Before coming to LA I had only ever been to one sample sale. I literally stumbled upon a Mara Hoffman sample sale in high school in Manhattan while shopping in SoHo. I’ve always loved a good deal, and I’ve always had expensive taste, so sample sales were perfect for me. During my Sophomore year of college in LA I learned that sample sales were a common occurrence on the West coast as well, and shopping them quickly became a regular activity for me. It all started with a Reformation sample sale, where I purchased my first Reformation item ever – a black and white gingham midi dress. I never wore it, and it didn’t even fit right when I bought it, but it was Reformation, it was mine, and I got it on sale.
Since shopping these sample sales I have learned a lot about how to prepare, what to expect, and how to get the best deals at sample sales. Here’s everything I know. Happy shopping.
How do you know when sample sales happen?
In the beginning, I found out about sample sales purely by chance. Since stumbling upon the Mara Hoffman sale I have tried to keep a look out for them online. Here are some of the ways I find out about sample sales:
- Chicmi. Chicmi is a website that post about fashion events in Los Angeles, London, San Francisco, New York, and Miami. This is how I find out about 90% of the sample sales I go to. I get a weekly newsletter from them, and follow their Facebook page to get updates. Chicmi is great because they have all the information about the sample sale in one place – price lists (often before the sale even opens), the location, the days and times it’s open, and customer reviews. Chicmi promotes both big name brand sample sales (like Ted Baker) and smaller independent brands (like Mate The Label and For Love And Lemons), as well as houseware and beauty companies. Aside from sample sales, I also find out about fun fashion-related events like summits or speaker events in my area through Chicmi.
- 260 Sample Sale. There are two storefronts for 260 Sample Sale – one in Beverly Hills and one in SoHo, Manhattan. 260 Sample Sale events are incredibly organized – most everything is hung on racks, there’s a dressing room, and they have a tight security system. In the Manhattan storefront you even have to check your bags at the door. 260 Sample Sale events are also often for bigger brand names like Outdoor Voices, Rent The Runway, Mara Hoffman and Reformation. They also have a newsletter, which sends weekly updates about their rotating sales in your chosen city.
- WHSale. I also get weekly emails from WHSale for sample sales in New York City and Los Angeles, but they have newsletters for every state! This is great for those of you who want to go to sample sales but don’t live in either of these big cities. A lot of the sales WHSale promotes are more like warehouse sales or liquidation sales. I have never been to one, but some brands I remember from emails are Asics and Hurley.
- Brand Social Media Pages. Every year I’ve found out about Reformation’s sample sales from their Facebook page or their newsletters. I also found out about Mate The Label’s sample sale on Instagram. As Facebook events are becoming more and more popular, look out for events in your area or events hosted by brands you love.
Tips For surviving sample sales
go in with a game plan
What are you going to buy and how much are you willing to spend?
The worst thing you could do before going to a sample sale is not think about why you’re going. Are you looking for a specific piece that is missing from your closet? Is it your favorite brand that never goes on sale? Do you really not need anything at all? Sometimes prices can be shocking in the best way possible at sample sales, but it’s really easy to look at everything with rose colored glasses. Do some research on prices beforehand (check Chicmi or the brand’s social media channels) to get a feel of what will be available and how much items will go for. Go in with a BUDGET. I cannot stress this enough. I went into Reformation’s fall sample sale without knowing what I wanted/needed and without a budget, and ended up losing all control.
Do your research
I highly recommend knowing what size you are in the brand before heading to a sample sale. Dressing rooms are never guaranteed (and if they do have them there’s often a long wait only to be rushed into 10 minutes of trying on), so knowing where you fit in the brand’s sizing is key. Also look into pricing. Reformation knit dresses are normally priced around $60-$100, but sell for $60 in the sample sale. During Reformation online sales, prices for knit dresses can drop to below $40. Unless you find your dream dress, it may not be worth the price. Reformation denim, on the other hand, retails for $150+ but sell for $50 in the sample sale. This is a HUGE difference in terms of sample sale value. Mate The Label graphic tees retail for $70+, so their price of $20 for tee shirts was great. Their sweatshirts retail for over $100, so I was thrilled to snag one for $30.
Consider waiting until later days
Prices almost always drop in the last few days of a sample sale. If you want to get the best deal possible, consider waiting until the end. If you want the best stuff possible, go as early on day 1 as you can. Sample sales rarely sell out, but the most popular products will surely go quickly.
Prepare to wait
I once waited three hours in a line for a Frankie’s Bikinis sample sale. I had moved maybe a third of the way to the door, and decided to give up. I’ve waited two hours to get into a Reformation Sample Sale, and I’ve also walked right into one with no wait before. If there isn’t a line outside, there likely will be a line inside for the dressing room. In other words, I wouldn’t suggest hitting a sample sale during your lunch break. Put extra time in your parking meter, bring snacks, and wear clothing appropriate for the weather you’ll be waiting in.
Dress for the occasion
In order to optimize your sample sale experience, read this carefully. Wear a tight top. This ensures that if there is no dressing room, you can pop a shirt or a dress over your shirt and still get a good feel for the fit. Wear a skirt. Again, if there is no dressing room you can easily try on pants, shorts, or skirts underneath what you’re already wearing. Wear shoes you can easily slip on and off, but don’t wear sandals. Dressing rooms are often stressful. They give you 10 minutes (sometimes less) to try on everything you have and decide what you want to keep or let go. Having shoes that are easy to take off is key. Avoid shoes with laces or difficult straps, and leave the cute but hard-to-put-on boots at home. Though slip on shoes like mules or Birkenstocks sounds like the best fit, dressing rooms can also be quite gross. I’d recommend wearing socks.
