Money Saving Tips: Online Shopping Free Shipping

Few pleasures trump finding a carefully packaged card, large envelope, or box in my post case. One of the formats in which I indulge this pleasure is online shopping. But while I find purchasing specialty stamps quaint, I don't particularly adore shipping fees.


Provident panacea: RetailMeNot, a comprehensive search-able library of coupons and discount codes, tested, dated, and verified. Here lies the secret to free shipping or at least a reasonable discount to justify the postage fees.

And don't forget to sign up for e-mails from your favorite mercantiles, they'll send pretty treats to your inbox.

Happy Savings!

Money Saving Tips: Host A Clothing Swap Party

I am one of a quartet of sisters, whose circumferences and shoe sizes are within rounding errors of each other. All the Winters' sisters closets are nestled against the Rocky mountains within a block of each other, all of them except myself, sister three, whose dressing chamber lies dozens of zip codes away. While my closet used to extend yards and yards of interchangeable cloth, it now spans only finite inches. But my stingy wallet and hungry appetite for novelty will not be stopped, and I have adopted local sisters with which to swap clothing. You too can enjoy clothing swaps, following is a scheme for your fashion soiree.

one. invite
Scout out those which which you share a common style penchant and send a gracious invite in their direction, at least two weeks in advance. You could invite guests with a common proclivity for vintage, a passion for accessories, or those who have children in the age vicinity of your own. Allow your guests to suggest additional attendees who corroborate with the evening's theme: for more ladies means more selection. Set a minimum number of garments as a cover charge to the event, but allow guests to bring as many additional items as they prefer.

two. inventory
You and your guests should then cleanse your closets, accumulating clothes which no longer flatter the owner's body, lifestyle, or personality. Items suffering from stains, tears, or extreme wear should be sent in a separate direction, even if it was ridiculously cute at some point in its shelf life.

three. launder
Each attendee should carefully wash, press and hang their inventory, items should be showcased for a premiere.

four. ambiance
In preparation for your event, prepare your party's ambiance. Please as many of your attendee's senses as possible, music for their delicate ears, pleasant scents for their pretty noses, treaties for their palettes. Also ensure you have adequate seating, tables, garment racks, a designated changing area, and dress forms for display. You may want to include a few full length mirrors in the common area.

five. retail
When your friends arrive, give each guest an equivalent number of blank stickers, which they will initial, in exchange for each item they bring. Then merchandise the items as prettily as you can in your own home store. Grouping items together by color will make for a lovelier display, but grouping them by sizes may be more useful to your guests.

six. auction
Allow the guests to mingle and take note of available pretties, individuals can indicate interest in an item by placing an initialed sticker upon it. Following the open floor period, items with only one sticker can be automatically claimed. But items with multiple stickers will be tried on by each sticker owner, allowing your collaborative audience to vote on a winner. Following the auction, guests can mingle through the remainder of the inventory. Donate any unwanted items to charity or thrift shops.

New ensembles without a dime parted. Enjoy and tell me about your own party results.

Money Saving Tips: Make Your Jeans Last Longer

Denim is a prolific closet panacea. It can associate with garment princes and paupers without requiring even the application of a warm iron for perfect presence. But how to get your most popular clothing choice to last a few seasons longer?

one. Recycle
Your jeans should not be laundered following every wear. Unless they are stained, wear them at least two or three times between laundry soaks. Denim & rivets were combined to serve miners who occasionally bathed their trousers in the creek. It can stand up to your afternoon at the park as well.

two. Hem
Unlike Princess of Monaco's train this idea will only look shabby. Make sure your denim is hemmed to the break of our shoe, so you don't trample your hem.

three. Zip & Button
Close all the openings before washing your jeans. Exposed fasteners, rivets, and zippers can rub and weaken your indigo threads.

four. Inside Out
Turn jeans inside out before bathing them in the washer. This strategy allows the fading dyes to settle back into the fabric. And if possible wash a family of denim together. Your 6-year-old grandpa's can be rejuvenated by the dyes escaping from your 2-week-old newborns.

five. Wash Cold
If you can't see visible dirt or stains, dial to cold. You'll see a reduction in your denim fade and your utility bill. Reserve hot water washing for jeans for heavily soiled or oily occasions.

six. Wash Delicate
Apply the most tender wash cycle available to your jeans. While sturdy, delicate care will extend your time together. Very lightly soiled jeans may even be washed on a delicate cycle, but will need an extra spin cycle on regular to remove the excess water.

seven. Air Dry
Save your denim from the spinning jaws of your dryer. Air drying your jeans with only a short fluffing in the dryer.

eight. Reinforce
Surgery may be required to save failing denim knees. Patch them before they wear through by applying fabric glue or fusible web to the inside of the knee. You can also cut up an old, unwearable pair of jeans for patches to reinforce stress points like pocket corners.

nine. Storage
Folded not hung, store your jeans with zippers and buttons inside the fold, stacking the pairs in alternating directions to make a level pile. Hangers will crease, and clips will distress the cuffs or waistband.

ten. Dye
If you wish, you can dye your denim new. Rit Fabric Dye can flash your jeans back to a fabulous inky black. But Dylon Machine Dye for Blue Denim will resurrect them back to a perfect shade of deep, rich blue.

