So you may recall that I spent my Spring Break in Australia. It was every bit the fashion-lovers paradise I expected, and after wearing my purchases a few times, I finally have a moment to sit down and write about them.

My trip started in Melbourne, which is generally considered the fashion capital of Australia. And though I was only there a few days and just scratched the surface of the shopping opportunities available, it did not disappoint. The streets of Melbourne’s Central Business District are lined with stores, from high-fashion houses like Chanel and Louis Vuitton to budget Australian chain Cotton On. Shopping arcades connect the streets and provide endless window-shopping eye candy. And down the adorable, cobble-stoned laneways, quirky boutiques abound. I could have stayed there forever.

I was determined to pick up a few unique items while in Melbourne without breaking the bank, which is tough to do, as most things in Australia are more expensive than they are in the States. So I started at Cotton On. It’s a chain, yes — in fact, I learned upon my return there are even stores right here in Phoenix at Arrowhead Town Centre and Chandler Fashion Centre — but at the time it was new to me. Cotton On is basically Australia’s Forever 21. The store was filled with casual, colorful tops, tanks and sweaters, as well as a wide array of colored denim. I stuck with the tanks, in preparation for the impending Arizona summer. I picked up three, two of the rayon variety and one cotton, all around $25USD. I have been pleased with my rayon choices, but I was dismayed when I accidentally stuck the cotton tank in the dryer and it shrunk to become a doll’s dress.

My next stop was Gorman. I had seen some items in a magazine from this Melbourne-based designer and had visited the website, so I was excited to check it out in person. The store is located in Melbourne’s GPO, a cool, historic postal hall built in the mid-1800s, which is now a retail center.  I tried on several dresses but fell in love with this blue striped one. I was skeptical when I saw it on the hanger — the horizontal stripes could be disastrous. But the clever cut of the skirt is incredibly flattering, a fact not lost on Taylor Swift, who was seen wearing the same dress a few weeks ago.

Gorman Ipanema Striped Jersey Dress / Via Spiga Sandals via Last Chance (similar style) / Smith by Zoe Chicco Gold Disk Necklace via OpenSky (similar style) / Hayden Harnett Celina Signature Cuff in Wild Rose/ Michael Kors Jet Set Bracelet Watch (Nordstrom Anniversary Sale 2011) / J. Crew Signet Ring (similar style)

My final purchase in Melbourne was on a spur-of-the-moment duck-in to a quirky little shop near Degraves Street called Kinki-Gerlinki. I picked up a truly original pattern-mixing blouse featuring both owls and seashells. How cool is that? I only wish I had more time in the store, but my husband was waiting outside in the rain so I had to make it quick. While I wish I would have come home with a few more items, I’m really happy with my purchases. I’ve received many compliments on the items, and it’s fun to be able to say I got them in Australia. I love clothes with a good story and that bring back fond memories of faraway places. I do have one major regret, however; I missed Topshop. It was at the top of my list, but I somehow managed to forget to seek it out while in Melbourne. My only consolation is that I will finally be able to check it out while I am in London and Dubai this summer. Another trip, another new addition to my closet…

It was the 1990s and, in an attempt to channel my inner Donna Martin and Kelly Taylor (even though I was more of a Brenda Walsh, sadly), my closet was filled with babydoll dresses. But because I was a poor college student, I could not afford the Doc Martens that were essential to completing the 90210 look. Enter Last Chance.

I don’t remember who first turned me on to this weird and wondrous place. It’s literally the last stop for new and used items from the department store chain Nordstrom, and the store at 19th Street and Camelback in Phoenix is the only one of its kind in the world. But I do remember that around 1995 it became the hot place to go to find the designer labels we starving college students couldn’t otherwise purchase. Last Chance was a free-for-all indoor-swap-market-meets-second-hand-store-meets-clothing-apocalypse: Nordstrom cast-offs strewn as far as the eye could see, in some organizational pattern only a MENSA member could decipher. I stuck strictly to handbags — always looking for a new (to me) Dooney & Bourke  — and shoes, to pick up the aforementioned Docs at a fraction of their retail price. And at that time in my life, the fashion steals that could be found at Last Chance were were worth risking life and limb to navigate the bedlam.

I went to Last Chance once after college, around the time I moved back to Arizona in 2001. I never even made it past the cash registers near the door; I took one look around, said “I’m too old for this,” then headed for the greener pastures of Nordstrom (First Chance). As much as I love a bargain, it never even occurred to me to return, that is until I started hearing more about the insane bargains my fellow Style Tutor Jennifer regularly unearthed there. That’s when I decided to give Last Chance one last chance, this time with me as the Young Padawan, and Jennifer the Bargain-Hunting Jedi Master.

Last Chance is still a den of anxiety-inducing, sort-of sanitary chaos. But under Jennifer’s tutelage, it’s not nearly as overwhelming. On our recent visit, I followed her lead through the handbags, to the shoes, to the jeans and then the dresses. I left with two pairs of nude Via Spiga shoes — one pair of strappy sandals (shown below) and one pair of peep-toe patent pumps (similar style here), each $40 — which filled a hole in my closet I’d long been looking to fill.

