It’s about that time of the year.
Do I really need more clothes?
Do I need clothes from Zara in specific!? All that they offer in sales already been out of trend, I don’t think I need it, and why on earth should I buy a lot of fast fashion clothes while I could get one or two great of those authentic pieces that I could wear forever and ever.
I don’t know, I really don’t know, call it mind paradoxes! One of the most amusing thing for me in the matter of fact is to buy clothes from Zara! Maybe because it’s attached to different things to me; to that time when I was on my second year in college and went shopping at Zara in another country than my own and got all my clothes from there at the sale of summer 2008 (at the time, there was no such thing is called Zara at Egypt, It opened 2 years after) and remember the huge impact that every outfit made on; not only my friends, wanna be friends and more, but also on the architect doctors that had sense in style —yes not every architect knows how to dress, it’s not related really.
It’s not about Zara, it’s about the Zara sale
We go sentimental since that time. I have rituals about it, I know all the tricks, I’ve done it all to get to what I want at the lowest price possible and I get it at the end. There’s no question that I shop more at Zara sale, the more I grow up, the more I learn how to get it right, not ethically speaking of course but on the scale of” I don’t have any money right now, but I need one good piece to shoot on my blog” kind of scale
For that, I’m gonna show you how I do it now, not how to shop from Zara at sales but how to shop in general. We all have our own tricks so let’s make this post effing good and share it all by me sharing what I’ve got first!
Let me remind you that this post is for the people that they don’t have a Zara online shopping site or prefer to go to the mall anyway! I fill the two here so let’s do this!!
No°1, Mark The Date
Mark the date of the sales, yes, we all know that it goes between the end of June, July (the summer sale) and it could go to August and the second one is between December and January (the best sale of all) but at least check on the web, see Instagram posts or even check the store if you’re walking by it. You could also ask the salesman that work there about the exact date, which is something I never do are you kidding… sipping my coffee…
No°2, Go Online
Once you know the exact sales day, the first thing you do is to scroll the site online. It’s the most important step of the process, all the clothes that are on sale in front of you without pushing and there’s something else is very important.
Workers at Zara sometimes leave some clothes for themselves in order to sell it at higher prices to other countries that don’t have Zara, or online, and I think sometimes they have restricted policies to show all the collection that’s on sale; but I’ve found multiple times a lot of Racks that supposed to be sale pieces, on the new collection racks—where nobody think or even consider on the sale times— with its original prices, for that you’ve to be prepared because they will say it was an honest mistake at the end and will check the only one you want on the sale price of course.
For that, you need to know what you’ll buy on that sale before you go; and you search the whole store for it, not only the sales part.
No°3, Take Pictures
Take pictures with you before you go and I don’t mean a picture of the piece. You need the ref no. of that piece because if anything happened god forbidden and you never find this piece on your own. You go with the image to the sales man and let him see if he: a) have it but not in the showroom. b) Can check if any nearby store has it. Yes he’s capable of doing that. You can check the availability as well online but sometimes the system gets messy. It all depends on how much you want that piece anyway.
No°4, Rise & Shine
See the opening time of Zara at your city, the earlier you went at the sales time, the easier you’ll able to find your pieces; while everyone’s sleep, workers are organizing the pieces first thing at morning just for you to enter an organized store that you feel it only opened for you! You’ll have all the time to pick what you want, ask about anything, trying anything for all the time you want because you’re the only one there, BANG! Pathetic? I call it smart shopping.
No°5, Don’t Go With the Flow
Don’t go to the nearest one, go to the one you know that doesn’t have that much flow there! You’ll find more stuff there. My strategy always is; go to the biggest store in the city (because that’s where you’ll find the most popular stuff, if you decided that you want that). Then go to that store that you feel no one in the city knows about but you! There you’ll find the classics. which brings us to…
No°6, Only Buy the Classics
Yes right, As if you’ll find classics at Zara! Yes you can, a basic white shirt or a jeans without any trendy stuff glued on it, Yes you can get some pieces from Zara that doesn’t scream trends! And if you want to be on trends you’ll find that too! I know that this is very offensive to some people and me actually as well most of the times! But seriously What if I can’t afford a Miu miu fur slides and got bored from classic or regular stuff that I can afford!? What if I don’t have vintage stores? I’ll Either do it or buy a copy that doesn’t look exactly like it but it’ll make me feel fresh and new, you know! I’m being honest here.
No°7, Don’t Buy Trends Scream Trends
Because that trend would be already over before the minute/ hour/month you’re considering to purchase it, but be smart about it. There are some trends that go strong for seasons. Levi’s 501!? Yes I’m still on that one, Slides? Yep, Birkenstock? Oversized check blazers, and denim jackets?… etc. Be like the wizard that will predict what will happen next season and buy it on this sale, how? Just watch some RTW latest season shows and take some ideas from there. See what is missing from your wardrobe to complete what you have in mind. Make them all believe that you just invented something new. The simple fact is, you just were season ahead.
No°8, Just Wait
Just because the store says SALES does it mean that I’ll jump on the first day. Not even for another two weeks will I buy something. First I’ll go see the stuff that I want, and if I found out that there’s just a few of a specific item that I really want. I’ll buy it IF I really really want it, and here want is need. But after that, I’ll wait till the 70% people! Believe me, I was too afraid for many seasons that some of the most items I love will not be there anymore so I bought it, then all of it made it to the 70% sales. Yes I bought it on 20%-40% that I felt like I’ve been robbed.
No°9, Editorials
Look at the editorials! I love Zara editorials, it’s just like a look book of street style, sometimes I only notice some pieces when I see it in the edits, aannnd they get some of my favorite models, hello Frijaaa for the jeans edit!! Where was I!? I just saw this one! Do you know about this one and forgot to tell me! Ok! I forgive you anyway.
No°10, It’s Just Zara Clothes
You already know that anyway. Fight, but have a clean smart war.