Please add your denim saving tips in the comments.

Money Saving Tips: How To Fix Your Shoes

My shoes are my hardest working apparel category. They've been known to lap eight to ten miles a day over wood, concrete and brick. My shoes and I have survived snapped heels, severed peep toes, and serious gashes. While there are jobs best left to a professional, (my favorite shoe hospital being Lambs Shoe Repair and not just because they have the cutest vintage lamb screened on the window) there are also basic first aid procedures which every stiletto slinging lady should familiarize herself with.

one. Stain Removal
Patent Leather-Nail Polish Remover
Your manicure supplies can also rescue your patent leather pointies. Douse a cotton pad in nail polish remover and gently buff the shoe bruise. Air dry and store where in the cool and dry.
Suede-Emery Board
Next unsheathe your emery board (plain and not too abrasive) and lightly rub the suede injury in a back and forth motion. This procedure can remove the effects of everything from jilted beverages to unexpected rain spots.
Leather-Vinegar
Salty shoe-d winters are difficult to avoid, but also easy enough to repair. Dip a soft cloth in a small dish of distilled white vinegar and wipe clean. Spot test an inconspicuous area first and use only use on leather not fabric or suede.

two. Broken Heel
On the Go
Between your lip balm and nail clippers, keep a strong tube of glue in your handbag for on the run calamities. If the heel was nailed to the sole, coat the protruding nails with glue, slide the nails back into the original hole and hold the heel in place until the glue dries. When a glued-on heel detaches from a sole, scrape off the dried glue, coat with fresh glue and hold in place until a bond is formed. If a high heel snaps in two, coat one piece with glue at the site of the break and try to reattach the other section. Stay off your feet as much as possible until you can change to another pair of shoes.
At Home
For an at-home glue job, try a shoe adhesive such as Shoe Goo. Be sure the area to be repaired is clean, dry and free of oils, old glue and polishes. Gently sand the sole and heel to roughen up the surfaces. Apply a layer of Shoe Goo to both the heel and the sole and allow the solvents to evaporate for five to 10 minutes before pressing together. Apply pressure by using rubber bands, string or a heavy object for at least 24 hours. The longer the glue cures, the stronger the bond.

Money Saving Tips: How To Avoid the Dry Cleaner

A stone's bounce from my house stands an antiquated brick building with a street-visible sign, on which is scripted: Claire's Cleaners.

I want to go to Claire's Cleaners.

I want to walk in where the staff greets me by name and fills my arms with tailored trousers pressed and tissued. I want to smell organic starch on the collars of my husband's shirts and commend their ability to finally remove the stain from the lapel of my dearest jacket without bathing it in toxic chemicals. My hopes for Claire's Cleaners rise lofty. Unfortunately, Claire's Cleaners is vacant, as it has been since I moved here five years prior.

I must submit to the $2.99 Dry Cleaning Store a mile from my house. What prideless creature names their establishment "$2.99 Dry Cleaning Store." (It used to be the "$1.99 Dry Cleaning Store", but you can see how their creative prowess has developed the brand.) Until I am able to procure and launch Claire's Cleaners myself, I stubbornly avoid the dry cleaner with their wire hangers and plastic drapings and keep my $2.99 whenever possible.

Maybe you'd like a few more $2.99's in your pocketbook as well. Well Frugal Friend of my Bosom, here's how:

one. FRESHENING: Home Dry Cleaning Kits
Obvious yet useful for touch ups. This method is perfect for the dress you donned to church and enjoyed company with for a few hours. Over time the bag version is thriftier than the alternative, since you can purchase refills rather than a whole new kit. While the kits are accompanied by a stain removing solution it isn't terribly effective unless the stain is light, fresh, or otherwise uncommitted to staying.

two. WRINKLE REMOVER: Steamy Showers
When your delicate garment is merely rumpled, send it to a steamy bathroom. Hang your ensemble nearby while you remove your own soils. Keep the door closed following your toilet and allow the steam to remove creases and diffuse the frail offenses of smoke or perfume. This method is much more delicate on fabrics than heated irons, just be sure you place the garment close enough to benefit from the condensation but not so close that it is soaked by the source.

