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
