How To Do The Sales This January!

Top Sales Shopping Tips From Our Fashion Contributor & Super Stylish Mama Irene

Hi everybody and Happy New Year. I hope you’ve all had a wonderful Christmas and 2018 is going well so far. My Christmas consisted of eating far too much as usual, feeling stuffed for days, completely out of a routine and spending the last week thinking of how I’m now going to shift those extra pounds. But……..it’s a fresh New Year and a new start and as we all know, after the Christmas build-up – comes the sales and in Dubai – DSF…..a.k.a The Dubai Shopping Festival. So basically…….everything we bought before Christmas Eve has now been marked down by retailers and most probably half-price!

Don’t fret……..here’s where I’ve come to help if you are about to embark on some sales shopping both in the malls and online. If you’ve already hit the sales, well done and hope you got some good bargains. If it’s still on your ‘to-do’ list……take note…..

• Go it alone (leave small children, friends and family out of this – you don’t need distractions on the hunt for savvy bargains).
• If you want to shop in the comfort of your own home – in other words….online……and if you know your favourite online retailer is about to commence their seasonal sale, scope out the site beforehand to single out the pieces you are after. In doing this, it saves time when it comes to heading straight to the online basket and checkout. Adding to this, use the ‘wish-list’ function that most online retailers have such as Net-a-Porter which notifies you if a previously sold-out item is back in stock and when it goes on sale.
• Try and assess your wardrobe beforehand to work out what you already have and what you still need. Try and not buy ‘rubbish’ – pieces that were ‘on-trend’ and will now look dated in your wardrobe.

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• Following on from this, retailers both in-store and online cleverly as I like to call it ‘bring out all the crap’ which has been left-over for years in the back of the stock rooms and try and sell it during seasonal sales. So buying a pair of ‘palm-leaf’ shorts in January that maybe looked cool and trendy last July/August will probably look not-so-cool and dated next summer. Remember trends come and go – stick to buying classic pieces that will look timeless in your wardrobe.
• As a guide, avoid buying something that doesn’t work with at least THREE existing pieces in your wardrobe. For example, a cashmere cardi, a fitted blazer, a nice pair of jeans and a white shirt are staple items which if you buy quality and at a sale price – are pretty good investments.
• When sale shopping, ensure you are comfortable, wear slip-on shoes, a cross body bag for ‘hands-free’ access, nude underwear and an easy to slip on and off dress, t-shirt or skirt. The less layers, the better. Fitting rooms require effort so make sure you make it as easy as possible for yourself.
• Buy the right size – sounds obvious I know……but it’s only a bargain if it fits well.

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• The sales are busy and sometimes shop assistants don’t have time to re-merchandise etc and put stuff back so head to the fitting rooms for the best pieces that others would have got to first and tried one. You’ll never know what you could find.
• Finally – the early bird catches the worm – so make it your priority to be there the minute the retailers open their doors as we all know the chaos that sales can accrue by lunchtime in both the malls and car parks!

Hope this serves as a little assistance to guide you through the sales and grab yourself some nice bargains! Good luck and ‘may the sale prices be ever in your favour’!

Irene xoxo