SHOPPING

While the average consumer looks at Cyber Monday as at some kind of deal raid, we at The Stylish City understand that deals happen every day if you know where to look for.  Having said that, we are not going to be the ones to ignore a day like today, which is expected to leave behind the billion dollar scored by Black Friday. While most Cyber Monday sales are on electronics (Target, Wal-Mart, Tiger Direct, Newegg) we found a couple of stylish offers in our mailbox. Remember though ladies, it’s called “Cyber Monday” for a reason, the sales take place only online.

Cyber Monday Offer At Belle and Clive

Cyber Monday Clearance At Zappos

Cyber Monday at Saks Fifth Avenue

Cyber Monday at Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy

These days, most people have a love hate relationship with smart phones. They’re an undeniable distraction and the constant connection to everyone else via social media and the phone can leave us feeling like we never truly have that much-needed alone time. Still, smart phones have their fair share of perks. Prime example? Holiday organization.

From shopping to planning to directions to so-and-so’s house for another holiday party, smart phone apps means we have the potential to never be lost or unorganized again.

We’ve rounded up some of our favorite, most useful holiday apps for you below.

	Flit Flit is a free shopping app that’s perfect for year-round use. It aggregates all your favorite stores and styles into one app, allowing you to streamline the searching process. So, for example, say you’re looking for a particular bauble. Instead of searching at W, X, Y and Z, you simply enter the search into the browser bar and Flit searches all the stores at once. It also allows you to save items or share them, compare prices at different stores, buy within the app and also has alerts for when new items are added.
	Macy’s App For Macy shoppers living in New York City, the store’s newest iPhone app is definitely one you’ll want to download. The massive flagship store can be an overwhelming one to navigate, but the app provides an indoor mapping system that’ll help shoppers find what they’re looking for. In addition to step-by-step directions, the app also informs shoppers about offers based on where they’re standing in the store.
	mGifts – Gift List Manager Organize your holiday shopping list with an app like mGifts. This particular gift managing app, available for $0.99, allows you to make shopping lists and budget your money. It’s also password protected so you don’t have to worry about someone sneaking in to see who’s getting what under the tree this year.
	Packing (+ To Do!) This $0.99 app goes above and beyond your standard packing and to-do list. It helps you organize your packing list for multiple trips, including both pressing trips and those still a ways into the future. Because it ensures you’ve dotted all your i’s and crossed all your t’s before any trip, you don’t have to worry about what you forgot to do or pack.
	iCookbook Whether you’re cooking for two, twenty or somewhere in between, the iCookbook app is here to help. For $4.99, it provides over 12K recipes for you to sort through and plan your meals around. In addition, it provides conversions, substitutions, a section for shopping lists, timers and even instructional videos. This is a great one for the entire year.

By Wendy Rose Gould

The long waited July sales are currently underway in almost every store on the Manhattan’s east side, west side, uptown and downtown.  Comparable to their holiday sales that push winter clothing into your closet, the July discounts attempt to force feed you last minute summer threads in order for the store to make room for pre-fall merchandise.

These massive, storewide sales hock heaps of designer wear for large discounts, leaving me to wonder how stores and designers would  profit from a 70% off sale? “ When items need to be marked down—and sometimes when they don’t —retailers simply return to their vendors, whoever sold them the animal print  sweaters or the emerald blazers, and demand kickbacks, known in the business as ‘markdown money,’” journalist Maureen Tkacik states in a memorable New York Magazine article.

I re-read Tkacik’s 2006 article before visiting 4th of July sales at Bloomingdale’s, and Bergdorf, and  it  helped  me to  view the sales in a whole new light  The article mentions time and time again a certain shopper Tkacik calls the animal print lady, the type of shopper who  only visits  stores during big blow out sales, and leans toward certain  fashions that are available for 50-70%.  Although more than six years old, I am glad to report that not only the animal print ladies are not extinct , but the animal print itself continues to hang on sales racks everywhere.

I assure you that during my latest visit this week, merely every designated designers sale rack held at least one article of animal print clothing. Tkacik wasn’t kidding in her discovery; the animal print lives on devoted discount shoppers . What Tkacik did not foresee when she wrote the article was the fact that animal prints would become a closet staple and will probably never go out of style,  hence the  shoppers she calls “animal print ladies”are merely the ones who  know when to buy their animal print clothes for less than the full retail price.