After wearing a cute outfit with strappy sandals, a dress and Birkenstocks, and leggings and sneakers to various sample sales, I’ve mostly gotten my sample sale shopping outfits down. At the Reformation sample sale I wore my favorite bodysuit from Boody, a simple high waisted skirt, a chunky sweater that’s easy to take off (but would keep me warm waiting outside in line), and my Everlane slip on rain boots. That way in the communal dressing rooms I could easily slip on jeans without feeling #naked. This only became an issue when I wanted to try on a tank dress. Wearing a long sleeve black bodysuit underneath a yellow linen/lace dress made it pretty difficult to decide if I liked it. And taking off the bodysuit was out of the question – it takes me like 10 minutes to get all the snaps on right when I put it on in the morning, and you only get 10 minutes in the dressing room before you’re herded out.
*ALSO* bring a small purse with you. Some sales don’t let you enter with anything bigger than a small purse, and most sales don’t have bag checks. This could leave you stranded with extra bags and unable to go into the sale, especially if you rely on public transportation or Ubers to get to a sale.
inside the sample sale
Follow the people who restock the racks
At any sample sale with a dressing room, there will be a group of employees who take the unwanted clothes from the dressing room (or the back stock room) and put them back on the racks. This is how you can find the best of the best stuff at sample sales. This is how I found my favorite denim dress at my second Reformation sample sale, and how I scored my daisy embroidered jeans at the most recent Reformation sample sale. If there is no restocking from dressing rooms and no back stock room, pay attention to people with large piles of clothes. Often people will pick up everything that slightly interests them, and then take them to a quiet corner to decide what they do or don’t want. Pay attention to what those people have, befriend them if you feel so inclined (i.e. “that dress is so cute!”), and if they decide it isn’t for them, ask if you can have it (or wait until they put it back on a rack and swipe it ASAP).
Look for damages
Items often end up at sample sales because they are overproduced, because they are missing embellishments (belt loops, buttons, zippers, beading), or because they were returned in an unsatisfactory condition (stained, ripped, or anything that wouldn’t deem it 100% good enough to be resold as new). Triple check for working zippers, tears or stains. Often these imperfections will be denoted by a small piece of tape right next to the affected area. This is a common practice when making edits to samples that actually went through the design process, or when items show signs of wear after being used in photoshoots. One of the tee shirts I got at Mate The Label was perfectly fine aside from a *tiny* hole on the lower back. Even with the tape it took me a bit to find the hole. In this case, these products are totally fine to buy. Consider hand washing them and line-drying the products to increase their longevity. Some things can be easily fixed. Labels that are falling off or loose straps can be fixed with some simple hand sewing. Broken zippers could theoretically be taken to a tailor, but that is a project. Stains are almost always a no-go for me. They rarely come out in the wash, and unless they are super unnoticeable, they aren’t worth the trouble.
My reformation sample sale finds
I went to this sale specifically because I was in desperate need of new jeans. Nearly three years ago I went to my first Reformation Sample Sale and got a pair of jeans for $40, before Reformation even launched Ref Jeans. The Jeans were two sizes larger than my normal size, had a huge rip on the back waistband, and were about 8 inches too lunch, but they were the softest, stretchiest jeans I had ever seen. They were being sold as a sample because the material was too weak to be sold in stores. Holes are created quickly and easily, and at this point I can no longer ignore the hole that has formed in the crotch. I went into this sale with a total budget of $150 (assuming $50 for a pair of jeans and maybe $100 for a dress or a top if something really tickled my fancy). I struck out in the dress/top/skirt/swimsuit department, but really struck gold with the jeans. I ended up getting three pairs, $50 each, and came in just over my budget with taxes and ubers factored in. The retail price for my three pairs of jeans would have been over $350, so I had huge savings, and now finally have good alternatives to my holey-jeans.
This first pair of jeans is Reformation’s famous zipper jeans. They zip all the way around from the front to the back. I actually took a huge risk with these. I’m a size 25, but only saw this style in a size 26 on the racks. I tried them on, loved the style, but knew they would fit me better in a size 25. As I was doing my last look around before getting in line to check out, I saw them in a size 25. I had already waited in line for the dressing room and was ready to go, so I just took them and got in line to check out without trying them on. I wouldn’t recommend doing this if you have the time to wait in line to check out, but I felt confident in my ability to resell my clothes on Poshmark or Depop should they not fit the way I wanted. I’m still figuring out what I want to do about the hem of these jeans. They’re a bit long, and I’m playing around with the idea of cutting them to hem them or keeping them rolled like they are in these photos. I paid $50 for these jeans, and they normally retail for $148. They aren’t currently available online.
This next pair of jeans is a comfort stretch wide leg style. I don’t have any wide leg jeans and was looking for a very comfy stretchy jean style to replace my last Ref sample sale jeans. There were probably 80 pairs of these jeans at this sample sale, so my guess is that they were over-purchased. They retailed for $98, and I got them for $50. Not the best deal, but worth it nonetheless. These jeans were again a bit too long for me, so I cut a straight hem and am going to keep them with a raw edge.
This last pair was my sample sale DREAM find. I’ve been looking at these daisy straight leg/mom jeans for literally years, and followed around a woman restocking the rack to make sure I got them. They’re a size larger than my regular size, but I like the fit a bit baggier. These jeans are no longer available on Reformation’s website, but a lighter wash pair with the same daisy embroidery is being sold for $178. Like the other two pairs (are you sensing a theme here?) these jeans are too long on me, but I like the rolled up look to give a mom jean vibe. I’m not positive why these jeans were at the sample sale, but I’m thinking it’s because the belt loops are missing. There’s still a back loop if I need to add a belt, but these babies fit me just right so I don’t need to rely on a belt.