Style for a Steal: Lilly Pulitzer Edition

An email I often get asks about where to get preppy fashion for a discount. When you're a college kid or living on a budget, luxury goods are often out of our price range. This leads me to deal hunting!

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Today is the day ladies and gents! I'm going to start a series on where to find different preppy brands for less than full price! No guarantees, but I'll do my best. We're starting with Lilly Pulitzer today. More often than not, I'm donning the bright pinks and greens Lilly prominently features. I've been wearing Lilly since I could decide what I wanted to wear and I've worked the retail side of Lilly as well.

The best place to start is at your local Lilly Pulitzer store. There are both corporate Lilly stores as well as merchant-owned ones called "Signature Stores". Most likely, you'll find that your store has a great sale rack that you can check out. Maybe your state or town doesn't have a store? Pick up the phone and call another store! You'll find that most stores are more than happy to ship to a new customer! Click HERE for a map of all Lilly Pulitzer stores! Lilly P also just finished up a great "New Years Cheer" sale--be sure to hop on the mailing list to make sure you get emails of when big sales like this happen throughout the year.

For flash Lilly sales, Rue La La is a great place to start! TODAY there is a Lilly sale going on! Flash sales can sometimes be harder to track down since they have such a short duration. RLL typically has Lilly one or so a quarter, and items will be a little older, but if you have your eye on something, this is the place to look! You will need an invite to many of these flash sale websites. Get yours HERE!

Depending on where you live (or how much of a Lilly lover you are) the Lilly Pulitzer warehouse sale is another great option! The warehouse sale is a 3-day event held close to the Lilly headquarters in King of Prussia, PA where they are able to unload merchandise for Lilly lovers on a budget. Deals here are among the best! Scarves and shorts--items that you hardly ever find on sale--can sometimes even be tracked down. I've been to the sale twice and each time we've been very successful. My trips and the loot I was able to score were documented here in 2010 and here in 2011.

6pm.com is also a great resource for discounted Lilly merchandise! I shared this site with my Mom who was looking for a co-worker of hers shopping for her daughter and I referred them to 6pm. The prices do change on this site though, so do know that going into shopping. I have purchased a few things from 6pm and the shipping is reliable and fair. The returns are as well--I made a return recently and had no problems. They are a company owned by Zappos (read about it here), so that really comes as no surprise.

I'm very hesitant to say eBay is a good place to find Lilly items. This can be very hit or miss and I'd say it's far more often a miss. eBay items have very little guarantees and you have to trust the seller. What's REALLY stopping someone from saying their gently used item is "NWOT"  (new without tags)? You'd like to think that sellers are honest, but I worry very much about the quality of items on eBay. I would venture to say that eBay is good for finding SPECIFIC pieces that you might be looking for that are very old or harder to find. 

These are just a few ideas of where to start your Lilly bargain hunting! Where do you find your Lilly steals?

xxKatie

LP on RLL!

I get an email from Rue La La yesterday saying, "Look what's coming back!!" to warn me that one of my favorite brands was back...oh Rue! You're so clever!

Tomorrow, in the "Palm Beach Style" boutique, Lilly will be online!

One of the single most frequent questions (if not THE most frequent question) is where do you get your clothes? I get them all over, and I always like to check around for deals!

Rue La La is an AWESOME place to score deals on your favorite brands--like Lilly--and at a great deal!

Be sure to check out the boutique at 11AM and do it PROMPTLY, y'all, Lilly sells out FAST! And I mean in the first few minutes!

Keep in mind that Mother's Day is right around the corner, and this could be the perfect opportunity to snag something for your Momma! I have a few things in mind for my Mom, but this will give me a great chance to check out some more fun things! I can't wait to head home in a few weeks once finals are done, and I settle into my real schedule a little more I get to drop in at home! So while you're browsing for yourself, think of your Mom too if she's a Lilly gal!

If you need an invite, I'll be happy to supply you with one HERE! You can check out the Lilly boutique and scour the others to see if you like any other ones!!

xxKatie

Vote Vote Vote: Advice Needed

So this great gold, sparkly, glittery, fun, party dress is on Rue La La for about $60. 

It is the perfect 21st birthday dress, right?

I have credits enough to cover the entire dress AND shipping, meaning it's free. No questions asked free. It's also long enough that it would be perfect for me! Imagine it with black tights, some great shoes (that I could spend money on since I didn't have to pay for the dress) and me in a birthday crown singing 21st birthday karaoke. Perfect right? (10:44am edit: My birthday is in January! That's why I suggested tights and fun shoes--too cold for bare legs!!)

