Style: A Report From the J.Crew Sample Sale

Today's the second-to-last day of the J.Crew Sample Sale in NYC. It's open until 9pm tonight and is open tomorrow (Sunday) for its final day from Noon-5pm. I stopped by this afternoon to see what great bargains might be left after the mad-house opening of the sale on Tuesday. To my surprise, the clothing selection and overall prices weren't especially great. 

The Men's section was much smaller than expected - just some khakis and a number of casual shirts and sweaters I'd describe more as "Brooklyn hipster" than "Uptown preppy". The women's clothing for the most part was pretty plain - lots of solid color cotton blend pants and tees. There were quite a lot of damaged items (see light blue pants below) and the few notable "dressier" items still had price tags of $150-$300. It's important to note that some items were marked at higher prices than their current sale prices in J.Crew retail stores - be careful! The gilded dot brocade cafe capri pants below were marked $179 and are currently $109.99 in stores & online plus 25% off! The jewelry was pretty well picked over as well, with fairly plain pieces selling for as high as $35-65.

By far, the best deals to be found were in the shoe department. Heels ran on average $100-$150 (still not cheap, but high quality & lovely styles). Solid color and cap toe plain leather ballet flats were $65 and more elaborate ballet flats were $80-90. J.Crew Factory bow flats and some other casual styles were around $65 too. The most styles were available in sizes 7 and 7.5. However, there was a decent selection in all sizes. I took home a pair of pink & navy cap toe ballet flats for $65. Although I liked a number of other styles, I really felt that those were the only true bargain for what I needed. They retail for about twice that price.

Tomorrow could bring some price cuts. So, it's definitely a sale worth checking out if you'd like to build up your dressy shoe collection! There was practically no line today so it's was pretty hassle-free shopping. Here's the current price list they had posted:

The retail sale going on in stores and online right now (25% OFF everything, including sale) seems to be almost as good a deal for some things. So, depending on what you want, that might be the better option for you.
Happy Shopping!