The fashionista high holy week is
upon us with the opening of The Barney’s Warehouse Sale on Feb 14- 24,
2013. The sale is temporarily
located at the Co-Op store at 255 W 17th Street
in the Chelsea area of Manhattan. You’ll
be near Housing Works on 17th St so if you have clothes to donate
it’s good cause. Grab a coffee or tea for the long line outside. This sale is
diva warfare, fatigue sets in and it’s cold in there. Leave your handbag at home, you’ll only have to check it and
retrieve upon leaving the store. Wear a jacket or cargo pants with lots of
pockets. Best to carry your PDA, credit card(s) and ID if you plan to apply for
a Barney’s card. Once you are inside and can start the
designer sale scavenger hunt I
suggest you pick two zones. Say shoes and coats and come back a second day for
more shopping. The last day is the monster because everything is slashed to
rock bottom. Take your bestie and
work the racks. A team effort always yields more. Skip the sensible purchases
of an A-line skit or blouse you can get that anywhere. The exception is the
Barney’s New York Co-Op Collection that has beautiful timeless designs in quality fabrics. Here you might be able to scoop up a
coat, shoes or dress for under fifty bucks. This is the place to go wild. Do get the Manolo Blahnik peep toe
sling, studded Christian Louboutin pumps, silk
and Giuseppe Zanotti or Prada Rosette sling backs. Splurge on beautiful red carpet ready
gowns and dresses for sale by designers such as Dolce and Gabbana, Lanvin and
Alexander Wang. The lingerie is lovely enough for any
modern day courtesan. There are great deals on high-end jeans like 7 for All
Mankind and James. But know your size there are no dressing rooms at the sale.
Plenty of ladies do strip down and slip on clothes behind racks but I wouldn’t
advise it. Don’t forget
your guy(s). The men’s department has beautiful Charvet, Lanvin and Brioni ties
you can get for a song. If you hope to score the status bags of the flagship
store’s first floor, they never make it to the big sale. Fuhget about it! Please e-mail me if you know where they are for sale. Time
to get in the very long checkout line.
The temptation to get out of line will be great to find one more thing
to buy. Many have made that mistake and they never made it back. Use the time
to edit your potential purchases. Be ruthless in your edit. If it needs
alterations skip it. Look at your
potential purchase ask yourself, “What would Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Kate Moss, Michelle
Obama, Carine
Roitfeld (insert your style icon here) do? If you are going to splurge make
sure the dress, shoe whatever is fabulous. Now you are done. You survived this so you can easily hit Soiffer Haskin featuring individual designer sales weekly. It’s not the
blood sport of TBWS but good deals.
When your done shopping, time to replenish over cocktails at Cafeteria
or chocolate chunk cookies at City Bakery with your gorgeous spoils of shoe
boxes and stuffed shopping bags in hand. Well done!
