designer clothes on ebay

September 27, 2006 5:13 PM

Does anyone have any experience with buying designer clothes on ebay?

My sugar mamma, i mean girlfriend, recently bought me a dolce and gabbana track jacket (no shit). It fits extremely well on my slender yet sexy frame. She said all designer clothes fit like that. So when I went to look at designer clothes online I had a good laugh over how much they cost. Then I checked ebay and saw that they (like diesel and dolce and gabbana) were more than reasonably priced. ($400 jacket for $50) I really don't give a dump if they are knockoffs, 3 years out of style, or stolen as long as they fit well.

posted by comatose to clothing, beauty, & fashion (15 comments total)

My coworker buys BCBG dresses on ebay all the time with good results. Yes- at work, but that's beside the point. I think if you find a reputable seller (one with a high rating) you'll be fine.
posted by rmless at 5:15 PM on September 27, 2006

That's funny - my co-worker buys nanette lepore and tracey ellen shirts on ebay, she's never had a problem (and the woman can SHOP). The one thing she did say was that goes to the store and tries things on if she hasn't bought from that particular designer before (which makes sense...you don't want to spend that much money on something you can't return).
posted by echo0720 at 5:18 PM on September 27, 2006

Yes, I buy designer clothes quite often on ebay with great success. Quite often I see current-season clothes on ebay - it isn't just old stuff that can't sell in stores. Example - I saw a killer new Diane Von Furstenburg dress in a just-arrived-in-my-mailbox magazine, and found it that same day on ebay available from a reputable seller.
posted by gatorae at 5:35 PM on September 27, 2006

They are knock-offs but they do fit well and look the same, they do not feel the same and are shit quality.
posted by fire&wings at 5:46 PM on September 27, 2006

Certain brands on ebay are 99.9% fakes, sad to say Diane Von Furstenberg is one of them, as are the high end it bags of the season and a lot of the designer denim. Sellers who list their location as China or Hong Kong are almost certainly dealing in fakes, if you have a keen eye you'll notice many incongruities in their item versus the real deal. Unfortunately feedback doesn't tend to reflect this, I've seen sellers with 100% feedback who are listing fakes that mix logos from two different brands and other fairly blatant mistakes. If you do searches for designer goods you'll sometimes find guides listed on the left hand column written by sellers who want to educate buyers on how to tell fakes from the real deal. There's varying opinions on just how wrong it is to buy fake goods but at least know going into it what exactly you're buying.
posted by hindmost at 5:49 PM on September 27, 2006

A while back I bought a Prada skirt and a Tocca dress for great prices. This was a few years ago. I would also check out Bluefly and other online retailers, you can find nice sales.

It is true--designer clothing pays more attention to detail and fit. Not all designer clothing though, sometimes you are just buying a label.
posted by LoriFLA at 6:12 PM on September 27, 2006

I have bought Seven for All Mankind jeans on eBay. I already owned a pair that I had bought at a reputable store, and they were comparable in quality, so I don't think I landed a fake.

That said, I think there are better ways to find designer clothes. Your profile doesn't give an indication of where you are, but you might want to try discount department stores like Filene's Basement, Loehmann's, or Century 21 (the last only if you are in New York).

Then there are outlet stores. Woodbury Common, which is about an hour north of New York City, has an incredible selection of designer outlet stores: Fendi, Prada, Chanel, Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana among them. There are probably comparable outlet malls outside of any big city where people have money to blow. I know both Nordstrom and Saks run their own off-price stores, called the Rack and Off 5th respectively.

There are plenty of websites that sell legitimately discounted designer clothes: Overstock and SmartBargains are two of the big names.

There are also legitimate resale outlets: Rodeo Drive Resale is the one I have heard of, but a lot of resale and consignment shops offer a small selection of items over the web.
posted by anjamu at 6:57 PM on September 27, 2006

echo0720 - I think you meant Ellen Tracey.
posted by orangeshoe at 7:20 PM on September 27, 2006

I agree 100% with hindmost. If you aren't used to wearing designer clothes (especially the particular designer you're shopping for), you're not likely to be able to tell the difference. If you do - it's much easier to spot a fake, though hardly foolproof.

As a rule of thumb, I'd trust a smaller seller whose eBay history doesn't categorize them as a "seller" per se. For instance, if you click on their screenname and find they more often buy (that is, fine clothing) than sell - it's likely the things they are selling, when they do, are their own used clothes - and more likely to be authentic.
posted by orangeshoe at 7:24 PM on September 27, 2006

"If you do" = If you're used to wearing designer clothes and understand their quality and cuts and details.
posted by orangeshoe at 7:26 PM on September 27, 2006

anjamu raises excellent points as well - go to a discount warehouse. These stores certainly don't carry fakes. The clothes are sold down until they reach these bargain houses.
posted by orangeshoe at 7:28 PM on September 27, 2006

echo0720 - I think you meant Ellen Tracey

Thanks for the correction -- clearly I am not the one buying designer clothes on eBay :-)
posted by echo0720 at 10:02 PM on September 27, 2006

One of many lists of trusted sellers of designer items. Also helpful to keep an eye on Counterfeit Chic.
posted by anathema at 5:02 AM on September 28, 2006

I find getting this stuff off eBay is actually easier than at online shops, as well as cheaper - all the measurements are right there on the page, so no fiddling about with size guides.
posted by jack_mo at 6:04 AM on September 28, 2006

heh. I'm the dude selling the clothes. The deal is, unless they are weird sizes, you are often wearing something other people have used already. Even in auctions "new with tags", it's not hard to reattach scanned fake tags if it doubles your sale price.
Thus, make sure there's a reciept, and remember, you ARE worried about knockoffs. that means they do not fit correctly; cheaper/wrong fabrics will not fit your body correctly of they dont stretch correctly!
posted by wuzandfuzz at 8:34 AM on September 28, 2006