The Shopping Bags: Tips, Tricks, and Inside Information to Make You a Savvy Shopper - A hip and thrifty shopping guide that combines the usefulness of Consumer Reports with the fun and flair of the hit TV show The Shopping Bags.

Appealing to the people who bought bestsellers like the Lucky Shopping Manual or Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me, this witty guide will teach you how to recognize deceptive marketing tactics and shop wisely—be it at the mall, the grocery, the drugstore, or even at an electronics superstore. Whether you are shopping for lipstick or lawn mowers, you’ll learn exactly what to look for before you buy. Including plenty of entertaining sidebars and tips from the likes of Jamie Oliver (on food) and Donatella Versace (on fashion), The Shopping Bags is the perfect accompaniment to any shopping trip.

Did you know:
o Your expensive designer lipstick may have been made at the same factory as a more affordable drugstore brand?

o Words like “dermatologist approved” and “noncomedogenic” are not regulated— manufacturers can use them any way they want.

About the Author
Anna Wallner and Kristina Matisic are award-winning journalists, news anchors, and hosts of the TV show The Shopping Bags, which has won two Leo Awards and been nominated for three Gemini Awards. They live in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Secondhand Chic: Finding Fabulous Fashion at Consignment, Vintage, and Thrift Stores - In recent years, increasing numbers of people have become aware of something that impecunious but savvy folks have known for a long time: You don’t have to be rich to wear high-quality, high-fashion clothing. You just need to know how and where to shop for it at incredible, bargain prices–secondhand, vintage, consignment, and thrift stores.

Christa Weil goes the whole nine yards here, explaining how to spot quality, understand labels (and fakes!), and find your size when labels are missing. She knows which flaws are easily fixed, how to organize your wardrobe, how to look “done” without looking “overdone,” how to care for your clothing and accessory treasures, and even how to make money on your unwanted clothes.

For anyone who likes to dress well and get an incredible bargain in the process (and who doesn’t?), this is an indispensable guide. Weil’s light, conversational writing style and her numerous hilarious asides (like “Why Socks Disappear in the Wash”) make this an entertaining and lively book to read or browse.

What woman wouldn’t want to find a designer original at a fraction of its original cost or some long-gone artifact from another fashion era? With that goal in mind, Weil packs her guide to the secondhand clothing market (consignment, vintage, and thrift) with so much detail and coursework that one should have a Ph.D. by book’s end. Weil insists that a good secondhand shopper needs to study fabrics, design qualities, and designers to make the most of the shopping experience. She recommends field trips to high-end department stores and boutiques to evaluate specific designers, with note-taking essential.

Andy Warhol Stationary - You can never have too many shoes! And we can never get enough of this delightful stationery set of 4 colorful designs, each featuring early fashion illustrations by art star Andy Warhol. Mix and match w/ 4 playful styles of envelopes. Also includes stickers! 16 total sheets, each approx. 5.5″x7.7″

• 4 colorful desings, 4 playful styles of envelopes
• 16 total sheets
• early fashion illustrations by art star Andy Warhol
• includes stickers!
• measures 5.5″x7.7″

Just plain old generic shoes from Target not good enough anymore? EasySpirit shoes? Only if Tara Subkoff designed them!

Plain old.. plain old just isn’t good enough for the masses anymore, it seems.

Take Payless Shoes, for instance:

Now that the bar has been reset, more and more mainstream brands have thought of ways to re-”design” their product and call lesser-known, but very promising designers onboard. Case in point: Laura Poretzky, the designer of Abaeté, a two year old label that started out as swimwear and quickly evolved into ready-to-wear, has just designed a capsule line of shoes for Payless.

While Laura Poretzky may not be a name that everyone throughout the country has heard of yet, she is a gifted new designer who caught the eye of Payless ShoeSource CEO Matt Rubel.

“We believe in supporting young, emerging talent and giving them an additional creative platform to bring their vision to life,” Rubel said via email. “We are looking for designers that have a pulse on what’s going on in contemporary fashion today. We found Laura’s work to be incredibly fashionable, yet understandable with a youthful spirit and great attitude. We believe this is well aligned with Payless and our focus to democratize accessory fashion and inspire fun fashion possibilities for women across America.” - Source

Can we expect a Louis Vuitton line of handbags at Walmart anytime soon? Eeek!

Our polls will cover everything from fashion, fashion trends, fashion news, celebrity fashion, accessories, shoes, jewlery, handbags and shopping - - basically everthing and anything fashion!

Uptown Girls question of the day:

How high are your highest heels ?

Your options:
2 inches
3 inches
4 inches
more than 4 inches!
I don’t own any heel shoes

Don’t see an answer in there that you’d give? Leave a comment and start a discussion on what you think about it! Heck, leave a comment either way and discuss your answer. Have fun!

Polls Archive