The Best Ways to Shop Discounted Designer Brands
It's so quick and easy now to buy now, pay later or pay in instalments that many of us often give in to temptation, buying things we can't afford. Personally, my favourite way to pay for designer items is to save up for them. I always feel a bit guilty dipping into savings, but as long as I still have enough savings for emergencies, I think it's fine to do every now and then. I would also feel much more guilty getting into debt for a Louis Vuitton handbag or a pair of Jimmy Choos!
Designer Outlet Centres
I have been to 2 designer outlet centres in my life: McArthurGlen Designer Outlet in Ashford and Bicester Village. I can confirm Bicester Village is definitely the better of the two! However, Ashford is good for discounts on more premium brands such as Reiss, Ted Baker and Calvin Klein.
I bought my Burberry trench coat from Bicester Village, paying around £500 less than such a classic designer piece would normally cost. The Burberry store is my favourite - it's huge and the colours are mostly neutral so very my style. It's also rare that you would normally get discounts on such classic pieces.
One Bicester Village store where you may see amazing discounts is their Gucci store. The pieces are more trend-led than Burberry but you can definitely find some timeless pieces in there, or if you are in a position to spend a lot of money on trendier items, you can just enjoy the discount!
There were some beautiful pink Gucci Marmont bags when I went as well as an amazing pair of orange Princetown loafers which were originally £530 and had been discounted to £130 - many Dune or Kurt Geiger shoes cost more than that!
I also love perusing The Outnet for discounted designer pieces. The Outnet is an authorised online stockist for many designers, so you know everything on there is authentic, plus they do also sometimes have sales on top of the discounts.
I bought this pair of Tory Burch snake-print ankle boots from The Outnet for a bargain price and, like many shopping websites, you can make a wishlist so that you can keep an eye on everything you're interested in.
You may also have noticed my classic Burberry check scarf! I bought this from 24S.com, a website that always has excellent discounts on classic designer pieces around Black Friday. I had had the scarf on my wishlist for such a long time that one year I decided to take the plunge and treat myself to it, just in time for Christmas!
As I've mentioned throughout this blog post, it's good to splurge on the pieces that you've been thinking about for a long time and that you can wear for years to come.
If you want to dip your toe in luxury fashion, sunglasses are an excellent starting point. They are not as expensive as other designer items. I found this pair of Bvlgari sunglasses at the Sunglass Hut and I have also found many luxury and premium eyewear brands at TKMaxx over the years. It is all authentic, it's just old stock, hence the discounts.
Some other places you can buy discounted designer:
- Vestiaire Collective - they authenticate everything for you
- eBay - they now have a section for 'authenticity guaranteed' designer items
- The Octavia Foundation on Brompton Road, London - just down the road from Harrods, many designer items appear in this charity shop for a fraction of the price. When I was there, I saw a black Burberry coat for £300!
The author may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.
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