Designer items can be crafted so beautifully, but can definitely cost quite a fortune. What if we told you that you can score awesome luxury pieces at a lower cost? There are a handful of stores where you can shop online and browse reduced designer brands like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Oscar De La Renta, Versace, Jacquemus, and so many more.
Here are sites to shop for affordable designer brands
The RealReal
The RealReal is your one-stop-shop for all things secondhand designer. The retailer has millions of shoppers and consigners, and its inventory seems almost endless! From women’s, men’s, and kids’ fashion to fine jewellery, watches, fine art, and home decor, the company curates a huge marketplace of authenticated luxury. Plus, it showcases the estimated retail price of its listings, so you know how much you’re saving.
Vestiaire Collective
Vestiaire Collective is a buy-and-sell online consignment store that specializes in reselling gently used items for as much as 70% off the original price. Here, you can find high-end designer items from brands like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Hermes, Burberry, Fendi, and Givenchy.
Rebag
Shop thousands of beautiful bags and accessories from 50+ designers, including Dior, Chanel, Hermes, and more at Rebag. The collections are white-glove inspected for the highest quality and authenticity, and new arrivals are added every week.
FASHIONPHILE
From rare luxury finds to coveted designer pieces, FASHIONPHILE has it all! With over 20 years in business, FASHIONPHILE has become one of the world’s top resellers of pre-owned luxury, and it’s the exclusive re-commerce partner of Neiman Marcus. Not only can you shop an array of designer goods on the site, but you can also sell them!
thredUP
thredUP has a variety of brands for everyone’s style and budget, including designer labels, of course. Prices start at $0.99 and go up into the thousands. We have bought secondhand pieces from brands like Aritzia, Reformation, Zara, Louis Vuitton, and Dolce & Gabbana on thredUP.
THE OUTNET
Launched in 2009, THE OUTNET has since established itself as the benchmark of luxury discount shopping, offering over 350 designer fashion brands at exceptional prices of up to 70% off. It has a dedicated buying team in London that purchases over 90% of stock directly. We’ve previously bought a blouse from The Row on the site for an absolute steal!
Hudson’s Bay
Hudson’s Bay is fan-favourite department store that has a ton of discounts on designer items. From outerwear to purses, to footwear, to apparel, there’s something for everyone to shop for with great deals. It also has a sale section with even deeper discounts!
SSENSE Sale
SSENSE is partly known for its amazing sales. At the end of every season (and sometimes during), the site hosts a sale with items from sought-after designer brands for up to 50-70% off! If you’re coveting a specific item, put it on your wishlist and cross your fingers that the sale will come through.
Italist
To shop new designer items at a discount, you have to check out Italist! “Through our innovative site, customers purchase brand-new, in-season, completely authentic items at the Italian retail price, which is typically lower than retail prices around the world.” Italist shares on its website. Plus, it offers 4-day shipping worldwide, so it doesn’t matter where you are; you can shop its selection of designer items for up to 80% off.
Rue La La
Rue La La is an online shopping destination offering best-selling brands for up to 70% off retail prices. Each day, it curates pieces for its Boutique section that’s filled with the best of the best in women’s, men’s, and kids’ fashion, home decor, and more.
Neiman Marcus Last Call
Neiman Marcus has been a premier destination for luxury fashion and goods for more than a century. The Last Call Sale section is always full of designer name brands that are usually up to 75% off. And yes – it ships to Canada!
Gilt
Gilt provides insider-level access to coveted designer names at an amazing value, every day. It delivers the best finds for women, men, kids, and home, as well as luxury travel items. There are always new steals to discover on the site.
VSP Consignment
VSP Consignment is a Toronto consignment shop full of amazing designer pieces from brands like Prada, Dior, Loewe, and so many more. The shop is great about keeping its online shop up-to-date with its latest arrivals, and always seems to have a sale going on, so you can score even heavier discounts on already discounted designer items.
eBay
You can pretty much find anything you could ever want on eBay. Including designer goodies! The vintage selection of designer bags on eBay is especially great. Check out eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee so you can shop stress-free of counterfeit!
Shopbop Sale
The go-to online retail destination for modern style, Shopbop offers a hand-picked collection of apparel and accessories from the industry’s foremost contemporary and designer labels. It launched in 2000 and has grown into one of the world’s leading fashion authorities. Browse the sale section to snag designer pieces for up to 70% off!
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It was during the telling of my story behind how I got an Hermès Kelly Cut, that my superior mentioned I should write an article about it.
