Editor's Notes

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Holidays, everyone! Did that greeting warmed up your heart, or brought up tears to your eyes? Depending where I was in life I felt joy or sadness myself at the arrival of the holiday season. What do you feel this year? While we usually talk about shopping, and this is definitely the happiest time of the year for retail, let’s pause for a moment and make sure we are doing it right. Are you ready? Have you planned ahead? Do you have a list and a budget? I have few words of advice worth lots more than all the money I’ve saved you with our sample sale listings. Money and mountains of gifts don’t buy love and happiness. Before you go gift shopping, figure out how much money you can really afford to spend. Then stick to your budget. Try this instead: be ridiculously generous in a non-materialistic way and make sure you create amazing memories. You’ll thank me years from now.

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As you all know, there are some 50-60 sample sales taking place in New York this week. Not an easy task to keep up with. As the week was winding down, we  started to breath easier, when we noticed a huge event we’ve almost missed: the Capsule Neighborhood Network  feting the Lower East Side, the East Village, and Nolita. During the shopping event that starts today, 100 boutiques will entice us with discounts to start shopping early for the holidays, and all these showrooms will hold sample sales:

Archetype Showroom
676 Broadway, 2nd Fl
212 529 1407

-VEDA
-Won Hundred
-LNA
-Porter Grey
-COMUNE

Claw Money and MadeMe
54 Clinton St

International Playground
13 Stanton St
212 228 2323

-Chromat
-Daniel Palillo
-H. Fredriksson
-Mary Meyer
-Osborn
-Uniforms for the Dedicated

Medium Concepts Showroom
9 St Marks Place Ste 2
646 684 4525

-ISAORA
-Quality Peoples
-Sidian, Ersatz and Vanes
-Warriors of Radness

Timothy Heenan Showroom
247 Centre St 7th Fl, Rear Unit
646 596 9768

-BillyKirk
-Crate
-General Assembly
-Loup
-Raen Optics
-Stones
-Vanishing Elephant
-Velour

WANT Agency
70 Wooster St
212 414 5814

-Want Les Essentiels De La Vie
-Maison Kitsune
-Nudie Jeans Co
-Arc’teryx Veilance
-Swims

Westerlind Showroom
194 Elizabeth St
212 219 1020

-Armor Lux
-Jungmaven
-Wool and the Gang

Neighborhood Network
November 16-17

For the complete list of participants, check out the Capsule Neighborhood Network [Official Site]

Our sincerest apologies to any Gucci salivating shoppers out there who planned on trying their luck in line at the Metropolitan Pavilion tomorrow for the Gucci Friends and Family Sample Sale but as it turns out, the sale begins this FRIDAY not Thursday as previously reported. With conflicting hearsays and unclear information (not to mention Gucci’s PR refusing to respond to our repeated emails) it is obvious that Gucci wants to restrict shoppers at their upcoming sale that promises up to 85% off beloved fashions. So what’s inside? Apparently crown jewels protected by large guards, which makes us vie for a peak inside evermore.

Mizhattan was the first to report on the Gucci VIP Sale, stating a Thursday start until a reader corrected them. They similarly provided little information and no statement in regards to start and end times. Popular sale blogs such as Racked (and The Stylish City) then conveyed the incorrect tip to their readership. This leads me to believe that Gucci is throwing shoppers off, sending them to Chelsea tomorrow for a day of disappointment in order to avoid dealing with crowds that would have otherwise shown face on Thursday morning. Perhaps Gucci employees took note to the madness that occurred last week at the Christian Louboutin sale – a super exclusive, invite only sale where hundreds lined up begging for entry – and is doing everything in their power to avoid pleading eyes, namely by duping the shopper’s source AKA the sample sale blog.

Aside from the frequent multiple brand sample sales from companies such as Boutique on 57 and online sale ventures like Beyond the Rack and Ideeli, an advertised sample sale for Gucci is enigmatic. The most recent publicized event I was able to come across was held in the same Metropolitan Pavilion but was only a sample sale for Gucci Watches. Regardless of the simplicity, this drew in the crowds with reports of the line holding a three-hour wait, so imagine what would happen if this current case with apparel and accessories was broadcasted.

So where does that leave you now? Sad and depressed, wishing you could only touch a Gucci silk top for an outrageous 85% off retail pricing? Hardly! Being able to gain access in the next three days will be an impossible feat and a total waste of time. They are clearly up to something and not even the stealthiest of shoppers will be able to barge through their steel gates. Wait until the tail end of the sale. This isn’t a one-day event, nor a two-day, it is multiple day sale translating to Gucci employees begging for shoppers at the end. Given the scarce invites dispersed, come Monday Gucci will be in desperate need to get rid of the sale’s remaining merchandise and scrapping to fill Metropolitan Pavilion’s vast space with shoppers therefor letting the likes of us in. So go for it! Good luck and report back!

By Caitlin Colford

As you might know, life got a little complicated here at the site. We had to change our name, which in turn lost us our traffic and our 1,500 facebook friends. We’ve had to hire people to help us save the site itself, send emails to remind people we exist, create new marketing materials… the list goes on.

We’ve all heard the expression, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!” Good expression, but it sometimes doesn’t help me go from being angry, scared, and powerless to finding the strength to turn things around and feel the joy again in what I do. I had been struggling with finding that magical turning point when my eyes happened to have glanced at the umbrella I received from the Museum of Modern Art as part of its 20th anniversary celebration (Thank you MOMA!). That’s it! No matter how hard it rains outside, I have to create my own blue sky. You should do the same; place yourself beneath blue sky even in the wettest of weather. Create your own little happy universe, and eventually the rain will stop

TheStylishCity.com readers, use SKY20 code at checkout and see what happens 😉

By Mirela Gluck