New York.

Have you ever passed this kind of long line in Manhattan,
wondering who are these people and what are they waiting for,
even though it's freezing and raining outside?!?

That's what I used to think when I came to NYC for the first time.

These crowds are waiting for designer brand sample sales.

A privilege of living in New York City is that you have the chance
to buy brand-name products for a great deal.

There are ongoing sample sales all year.
And, they allow you to have an opportunity to buy
famous designer or brand-name clothing and accessories for 60-85% off.
Sometimes, it's really a "sample sale" - the company's testing styles, or selling showroom samples, production samples, or just pure samples from their sample rooms.

However, most of the time, companies do sample sales to clean out their warehouses for
their employees & families, or because of cash flow issues.
and if you get lucky, you can get a real good deal -- even cheaper than TJ Maxx, Century21, or Loehmanns.

How do you get these great sale's information?

It used be sort of exclusive, you had to get the information through insiders, word of mouth, friends, employees, or their families.

Thanks to the internet, it's not that hard to get this information nowadays.

So I will introduce my top 3 secret informers(?) from the great World Wide Web.

1. Racked NY

It's my favorite fashion information website.
Apart from real fast sample sale information, they have great reporting of
what's going on in the fashion scene, like retailing, store openings,etc.

2. Mizhattan

It seems like reblogs of sample sale reporting.
It shares the most up-to-date info on luxury and fast fashion shopping for working women in the Big Apple.

3. Daily Candy

It is a web site for trendsetters, they have sample sale listings, and are known for their informal writing style. The design of website comes with such cute illustrations, and they have a cute email newsletter with great information.

Also, get on the mailing list of Soiffer Haskin and Pavilion's direct mailing list,
You'll get great sample sale event event from these event associations.

One thing I must mention, which you need to be ready for,
if you're planing to go,
BE UP EARLY, SERIOUSLY EARLY in the morning.

The early bird gets the worm.

If you want to grab great deals at a sample sale,
you need to be a bit dedicated with your time and energy.
Famous imported brands such as Jimmy Choo, YSL, Fendi, Gucci, Hermes,,,
I must say the line starts as early as 5am in the morning!

This is 6:30 am in November waiting to get in YSL sample sale.


If you're totally not willing to stand in line, or deal with e-bay sellers & crazy girls, hunting like hyenas,
you can go shopping on the sample sale websites listed below,

Gilt.com
Beyondtherack.com
Ideli.com
Ruelala.com
Hautelook.com

But, be aware that it's all about timing click of your mouse!

#9 Fall is getting chillier, colder,, What are you guarding yourself with?

37F, 43F, Highest 52F..
Are we already in the winter season?
It is still early November in New York City.
As soon as we finished Halloween, the weather changed immediately
and dropped us in the middle of a winter field.

Digging into our closet, we asked ourselves the same questions every season,
"What am I wearing?!! I have no warm gear yet!!"

Not ready for winter outerwear shopping yet?

Let's look and get some ideas from what we are seeing on the street,
int the city of fashion, New York, London & Paris.


Courtesy of The Sartorialist.


Courtesy of Altamira: models off duty.


Courtesy of London Street Fashion


Courtesy of The style scout


Courtesy of Easy Fashion


Courtesy of Street peeper


Courtesy of Street peeper

#8 New. Neo. Neuevo. the new format for fashion shows.

A runway lined with chairs, the excitement of who'll be on the front line,
flashes from photographers, reporters talking with the staff and designers,
beautiful models running around and my favorite part,,,,,
the pumping heart beat of the soundtrack,
the live catwalk show is an absolute cultural phenomenon.

The weak economy in the US and elsewhere means that designers are having to fight
even harder for critical and commercial success.
According to an article from Guardian, the UK newspaper,
New York fashion week alone is expected to generate $770m (£500m) over the year for the city.
But as designers unveil their collections for spring 2011,
a question mark hangs over the future of the catwalk formula in the face of technological advances,
scheduling complications and infighting.



The world is changing so fast, we are talking about nanosecond life now.

Our society changes, people change, everything changes/updates faster than ever.
Fashion is a big part of our culture that is changing so fast.

As technology has been changing, we've gotten so attached to mobile life on the internet.
And fashion shows are moving from the traditional cat walk to the World Wide Web.
Burberry already did a Spring 2010 fashion show broadcast for the web, mobile, and iPad,
also, they allowed customers to order the product right away through the web.


Dolce & Gabbana has broadcast its Fall/Winter 2010 Women's Fashion Show live to iPhones and Android Mobile devices. The dates of the Fashion shows were Thursday, 25th of February from 3pm (GMT +1) for D&G and Sunday, 28th of February from 1pm (GMT +1) for Dolce & Gabbana.



What would be the new format for fashion shows?
The new stage? A lot of designers have been using great architecturs as their catwalks/stages.
Karl Largerfeld already did a sensational fashion show on the Great Wall of China, in Oct. 2007.


Givenchy Fall/Winter 2010 haute couture collection by Riccardo Tisci was held in an apartment on Place Vendôme in Paris with a select handful of fashion insiders last July instead of putting on a full-blown runway show.

Gareth Pugh hired director Ruth Hogben to shoot a video presentation for his Spring/Summer 2011 collection. It features model Kristen McMenamy striking a variety of poses to catchy beats, allowing the viewer to see how the garments work in detail from different angles.


What will become popular fashion show formats in the future??
Let's use our imagination to see further,
because fashion always moves fast, full of new excitement!