Review of J.Crew Sample Sale

I attended the J.Crew sample sale hosted by Clothingline. I went around 2:30 in the afternoon. There was no line and no one standing outside. I would not have realized there was a J.Crew sample sale if there wasn’t a sandwich board with J.Crew written all over it by the door.

Please click the posts, “More Details on J.Crew Sample Sale!” and “Price Reductions at J.Crew Sample Sale” for more details on the logistics of the sample sale from the location to payment accepted.

I went through the door and went up the stairs. There was  a coat check so I relinquished by coat and purse, but kept my cell phone and wallet. I turned right and walked past the cash registers on my left and turned another corner to see all of the racks full of clothes. To my right on the tables were boxes of accessories–men’s ties, some handbags, and small goods. There were many ladies huddled around the boxes, combing through the things so I didn’t even bother joining them.

Along that same wall were CrewCuts items, starting first with boys clothes and then moving onto little girls. I thought the pricing was still very expensive for children’s clothing so I didn’t really look at these racks.

To my left was a wall of wedding dresses. I saw so many styles and thought it was nice to see J.Crew dresses in person. They were all priced at $399, which I thought was quite a bargain for some of them.  I saw the following styles: the Daphne dress, the Emmeline dress, the Mia dress, the silk dupioni Gwendolyn gown, the crepe Mimi T-shirt gown, the Annabelle gown, the jacquard Priscilla polka-dot dress, the Celeste pique dot strapless gown. From what I saw, people were just browsing the dresses, but not really thinking about purchasing them.

After the dresses was a rack of long J.Crew dresses, many of which I had not seen before online or in stores. J.Crew Collection pieces were on the next rack. I saw so many crazy pieces! I saw the metallic Astrid jacket ($125). There were so many jackets left. I couldn’t understand why anyone would buy this jacket at the sale when the jacket is $99 online.

I also saw the washed-leather Claudette jacket ($199), the herringbone Hayward coat ($199), the leopard-beaded cardigan ($899), the leopard-beaded dress ($899), the Lucido coat ($199), and the Pippa jacket ($299), the Duchamp-print Astor jacket ($125), the antiqued-gold sequin tank ($99), the paradise jacquard pant ($40) and the silver-sand jacquard pant ($40).

After admiring the Collection pieces, I walked over to the suiting rack, where I saw many of the same suiting outfit in various sizes of the skirt, pants and jackets. It was the  navy, pinstripe suiting set. Most, if not all of the pieces were still in their plastic packaging. After that rack were two racks of dresses. Most of them were size 6 or 8. Some dresses were $99 while others were $60. There were also what was considered to be beach dresses on another rack.  They were $50.

After those racks were just racks and racks of tops and pants. I saw some outerwear that was strewn about among the racks. The room also opened up into another room of men’s clothing. I saw lots of denim, madras blazers (which were all still in plastic packaging), Thomas Mason shirts for $35 and lots of other shirts including button downs and polos.

There were a lot of people there, but it was not overwhelmingly crowded. I was able to move around the room and in between in the racks with ease. Women would get reprimanded when they tried jackets on. There were signs that clearly said “NO TRY-ON.”  I was also offered an IKEA shopping bag when I had about 5 items in my hand. It was nice to not have to carry them. A lot of the samples had the word, “SAMPLE” written on them in marker. Others were actual store pieces that had tags and sizing.

Overall, this was not like any other sample sale that I had been to. I thought the prices were a little high for samples. I didn’t like that trying on the clothes was not allowed.  In the end, I only left with one piece which I was excited about.

I got the top below for only $25. I have been looking for it for quite some time. It was in stores during Fall 2007 and I never purchased it and had been regretting it ever since. I got it new with tags at the sample sale. The same tank is on eBay for $110.

Have you gone to the sale? Will you be going this weekend? If so, share your stories and your fun finds!

Cecilia Tank, Item 86654