[Today’s guest post comes from Princess Kate via The Soap Boxers, where she writes a monthly column about the art world. Her passion for Chagall and Caravaggio is matched only by her love of expensive ballet flats and wrap dresses.]
I like pretty things. There, I said it. I majored in art history in both undergrad and grad school; the majority of my adult life has been devoted to the study of pretty things. This fondness for aesthetic pleasure is, however, not my most defining characteristic. That would be: I’m poor. This shouldn’t surprise you, given that I already admitted to having a graduate degree in art.
I work for a small museum in San Antonio, Texas – hugely beneficial in terms of professional knowledge, networking, and general career enjoyment, less so in terms of my personal finances. Unfortunately I have, over the years, picked up a rather bad habit of shopping. I hasten to add that I hate the actual, physical act of shopping – I’d rather be set on fire than wander around a mall, but online shopping is, as Juno said, the cheese to my macaroni. Shopping I can do at midnight while wearing leggings and fuzzy slippers? Yes, please!
Strangely enough, even though I’ve been a devoted Amazon customer for years, I didn’t discover Amazon MYHABIT right away. MYHABIT is Amazon’s entry into the exciting world of online private sales. It’s their attempt to take on sites like Gilt Groupe and HauteLook, all of whom recreate the idea of a sample sale. Sample sales are legendary in the fashion industry for offering name brand (and often extreeemely expensive) goods for a fraction of the usual price. Unless you live in New York City or another design mecca, getting to an actual sample sale probably isn’t within your grasp. That’s where these private sale websites come in. They offer hot designer looks at a huge discount (up to 80%). While most of the designers featured are ones that I’m familiar with (the last few MYHABIT emails I received featured Christian Siriano of Project Runway fame, Richard Chai, Frette, Built NYC, and Mark + James by Badgley Mischka), there are also some names that I’m unfamiliar with and get to peruse. As a doting aunt to two beautiful little girls, I was thrilled to find huge markdowns on adorable back-to-school outfits at the One Kid Girls sale – a brand that I had never heard of before MYHABIT.
MYHABIT offers these discounts in daily sales that begin at 12pm EST and last 72 hours. When you sign up with MYHABIT, the site offers you a choice of categories: Women, Men, Children, and now Home, and asks you to identify where you think you’ll be doing most of your shopping so MYHABIT can send you tailored emails announcing new sales. The site also does a fabulous job of reminding you just how long these sales last – each separate sale page lists the time the sale ends (since new sales are offered daily, each will have a different end date).
Perhaps the best feature of MYHABIT is what it shares with its parent company Amazon – free shipping, an easily maneuverable site, and fabulous customer service. Although some private sales sites offer higher-end merchandise (Gilt Groupe and Rue La La), MYHABIT is perfect for shoppers like me – out for a good deal on pretty things.
Leave a Reply