We noticed the other day that something was missing from our lives. One of the best sample sales of the year, in fact, from which we’d always walk away with two or three things we’d wear to death — the biannual Alexander Wang sale. However, this season it’s not happening. Instead, the label decided to put the clothes on Gilt Groupe. The sale started yesterday, and there still looks to be a good selection, though some popular sizes are sold out. However, shopping on Gilt obviously doesn’t beat a physical sample sale, where you can try on the clothes (even if awkwardly over or under other clothes) and on the last day they keep marking prices down until stuff starts selling out.
Though it had been taking place twice a year, once in the summer and once in the winter, Wang’s office couldn’t confirm whether or not the physical sample sale would return. But we could be seeing more and more labels turning exclusively to Gilt. It’s easier — and cheaper — for a label to send the merchandise to someone else, rather than working for days on hosting a sale, finding a space for it, hiring people to work it, and promoting it. But we’re sad. The prices on Gilt seem higher than those at Wang’s sales (these $118 sweatpants were around $50 at the last Wang sale). And shopping on Gilt never results in the same thrill that buying something at a sale produces. There’s no digging, no battling for mirrors, no fighting to make sure someone doesn’t take your stuff. In the end, all of that makes the sample sale so much more worth it.