three. SMELLY: Disinfectant Spray
After wearing a garment, spray it with a disinfectant spray before hanging it up to eliminate bacteria which causes odors to form on the fabric. Focus on any parts of the garment that were in direct contact with your skin.

four. SPOTTING: Baby Wipes
Baby wipes are tremendously good at removing spots from your garment before soils have time to draw up a permanent contract. Address spots as soon as they occur and examine your garments post-wear to remove any sneaky spots which moved in without notice.

five. SWEATIES: Vinegar
If a garment isn't terribly sweaty, you can sponge off the bio-grime and dry it in front of a fan. This will work with a variety of fabrics that you'd never put through the spin cycle, such as silk or rayon.

six. PREVENTION: Underarm Shields
A little vinegar won't save a silk donned in an Arizona August. But prevention will, save yourself from perspiration stains by placing underarm shields in dresses and suits. Mr & Mrs fine garments won't end up with tough-to-remove perspiration stains and they'll last years longer.

Please share more of your favorite Dry Cleaner Avoidance tips in the comments.

Spring 2010: Wardrobe Strategies at Mesa Community College

Top 5 Reasons to Register for Wardrobe Strategies at MCC taught by yours truly:

1. Upon completion, you can wage battle against Rachel Zoe and her nefarious battalion of size 0 Zoebots (all armored with darkly tanned skins and large sunglasses)
2. TEC 245 counts toward an Image Consulting certificate. Said certificate would look very smart framed in a gilded gold frame in your personal styling office.
3. A Friday morning dedicated to dressing up makes a lovely elective, perfectly accenting classes like biochemistry.
4. You'll get to see me fancifying new words on the fly.
5. You'll be prepared to make the world a prettier place
   

Spread the word to your collegiate fashion smarties. Registration closes, and classes start, Friday, February 5th.

Wardrobe Strategies, TEC 245
F 9 AM - 11:30 AM, 3 CR

Syllabus includes: body type dressing, color analysis, personal styles identification, closet cleaning, wardrobe maximization, shopping strategies, and much more.

Fashion Toolkit: Billion Dollar Babes

Cardigan Empire noted, because Billion Dollar Babes habitually offers discounted pretties in Coco sizes.

Founded in Hollywood in 2001, BDB pioneered the multi-designer sample sale with “real world” shopping events in major cities worldwide. What started as an “insiders” event at LA's House of Blues has, over the years, grown into a fashion phenomenon. These sophisticated, “A-list affairs” (thanks, NY Times) have been regularly held in Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, Chicago, London and Dublin.

Of course, sometimes even the most fabu fashionistas like to shop in their skivvies (at 3am…in Dubai), so in 2009 BDB went Web. billiondollarbabes.com holds three high-end designer sales per week, each lasting 48 hours and featuring discounts of up to 85%.



Take for example last week's Fit & Flitter where Coco got quilted hanger quality at bargain bin prices, without ever strapping into her car seat.

Fashion Toolkit: Gilt Groupe

For those of you who would like to remodel your closets, while simultaneously weighing down their piggy banks.

Susan Lyne, Alexis Maybank, & Alex Wilson have taken the New York Invitation Only Sample Sale on the road via the Information Superhighway.

The result is Gilt Group, your online mecca for deeply discounted fashion & luxury brands. I'd blog more but I'm busy purchasing a BCBG silk top, originally $158 for $38.

Here's your invitation.

Shy Legs Addendum

The temporarily overlooked conclusion, is now available. Short skirts need not make your shy knees quiver. Below are three clever solutions to solve your lower limb induced calamity.

While you're waiting for your Vintage Hem slip to be delivered, layer a fitted skirt underneath a fuller one. It creates instant additional length. However it also creates instant additional length which is perfect should you favor petticoat-ed panache.

With slim denim beneath, one is free to angle over in infinite directions without apprehension of exposure.

Glamour leggings, I told you I'd mate heels with them.

Resolution #3: Dress Better When I Have a Special Occasion

Vogue 1957, Christian Dior

rotted rigmarole

Elegance does not require dry cleaning. A three digit price tag is not requisite to elegance. Elegance is not defined by sequins, ruffles, or charmeuse. Elegance could be an unsullied top in a complimentary hue. A sharp trouser line hemmed to the appropriate length. Polish, sophistication, taste, dignity results in elegance.

