Score

For all the joys of online shopping, sometimes you get tired of tromping to the UPS store, returning all those boxes full of dreams you clicked on with such hope and pathetic anticipation just a day or two before. There are times when you long to shop the old-fashioned way—to touch and try on a glittering prize right before you buy it, to wallow in the pure pleasure of a brick-and-mortar Valhalla.

To that end, and to celebrate the final markdowns of the season, I set out to explore the slashed priced possibilities at three iconic Manhattan department stores—Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, and Barneys New York. At Saks, my first stop, sale items are a healthy 70 percent off, which means a cherry-infused Nina Ricci slip dress is now a delightful $ 387, and a deliberately huge Givenchy polo with a flowered border and an American rainbow flag patch (bet you don’t already have something like this) is an encouraging $ 267. If I am not citing original prices here, it is because they are not always visible on the tags. In fact, the final price can frequently only be discerned by a helpful salesperson scanning the tag, which is how I learn that a silk Burberry blouse printed with a map of London is now $ 238, a pair of heavily decorated Junya jeans are $ 327, and an incredibly lovely white McQueen cotton dress—perfect for summer!—is $ 598. But there is a thorn in this garden—Saks has a Final Sale policy, which for a serial shopping bulimic myself (I have been known to buy, return, and then rebuy on more than one occasion) is a rather daunting prospect.

Over at Bergdorf Goodman, the liberal return policy we have come to associate with department stores is still in place. There is 75 percent off here, which means a Prada coat in a gray Russian Constructivist print with silver piping—a real statement piece—is now $ 1,779, still fairly hefty, but comparing well to the original price of $ 7,130. A tweedy black and white Proenza Schouler overcoat, to throw over everything you own, is $ 739, down from $ 2,950, and a Céline peacoat with big satiny buttons lifted from a tuxedo is $ 1,289 instead of $ 3,250. If you want to spend far less, there’s a white shift from The Row for $ 299, and at least two variations of silky tropical print trousers—turquoise and maroon from Dries Van Noten for $ 459, and emblazoned with chrysanthemums by Erdem, for $ 299.

At my last stop, Barneys, the tag prices—well, when one can find the tags—are 60 percent off, but a last-minute perusal of its website this morning indicates that many items have just now dropped an additional 15 percent. (However, a deep throat in the store tells me that some things are resting at 70 off.) So by the time you read this, tariffs will surely be at least slightly less than the prices quoted here. In any case, when I visit, an olive cotton knit affair by Isabel Marant, either a long tee or a short dress, is $ 99. (If, despite your best efforts, a T-shirt still makes you look like someone who forgot to get dressed in the morning, you have 30 days to return sale items.) Two Sacai dresses catch the eye—one, an elaborate gray sweater with oddly charming printed chiffon panels, experimental enough for very creative black tie, is now $ 909; another, a short tee-dress in navy with satin trim, is only $ 129. And in the event that merely keeping warm has become your top priority this week, a wooly pinkish sweater from Thakoon Addition, for a very comfortable $ 289, would be ideal for snuggling around the fireplace—or at least the space heater.

The post How to Score the Best, Last Deals of the Season: The Ultimate Guide to the Final Sales at Barneys, Saks, and Bergdorf appeared first on Vogue.

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