VOTE y'all! Let me know if you like it for a good birthday dress. 

After posting it on my Facebook fan page and Twitter, the score is:

Yes: 11

No: 1 (read: "too much fabric for a 21 year old")

"What are the other options": 1 (a fair argument)

Clearly I need more input!! VOTE VOTE VOTE and help a sista out!

xxKatie

Outfit of the Day: Wearing My First Rue La La Purchase!

May 28 by letsbepreppy featuring large handbags

This was my first ever purchase from RLL! I was so excited when I bought it because I had $40 worth of credit to my account so the dress was only $30--what a steal! I took the full price tags off today (down from $248!) with the best sense of accomplishment! I was so excited to wear it to work and it was the perfect outfit for a hot day. I love the combo of the orange with the gold accessories and it will be a fun summer dress I can enjoy for a long time.

At school I had the hem dropped after a twitter request to all of my lovely followers native to Columbia, SC. After inquiring who was a good, experienced women's tailor who had good knowledge of dressy items, I was referred by 2 highly knowledgeable Columbia ladies to Jackie's on Forest Drive. Not only did they know the hot-spot and the go-to for tailoring, but the shop was full of expensive formal dresses so I knew I was in adept hands. I love this dress--and even more now that the hem is at a better length for me!

Happy Memorial Day weekends y'all!

xxKatie

Banquet Time!

Wednesday night we had our big senior banquet to honor all of the hard work and hours committed to the University. It is an awesome ceremony that includes dinner, dessert and speeches given about all the seniors and then they get time to say whatever they want. We all got dressed up and looked great if I do say so myself! Our typical dress is like this:

March 26 by letsbepreppy featuring a black jacket

We're decked OUT in Carolina gear, and are all donning our best garnet and black. Instead of our usual outfits, we all got dressed up:

Laura, me and Megan--all the new roomies for next year!

This was the bowtie brigade! Don't they look smashing?

Good friend AK went BIG for the banquet! Look at him rocking that seersucker! He's the president of one of the fraternities on campus too--quite the celeb!

These were all of our wonderful seniors that we must bide adieu to in about a week. So excited to see where they all end up, and couldn't be prouder to have them representing us! We have future lawyers, a future PhD candidate, hopefully a future Lilly intern, future architect, future sports psychologist, future writer and everything in between with them!!

I also LOVED my Kendall dress for the night! It was certainly cool enough for the HOT HOT HOT day we had earlier and still appropriate. I am thoroughly pleased with my choice!

xxKatie

Rue La La Success: Round 2

I don't really ever check Rue La La. I delete the majority of the emails and usually are in class when sales I might possibly be interested in go live. They do however, keep a good track of customer history and send me extra emails when Lilly goes up on RLL. I do appreciate that and for the second time, I was very lucky with my RLL experience. I had a nice sized credit in my account and like I said I only ever really shop when Lilly's on there, so I try to use my credits before they expire. I had my eye on a few dresses but my size is popular so they sold out in a hot second! As I quickly continued to browse (similar to many others) my items were yanked out of my cart! Oh no! What's a Lilly Lover to do?

I was lucky enough to claim a dress I liked, in my size and preferred color AND paid for it in enough time to make it mine!

My Kendall dress arrived today and I'm definitely keeping it! I was hesitant in the purchase making, but decided that it is far more flattering on than on the hanger (as are many things). I'm most likely going to wear this for an upcoming awards banquet (so now everyone I know in real life knows what I'm 75% sure I'm wearing but it is subject to change...) in 2 weeks. It's a very dressy dress that I'll pair with the nude heels I bought about a month ago on massive clearance at TJMaxx!

Was anyone else successful? Did RLL snag your purchases BEFORE you could??

xxKatie

Lilly & Rue La La

While some people weren't very successful on the RLL sale, I was able to snatch up this dress for $30! I had a credit on RLL and got this Bowen from summer:

I really lusted after this dress from Summer but it was out of my price range even with my employee benefits. I tried it on time and time again but never made the decision. By the time it went on sale, my size had be snatched up! I was lucky enough to find this on Rue La La AND I had a $50 credit to my name so I couldn't pass it up! I rarely find things that are my style on RLL, so when I saw the Lilly sale come around I made sure to check it out! I'm very pleased with my completely guilt free new dress!!

xxKatie