SHOPPING

Nearly five years after the company shipped its first pair of socks and changed the landscape of a forgotten category, Stance opened the doors of its first flagship retail store in the heart of New York City. The brand brings an uncommon retail experience to SoHo with a 2,000 square foot space that offers offer new reasons for people to go shopping, especially for socks.

With Stance’s never-ending devotion to distinctive design and technical innovation, the store offers curated pieces from key collections to draw shoppers off the high traffic sidewalks into Stance’s world.

Along with its expansive foundation of casual and lifestyle collections that Stance is known for, other key collections highlighted in the store include Stance’s NBA line – the brand signed a deal with the league this year to be the official on-court sock – along with men’s and women’s performance socks and men’s underwear, a newly launched category. Rihanna also became a Contributing Creative Director this year, and her line is prominently displayed in the store with visual merchandising that has mannequin legs wearing her holiday collection spilling out of a silver trunk.

The Stance flagship store is now open for business

Address:  510 Broadway, New York City, NY 10012

There’s an app for everything these days, and as sensible fashion and beauty lovers, we feel obligated to learn everything about those that serve us best in that department. Here are three retail-related apps that have the potential to save you oodles and oodles of cash.

SuperDuper

Everyone loves a good dupe (beauty-speak for identical products), especially when that means you can save heaps of money at the end of the day. One area of the beauty world where price doesn’t always correlate with quality is nail polish, where prices for a single polish can be as much as $50 a pop. And seriously, if Essie and Bourjois polishes were good enough for Princess Kate’s wedding day, drugstore polish is good enough for the rest of us.

Enter new app “SuperDuper”, available on iOS for free, which reveals the best, most accurate dupes for high end polishes. It reveals the best, under $10, “dupes” for luxe designer nail polishes from Chanel, MAC, Christian Louboutin, Dior, NARS, Tom Ford, and YSL. Skeptical at first, we tested SuperDuper’s dupe for Christian Louboutin’s limited edition Scarabée II that comes with a heart-wrenching $50 price tag. The winning dupe? Covergirl’s Teal on Fire, which costs $45 less was an exact match.

We appreciate that the SuperDuper team tests every potential match on nails that take a typical beating and only accept true color and quality matches. You’ll find many more dupes on the app, and with fall officially here, we can’t wait to check out their subs for Tom Ford Plum Noir, the classic Dior Rouge, and the ever-popular Chanel Particuliere.

Pretty In My Pocket (PRIMP)

Let’s say you’re standing in the drugstore aisle, or you’re salivating over the products at Sephora or Ulta. Maybe you’re torn between two different items, or maybe you’re trying to determine if a splurge is worth it. The Pretty In My Pocket app is here to help.

Simple take the product, or products, up for potential purchase and scan their barcode. You’ll instantly see loads of product reviews and even swatches from other app users, which includes some notable beauty bloggers. From there, you can read the pros and cons and determine whether the product is a slam dunk or a womp womp.

You’ll save money on products that would have left you wanting. And hey, that’s money you can spend on products that’ll actually serve you well. We can totally get behind that.

Slice

One of the worst feelings in the world is finally throwing your cash down on an item you’ve been watching, only to check back days or weeks later to see that it went on sale. Insert angry fists shaking at the sky. Or what about those products you buy that get recalled. In those cases, you may not even realize there was a recall, causing you to use either a subpar product and/or lose out on a refund.

The Slice app aims to calm your mind. It creates a protected database of all your receipts and product purchases. First, the app tracks your purchases as they’re shipped to your door, sending you notifications. Most importantly, though, they send you friendly, informative alerts if a recent purchase has undergone a price adjustment or was recalled. The best part is that you don’t have to do anything — the app does the “haggling” with the retailer for you. This, of course, means savings for you, and all without requiring an extra mental energy.

Other things the app does: streamlines returns, frees up your inbox and tracks your spending (we could all use a little bit of this).

By Wendy Rose Gould

These days, wearing fur — even if it’s not real — can be a major fashion faux pas. In fact, people are so passionate about their stance that wearers of real mink, rabbit, and other soft animal hides, risk running into aggressive advocates ready to hurl red dyes and other liquids their way.

Debbie Galant at Medium, however, raises an interesting point where fur is concerned. She ponders whether it’s really all that bad to throw on some luxurious animal pelts if said pelts are a hand-me-down or a thrifted find. Does it still carry the same connotation? Does it still put you at risk for being animal-rights-activist-slushied? Read her thoughts and arguments here.
https://medium.com/midcentury-modern/the-mink-in-the-closet-d663aa609958

Image credit (front page): Steve Snodgrass on Flickr, shutterstock.com

It’s time to delete all those apps on your phone that you haven’t opened up in forever. You know — the ones you can’t remember downloading and that have collected virtual e-dust while taking up precious space on your device.

Once you’ve done a full sweep and nixed your neglected apps, you’ll have plenty of room to download and play with some of the latest and greatest style apps to hit the market. Below are six of our favorites.

Style Thief

For: iOs, (coming soon to Android)
Cost: Free

Miss Kate Bosworth launched her Style Thief app in July 2014 with co-founder Samantha Russ and we’re in L-O-V-E love. “Everyone has fashion envy,” Bosworth told Vogue Magazine. “Everyone can relate to that feeling of looking at an editorial, for example — or a friend, or the runway, for that matter — wanting to steal something exactly as you’re seeing it, or something similar.” The app allows you to search for, find and buy any garment or accessory you see. Genius!

StyleTag

For: iOS, Android, PC
Cost: Free

StyleTag serves as a social networking, curation and discovery platform that’s focused 100% on fashion. It’s used by top bloggers and style icons around the globe and helps users stay up to date on the latest trends. In addition to discovering new looks, you can also share your own finds for others to comment on. The app has a streamlined, gorgeous interface and is easy to use.

GoodShop

For: iOS
Cost: Free

Saving money is always a good thing, and the GoodShop app helps make that even easier for shoppers-on-the-go. It’s loaded with over 200k coupons, deals and promo codes for thousands of popular retailers, including Macy’s, Target, Nordstrom and Amazon. Plus, every time you use the app, 3% of your purchase goes toward a charity of your choice for no extra cost.

StyleBook

For: iOS
Cost: $3.99

If you’re the type who struggles with what to keep and what to donate or sell, this is the app for you. Stylebook tracks how often you wear things, which gives you some fancy pants data-based insight into whether or not a piece is worth keeping around. It also helps you keep track of how much you spend on clothing and allows you to share pictures with others to get their input on whether you should keep it or toss it.

Tradesy

For: iOS, PC
Cost: Free

After you’ve decided what you want to toss, head on over to Tradesy (available on iOS and your PC) to make a little cash. If you’re not interested in selling, you can shop for gently used goods from others trying to make a little dough. This app is great because it’s super style-centered and features everything from rare designer handbags to wedding dresses to vintage accessories to designer ready-to-wear.

Stylicious

For: iOS, Android
Cost: Free

Consider Stylicious a virtual closet organizer; it’s kind of like an updated version of Cher’s e-closet in the movie Clueless. We love this app because it allows you to organize all of your garments and accessories in one space, making it easier to plan and visualize your outfits from head to toe. All you do is snap pictures of your tops, bottoms, dresses, jewelry, shoes and bags, then store them within the app. From there, you can mix and match items to create the perfect look. Stylicious also allows you to get inspiration from the app’s stylists, and it features a shopping portal.

By Wendy Rose Gould