To Dress Everyday in Elegance, a revisionary argument in three part:

part 1. Every day is a special occasion. The morning you went to the dentist and exited without a single cavity. The afternoon you changed your password to a very clever acronym. The evening you made macaroni and cheese from scratch for supper. Every day is worthy of celebration, of a memory. Do you want to remember yourself in a sloppy t-shirt and velour elastic-waist pants?

part 2. Saved from apologies. Are you embarrassed by your apparel when visitors arrive unannounced? Do you skip aisles to avoid being recognized at the grocery store? Do you assume stories about recent calisthenics when in truth you've haven't exerted a stretch to merit your stretchy pants all day? Most importantly are you consistently arriving at a location, only to shamefully cast your gaze down in an inadvertent apology to yourself?

part 3. Finished with a smile. Regardless of the turn of your silhouette, turn the corners of your mouth up. Spend as much time as you deem appropriate in front of the mirror but as soon as you walk out the door, turn your attention outward. Find the beauty in others and you will multiply the elegance in yourself.

Resolution #2: Dress Better When I Have More Time

horsefeathers

One would imagine a Venetian to check off a prodigious amount of to-do's during their diurnal 5,832 hours. Unfortunately every earthling is allotted only 24.

Worse yet many earthlings spend all twenty-four of those precious hours in ensembles they find distasteful in an effort to horde time.

Following in three parts is a proposal for time beautifully spent:

part 1. What you wear effects how you behave. Clothing is not who you are. It is only a superficial shroud. However it is an abundant allotment of what you represent yourself to be. So when you make the decision to stay in your sleepers to squirrel a bucket of seconds or purchase a clearance top two sizes too big to skimp three minutes from a dressing room, you are presenting yourself as unworthy of fair representation. This decision effects not only how others view you, but also how you view yourself. When you see yourself as unworthy of a stain-free top, what else are you categorizing yourself as unworthy of?

part 2. Wise initial investments reap long term time savings. One must deposit time in the fitting room, determining fit and flattery. One must imbue time cleaning and trimming the closet. But with an efficient wardrobe, one's time is unshackled. Time is saved not taking things on and off due to ill fit or disrepair; time is saved not sobbing in the closet corner with nothing to wear.

part 3. Don't waste your time feeling unattractive. Don't fritter your future pulling your blouse hem down or hiking your waistband up. No apologies, no procrastination. Dress your best for each precious hour you are given, be your own Aphrodite. Show those Venetians what chic time management is.

Resolution #1: Dress Better After I Lose Weight

Driveling Rubbish!

Take the lady in the ad covering her face. An open Bertha collar with Princess Seaming would be a better balm than the proposed snake oil. Madame Ad has a killer waist, this ample hourglass. We just need to get her out of the chin multiplying Edwardian turtle neck and give her visage some breathing room. We could soften her bun a bit, and select a fresher color than black. With her head held high, she'd eat a little more prudently, take a few more brisk walks, eventually we'd see her spinning on her Victorian bicycle.

But our generation is sophisticated, we don't fall for snake oil. Instead we drink maple syrup with lemon juice and cayenne pepper to lose a stone in a fortnight.

Resolve instead to dress well in your present state, an argument follows in five parts:

part 1. Weight loss is a process. It ensues gradually. Patience and preparation will allow you to enjoy the journey. At any time you should have two pairs of pants, a skirt or dress, and four tops that fit and flatter you. Luckily most of us gain weight in a particular region (sorry dear hourglass). For a lower figure you may only have to shuffle through pant sizes while your tops remain stationary. When selecting an interim wardrobe, it doesn't have to be expensive or even new, since it may only see a season of wear, but each item has to elicit a smiling countenance.

part 2. Weight loss may be unnecessary. The problem may not be excess person, it may simply be insufficient cloth. Clothed in the proper uniform, you'll be better equipped to make evaluative decisions.

part 3. Different Sizes offer different opportunities. In the loss of baby weight, the tummy may be squishy but the bosom is also buxom. Adore your new adornments be it a curvy hip or a plump, rosy cheek.

part 4. Clothing is an indicator: If you're wearing elastic waist band pants or squeezing your thighs into sausage casings, you're not listening to your clothes. Clothing can communicate, but many misinterpret the messages. When a pair of pants buttons a tad tight, it does not mean you are a degenerate unworthy of sunshine. It only means, maybe four cookies is too many. Use clothing as an indicator to make minor adjustments.

part 5. You deserve to feel beautiful now. You deserve to feel beautiful everyday of your life. Beauty isn't measured in dress sizes or pounds on a scale. Find beauty in yourself today.

Resolutions for a Fashionable New Year

This week Cardigan Empire will be recommending goals for a stylish two zero ten. Come back and bring your quill and planner.

Shy Legs: Vintage Hem Winner

Jessie Willcox Smith, New Year’s Baby, c.1910

When: Two Zero Ten
What: Vintage Hem Winner
Who: Kristin of Dustin & Kristin (aka #208)
(please contact me at reachel@cardiganempire.com dear)

See you on Monday for a freshy new year of fashion, style, and etiquette.