Barneys Sale Heads to Downtown Los Angeles
Italian boots marked down from $410 to $124
Fans of the Barneys warehouse sale that started today will be in for a rude surprise this year.
The mammoth discount blowout on high-end goods isn’t at its tried-and-true traditional location…Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, Calif.
Instead, it has moved to downtown Los Angeles, occupying the drab South Hall at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
“I’m not too happy about the location,” said Janice Arce, a West Hollywood resident who has been shopping the warehouse sale for years. However, she was still collecting a few items—sweaters and a dress—and was prowling for shoes and pants.
The location was less important to Danielle Hurwitt, an Orange County resident who always drives up for the first day of the sale and then visits again on the last day, when more discounts are taken.
She was already making a huge dent in her wallet, dragging around a bag that could easily have weighed 30 pounds. “It’s just an amazing sale,” she said in between sifting through a rack of clothes. “I’ve been coming for four years. I always have to buy something.”
Some shoppers thought the new venue was much more spread out than the old one. But that meant there was room for large men's and women's dressing rooms. The women's dressing room was occupied by a bevy of determined female shoppers. Some shoppers, however, were resorting to old ways and just taking off their pants in the middle of the aisle to try on clothes.
Barneys spokesman Timothy Elliott said the biannual Barneys warehouse sale has been held in Santa Monica for the past 15 years. The change was made because the convention center is more central, more spacious and has more amenities, like real toilets, for customers.
Nevertheless, there were plenty of clothes to choose from. Designer duds with labels such as Balenciaga, Marc Jacobs, Miu Miu, Jil Sander and Valentino occupied the racks toward the front of the sale. A number of tables held a good selection of premium denim.
Women’s casualwear had deals like a pair of Stella McCartney cropped pants marked down from $795 to $199 or Helmut Lang shorts being reduced from $496 to $69.
The shoe section in the back was well-populated with consumers who were eyeing Manolo Blahniks now selling for “only” $495 instead of $1,190.
So for those with a gift to shop, you have more than a week to splurge at a discount. The sale ends on Aug. 23.