Some things never change; as I was browsing the 30% off racks of Max Mara in Bloomingdale’s the day before 4th of July, an associate approached me stating that even thought their 50% off sale didn’t begin until July 5th, they would still honor the upcoming discount. A pre-sale of sorts, except you didn’t have to come back to pick up your merchandise, you could bring it home with you same day .

During another visit on July 7th, a Bloomingdale’s sale associate informed me  that although there will be no  “consolidation sale this year, Chanel is expected to take an additional 40% sale starting July 10th.

And yet, the 2012 “after July 4th  sale” at Bloomingdale’s left us wanting for more, as we  would characterise it as rather….tamed. The signs discreetly spread around the  store mentioned only the additional discounts that varied between 20% and  30%.  For some items, when you do the math, the sales  don’t look so bad. Take for example  the  Karen Millen dress in the picture, it went from over $200 to $99,  and when you calculate the additional 20%  discount,  a trip to 59th Street might be well worth it. Would this purchase turn you into an animal print lady? I wouldn’t worry about that, you probably are one if you read this website.

On Tuesday July 3rd, aside from the inundation of leopards, cheetahs, and zebras (oh my!) every brand was trying to push out their red, white, and blue clothing. Starred pants and blue and white stripe boat neck shirts were heavily discounted, in hopes that last minute shoppers would be out in search of the perfect outfit for their 4th of July barbeque. Above all this, I noticed heaps of neon.

Clearly the target sale audience members for the shoe department were no plain Janes either. For the most part, all visited  stores held, on average, a 50% off sale for their designer shoes.   Prints, patent leather, and neon were the trends here. Prada had a bright pink pair of heels, Lanvin and Stella McCartney had eye catching neon  leather heels that you could see from miles away at Bergdorf.

To get down to basics, I was impressed by the sale selection at Bergdorf Goodman – they were certainly the winner over Bloomingdale’s , which is surprising. Given Bergdorf’s current renovation within the women’s contemporary section, it seems there were less shoppers and more discounts. I’ll take the plastic bags hung about and floors strewn with sawdust if that means 70% off Rag & Bone denim and Vince clothing any day. The sales at  Bloomingdale’s were pretty standard. Set up just the same as their Holiday sale, with bonus discounts to boot.

There’s some serious study to be had in the theories of sale shopping. The sample sale shopper vs. the department store shopper, the 4th of July shopper vs. the Holiday shopper, the Bergdorf shopper vs. the Bloomies shopper, etc, but that’s for another day. For now we will simply bask in the glory of cheap leopard print heels and neon pink skirts, and save the psychology for a rainy day. I do promise you will gain one thing from this article: you will never again be able to serenely browse a sale rack again without taking immediate notice to the infinite display of the anti-plain Jane wardrobe. Sorry.

Arianne Cohen, 6’3” author of The Tall Book: A Celebration of Life from on High, has struggled with finding clothes that fit properly for most of her teenage and adult life. Here, Cohen offers the five top tips for tall women when it comes to shopping.

1. If it doesn’t fit perfectly, skip it.
On tall bodies, fitting errors are obvious – and the truth is that how your clothes fit is often more important than what you wear. If a tailor visit can’t make it perfect, leave it on the rack.

2. Avoid cute.
Walk right by frills, ruffles, and anything that could be described as puffy or girlish – these are not for tall women. Tall women can do elegant, sexy, well-dressed, and jaw-droppingly hot. Not girlish. Every year, 20-30% of the clothes that come down the catwalks are cute. Avoid.

3. Do a “Waist Check.”
All outfits should clearly define where your waist falls. Without definition, tall abdomens can look like a wall of body. This means buying t-shirts, blouses, jackets and dresses that come in at your waist (and not where a 5’4″ woman’s waist would be); even loose dresses and tops should give a sense of your natural curves. This is the number one mistake of tall women everywhere.

4. When in doubt, err dark. Tall women often look best in solid, darker colors, simply because bright colors sometimes make bodies look bigger than they are, as can busy prints. Splashes of color can come from your bag or accessories; lean toward subdued, tonal or black-and-white prints.

5. If you don’t feel amazing, tall and beautiful in it, don’t buy it. Really. Even if your shopping buddy tells you that you look amazing. Feel good, look good, do good.

By Arianne Cohen