Good online discount fashion retailers?

May 12, 2008 8:26 AM

Good online discount fashion retailers?

I'm looking for recommendations on discount designer clothing / accessories, etc. web sites. I am a big fan of BlueFly, but although they have a decent selection, the discounts are not terribly impressive. The other side of the spectrum is sites like StyleSell, which - though I have no first experience with it - looks very shady, but has great discounts. I am hoping to find a couple of web sites that are in between the two extremes. Any recommendations?

posted by detune to clothing, beauty, & fashion (6 comments total)

For shoes, I've been very pleased with 6pm.com, which seems to be the "rock bottom prices but less customer service and higher shipping" arm of zappos.com. The discounts are indeed impressive.
posted by yohko at 9:06 AM on May 12

Gilt and HauteLook are both pretty good. You just have to be awake and at your computer when the sales happen, because most of the good stuff stuff sells out within ten minutes.
posted by you're a kitty! at 9:23 AM on May 12

I've never had much luck with purely "discount" sites. As you've noticed, the discounts are often not that impressive -- or they are, but the sites are kind of sketchy.

Honestly, hunting the sales at places like ActiveEndeavors.com and Revolveclothing.com and looking for coupon codes yields the best results. Even sales at places like Neimanmarcus.com can bring major shopping coups. I'd haunt a fashion-oriented message board like MakeupAlley's fashion sub-board, as the ladies on there always know when discounts are going on.
posted by tigerbelly at 9:26 AM on May 12

I've had very good luck with LaRedoute. Not a discount site as such but their prices are always reasonable and they often have great sales. Have been very impressed with the quality of clothes.
posted by peacheater at 9:56 AM on May 12

I have had good luck with designer accessories at smartbargains.com -- they are apparently the online discount arm of Loehmann's, which we don't have where I live. Haven't tried anything other than bags and jewelry there, but they're great for that, at least.

I'm also a big fan of keeping an eye out for coupons on the regular sites, as others have suggested. You can find bigger deals than you'd think, if you time it right.

But the way to score the biggest deals is to spend a little time getting really smart in a particular area. If you're looking for handbags, for example, start reading The Purse Forum -- those ladies know a thing or two about finding a deal on a bag, boy howdy. It's those kind of specialist sites where you can find the Advanced Shopping tidbits -- online sample sales and the like.
posted by somanyamys at 10:33 AM on May 12

I've found some great stuff at Yoox, although a lot of their inventory consists of European brands I've never heard of.
posted by brozek at 6:25 AM on May 14