For those who do not know, Hermès is paramount when it comes to luxury leather goods, and so not to be dogmatic in saying this, it is imperative to know that the bags are actually made in France by hand. Many other houses would have you believe their bags are made in France but in reality, only about 10% (sometimes even less) of the production happens there, while the other 90% happens where labour is cheaper.
Hermès is a brand that prides themselves on excellence. It is a house founded in 1837 which began as a company dedicated to fine leather equine for European nobility. Sex & The City helped to add a mainstream allure around the house of Hermès and their most famous bag the Birkin, which not only made several appearances but had a starring role in the infamous scene with Sam Jones. Played by Kim Cattrall, Jones visits Hermès in New York to try and buy a Birkin, only to find she has to wait for years on waitlist.
Hermès is best known for two bags, these being Birkin and Kelly but a much more elusive and harder to get bag exists – I give you the Kelly Cut.
What makes the Kelly Cut so special is that it is a reinterpretation of a Fall 2008 bag called Kelly Longue, designed by former creative director of Hermès, Jean Paul Gaultier. The bag is an evening clutch rendition of the bag famously named after Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco, who used the bag to cover her pregnant belly in 1956. While the handbag was known as the Kelly it was not renamed after her until 1977.
Image: FashionGoneRogue.com
Kelly Cut, the (clutch) successor to Kelly, is an elusive bag often reserved for Hermès’ most VIP customers. In 2015, the Hermès Toronto flagship was said to have only received 8 Kelly Cuts from January to year-end in December by an in-house sales associate, and in New York when I got my Kelly Cut the Hermès flagship, they were said to have only received 10 Kelly Cuts, mine being that 10th one in all of 2016 as of August, according to a sales associate that was adamant on letting me know how lucky I was to have gotten one.
Knowing that the Kelly Cut is usually reserved for top-tier clients, I still went to the Manhattan store in hopes of getting one. I met with my sales associate who I formerly bought two Collier De Chien bracelets from, one a 18kt yellow gold bangle (Hermès’ reply to the Cartier Love bracelet) and the other in sterling silver.
My sales associate sat my friend and I down on the second floor amidst the jewelry, first offering us Perrier water and then giving me a pen and a piece of paper which had “Hermès” at the top of it. I was to write down my wish list of items, plural or singular.
Writing on the paper “Kelly Cut” with a list of colours I would be willing to wear the bag in, my sales associate took it and left the floor. After returning with good news: my wish list request had been approved by the store director. My friend and I looked at each other with excitement because from that moment on we knew I would get my Kelly Cut and from this point on, it would just be a waiting game. 
And if you’re wondering, yes, the store director had to review my buying history. To be frank, the store director had to see if I was worthy of one of Hermès’ top three bags. While it may sound ridiculous to some, this is how they maintain their status and drive sales.
Two months go by and I am getting antsy, wondering if my sales associate forgot me because I don’t buy any of the top tier products like the $130,000 diamond cuffs or $200,000 crocodile diamond pavé bags. I email her to let her know I am still very interested in acquiring the Kelly Cut, to which she assures me my turn to be offered will come.
Behold Saturday August 27th, when I received an email saying that a Kelly Cut has arrived in Swift leather and a colour called “Bleu Paon”, which is French for Peacock Blue. I responded within 15 minutes of the email, purchasing my flight to New York that night as Hermès is only allowed to hold a bag for 24 hours before releasing it to next on the list. Luckily, I had 48 hours to get to Manhattan, as the boutique was closed the day after it arrived.
In an article by The Daily Mail titled, The Bag You are not Allowed to Buy, it is said that “these bags are so covetable, they are said to be a better investment than stocks and shares – for unlike a new car or piece of jewellery, they appreciate in value the moment you buy them. Just one problem: you have to get hold of one in the first place.”
And the author was not wrong. Since purchasing, the bag I bought in the same colour and hardware is currently selling for double my purchasing price. Why you ask? Because of the hoops and hurdles you have to jump through and over in order to get your hands on one of the top three bags by Hermès.
I have the hardest bag to get from Hermès, which is due to such low production of the Kelly Cut, and while deep down I do believe that all of these bags are overpriced, it’s no different than when comparing a Mercedes-Benz to a Honda or a Canada Goose jacket to an off-brand one, as no one needs a $150,000 sedan or an $800 down-filled coat.
Would you wait for an elusive Hermès bag? Let us know in the comment section below.
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