292: Sale season's soft launch
Plus a Schostal collab, Sephora's Savings Event, and saddle surgery for the sake of scent.
These past couple weeks have been a big rollout period for stores finally getting fall collections and collabs onto racks. It’s a tight gap between that and full-on pre-holiday sale shopping, but judging by the ratio of actually good new launches and actually good sales—as tracked in this newsletter, of course—I’m calling that we’ve tipped over into the latter.
Singles Day (a November 11 holiday made up in China to get…romantically unattached people to shop?) is one reason brands are giving for their markdowns, while others are calling out early Black Friday or coining their own promos (“The Get Gifting Sale,” “Savings Event,” “Our Birthday Sale”).
Soon, the Private Sale wave will hit, about two weeks before Black Friday, and the major retailers will get punchy with their marketing language. But bear in mind that some, like SSENSE, are already enormously on sale, if quietly so—the deepest of the SSENSE’S Evergreen sale discounts reach up to 70% and include a disproportionately high volume of Toteme, Chloe, Valentino, and I even spy a couple of pieces from The Row up there (you need to be signed in to see some of these).
At any rate, I’m now due for some heavy excavation time in the sale mines.
What’s new
There’s been a good effort to identify bags at the disappearing “middle” price point, but few offer the soft tannins afforded by heritage. Mulberry, made in the UK since the ‘70s, has both. A new line of exceptionally giftable small bags and leather goods bear the mark of decades of expertise: a teensy silver chain bag for only $495, a buttery leather card case (I have the satchel version), and the piece de resistance, this Nappa leather bracelet bag in a deluxe black cherry red.
Did you know that Alex Mill collaborated with the legendary Roman shirting store Schostal on a pajama collection? Or that it also collaborated with English countryside brand Owen Barry on a lineup of shearling coats and accessories? Or that it also tapped sock spinner extraordinaire Maria La Rosa for a capsule of colorful ribbed ankle socks? (There are others, too.) If I were the Alex Mill team, I’d be a lot louder about the new In Great Company initiative, which sees some of the buzziest and best-aligned labels lend their design minds to AM’s snappy lineup. What’s emerged (right around gifting season, at that) is an overflow of cool and itchily wantable items priced sanely.
Prada’s Holiday Collection is right at the crossroads of every “holiday” trope that we’re just nostalgic enough for after a year away: girlish dresses and cheapest-thing-from-an-expensive-brand gifts, but with those pieces that actually pass scrutiny as to whether you’ll actually wear it in a year or two years’ time.
A lot of very correct and 1950s California-leaning things happening in Reformation’s Holiday Collection, including a plaid swing dress with a faux fur collar, a faux fur coat, and sparkly panty-shorts, all mixed in with the usual flattering velvet dresses and dressy knits. Also new for holiday is a Swedish Stockings (you know them from the no-skips underwear post) collab—solids and lace in great shades made from recycled materials.
There are certain people the fact of whose association can sell me on a thing, fast, and it always surprises me to learn who they are: Annabel Dexter-Jones, Nara Smith. Having now seen her in the campaign for Brunello Cucinelli’s Net-A-Porter exclusive, I’ve learned that Marisa Abela (Yasmin on Industry) is one of them.
There’s also: Attersee’s Drogheria Crivellini collaboration of Mary Janes are back in satin, cashmere, and most “Oh!” of all, suede; Emily Dawn Long introduces the Spike hair clip (I love him); more from COS’ FW24 NYFW runway trickles into the new arrivals pages; and maybe I’m basic, but I want the new Rimowa “Optical” illusion luggage.
Men’s releases
Just a couple of months after their first successful team-up, Studio Nicholson and Paraboot have come together again on another shoe: a take on Paraboot’s classic Derby. The first collaboration sold out in literal minutes, but it seems (at least as I’m writing this, on launch day) that there’s still stock in all but one size available.
Home releases
I love the story about how the Galerie Half x Perfumer H fragrance capsule came to be: it involves Galerie Half’s founder Cameron Smith cutting off a chunk of his partner’s horseback-riding saddle and sending the scrap of leather, alongside saddle soap and the brush used to clean it, to Perfumer H’s Lyn Harris for analysis in her London lab. The resulting scent—called Saddle, fittingly—comes in candle and room spray form.
Ana Kras’ Teget brand has another “Static” collection of home goods out, and I’ll admit the first releases have featured heavily on my own decor wishlists since moving. Some of the pricier—and most hounded—items like the panel lamps are listed as “Enquire Now” (they ring in around $4,000), while the sofa covers feel like a pretty fair deal at $500.
What’s on sale
I don’t really have Sephora “status” (I am a Beauty Insider like anyone else who’s ever created a free account), but I can still get a 10% discount on just about everything at the Sephora Savings Event with SAVINGS. The sets are where the biggest deals lie—I’m for this Laneige lip minis set and Westman Atelier Baby Cheeks trio—but what I’m actually buying is reups on my most boring, essential products (shout out The Ordinary Salicylic Acid, shout out Ouai Detox Shampoo).
My style has been drifting away from Jean Paul Gaultier-like things lately, but I was still absolutely enraptured by the brand’s archive sale. I’m moved to appreciate how good its guest interpreters have been lately (Lotta Volkova, Glenn Martens, Manolo) and added a ton to cart because of how significant the price cuts are. This stocking top might be my favorite, also love this flower knit. I think I’m going to get back into JPG because of this sale, honestly.
There’s a flash sale happening over at MyTheresa that lobs an additional 20% off orders over $350…an easy rabbit hole to fall down, and what I found includes an alpaca knit Magda Butrym dress that’s like (maybe better than) Khaite, Margiela sequin knickers that I low-key plan on wearing for NYE…maybe with these tabis not for the basic or faint of heart, and a super elegant knit Fforme tee for 70% off.
Jane Herman, creator of
and an absolute authority on denim, is running a 30% off sale on her own creations under the brand name The Only Jane. The various semi-loose cuts are obsessive and fall after the discount between $200 and $300. These are pants for perfectionists, no doubt.I’d never call Nour Hammour cheap per se, but a source for shearling and leather outerwear under $3,000 in Bottega Veneta’s economy is certainly noteworthy, especially during a rare sale from the brand that take 30% off some 50-odd perfectly cut pieces. You won’t get away with anything less than a few hundred bucks (for an accessory), but that’s still somewhat miraculous to me, having been recently quoted $7k+ for a repurposed fur coat.
Italist tends to be ahead of the jump on sales, as it is now. Beyond the forever-sale situation it has selling Italian inventory that gets marked down earlier than it does in the US, there’s an Early Black Friday promo on new arrivals advertised at 55% off (actually higher) AND an extra 10% off code on past season. Getting into the weeds, it’s got Bottega boots for under $900, a very holiday party Prada mini, and this Miu Miu dress I swear I just saw on the runway a month ago, already hundreds off.
Anything marked with a star on LuisaViaRoma (about 7,000+ items) is 30% off for Single’s Day with SD30. That includes Jil Sander bags, Marni earrings (described as flowers but they look like banana peels to me, love), and Nili Lotan pants, among other things.
There’s also: The belt brand I wear a lot, Dehanche, is 30% off sitewide for Early Black Friday; and Bally is riding the Singles Day train, with a sale page mostly populated by boots, coats, and small leather bags—a solid seasonal mix and all 25% off at checkout.
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I’ve never looked at Bally - some really chic things on their sale!
This was so helpful! I will say, I think anything with a star on LuisViaRoma is EXCLUDED from the promotion (something I learned sadly with some Bally shoes I really wanted.) But still lots of amazing deals.