Dress: Gorman (more about this dress in a post to come!) / Sunglasses: Ray-Ban (several seasons ago – similar style) / Watch: Michael Kors / Sandals: Via Spiga (Last Chance – similar style) / Dog: My Maggie

Will I head back to Last Chance any time soon? Perhaps. But I’m more likely to make it a quarterly pit-stop at best. And when I do, I’ll follow Jennifer’s main rules:

• Go as early in the day as possible.
• Be patient. You have to invest the time in the digging if you’re going to find the great bargains.
• When you see something you like, grab it and hold on to it. If you don’t, someone else will. You can always put it back if you decide you don’t want it.
• Think out of the box. You have to buy the beautiful, mint-condition, high-end designer sweater even if it’s the middle of summer. It will wait for you in your closet; it won’t wait for you at Last Chance.
• It should go without saying, but just in case: thoroughly wash and disinfect any items your purchase there before wearing them. Who knows what journey the took to get to you.

We want to hear about your favorite Last Chance find. Share it in the comments below!

Like so many other fans, I recently got caught up in Target’s Jason Wu-mania. I scoured the web for previews of the collection, picking out my favorite options, and because I had been burned before by Target’s designer collaborations (see the Missoni site-crash debacle), I set my alarm for 4 a.m. Arizona time on February 5 to pick up a few of those favorites. Apparently 4 a.m. wasn’t early enough, because intel from Target Style on Facebook and Twitter tipped off super-eager shoppers like me to the early and systematic release of items beginning at about 11 p.m. The whole release was so gamed, I felt like I was calling into the Nintendo hotline in the mid-’80s looking for cheats on how to save the Princess in Super Mario Bros.

So there I was, frantically updating my feeds and refreshing my browser to see what items were available: I see a dress for sale! Now there’s a cat t-shirt! I felt anxious and aggressive — and more than a little silly — as I piled items into my cart for about an hour, until the entire collection was available online. I went all-in and bought everything in my size that looked even remotely cute, reasoning I could just take back the items that didn’t work. It was a pretty smart system, I must say, because the stores were already picked over by the time we got there about noon on Sunday.

I waited a week for my Wu to arrive, during which time my enthusiasm had started to wane. Online chatter that week indicated that sizes ran big; I had gambled the wrong way and ordered up in case it ran small. So I was already pretty sure much of my purchases would not fit, which ended up being the case. I ordered a total of 13 items ranging from dresses to handbags to sweaters, and I ended up with only two: the navy cuffed shorts and navy circle print scarf.

 
Between the large — freakishly large in some cases — sizing and the strange cut of a few of the items, Jason Wu for Target ended up being a huge bust for me. It wasn’t much of a surprise, as I have had similar experiences with designer discount collaborations in the past, but it was a bit of a disappointment. Designer collaborations are ingenious in their promise to bring high fashion to the masses; Target, in particular, does a fantastic job of getting regular Janes like me to buy into the illusion that we can get something special for the same price as an everyday Mossimo sweater. But as is usually the case, you get what you paid for.

As a lover of fashion, I’m a sucker for big-name designers. I fawn over the beautiful garments that grace the runways at Fashion Week, and I long for the day I might wear one. But I think I’m done trying to emulate that through designer collaborations with discount retailers. For my money, I’d rather stick with mid-range retailers like J. Crew who consistently turn out high-quality fashions at relatively reasonable prices.

That said, I will approach the upcoming Marni for H&M line with cautious optimism. The lookbook is more than promising — especially the geometric blue print and funky metallic pumps below — but I’ve been down this road before. No more setting my alarm. I’ll hedge my bets in stores or online the week of March 8.

A few months ago my fellow Style Tutor Jennifer turned me on to a new fashion company called Stitch Fix. It’s a simple premise: fill out a detailed style questionnaire about your fashion likes and don’t likes, and Stitch Fix will send you a bundle of five items each month for you to try.

Having grown up in the ’80s and ’90s, my first thought was, “Oh, it’s like a Columbia House for clothes.” And it is, in a way. But unlike Columbia House, which required you to receive a new cassette/CD/VHS/DVD (my relationship with Columbia House goes way back) every month, Stitch Fix allows you to choose when you receive your fix. That’s a nice feature, because I think it would stress me out to have to deal with a package of clothes every month … all that shipping could get a little time consuming.

I was intrigued by the premise, so I decided to check it out. Stitch Fix is still in beta, but I have been impressed with how organized they are, considering how new the business is. They have a pretty straight-forward website to get you started and where you schedule orders. To order your fix, you must put up a $20 deposit (they call it a styling fee). If you decide to keep any of your items, the $20 will go toward the cost of those items. If you decide to keep all your items, you’ll get a discount off your total.

I’ve received two fixes so far, and both times I’ve kept one item. Incidentally, both times its been a navy print dress. I’ve found my choices to be pretty spot on … a couple have been a bit out there, but once I tried them on I liked them better than I thought I would (although still not enough to keep them, but I’m warming up to the idea). And each item is pretty reasonably priced, as in between $50-$150.  The packaging details are a little extra bonus — in my last fix I received a cute little book of post-its (to use when I mark the items I love in Vogue) — and each item comes with a custom tag that includes styling suggestions and information about the designer, if they are not well known. It’s personal touches like these that make me want to get another fix.

Scheduling a fix every month is pretty impractical for me. For one, I do like to shop. I don’t need a mail-order service to replace the act of going to my favorite stores. And it can be pretty costly, if I’m adding my fixes on top of my typical local shopping. But every few months or so I think it’s great way to supplement my wardrobe with items I’m probably not going to find at the closest mall. I like the idea of being forced out of my box a little by the Stitch Fix team of style genies. We’ve never met, but I feel like they know me pretty well, and I know they have my fashion interests at heart.

I’m a fan of Stitch Fix, and if you’re looking to add to your wardrobe but don’t have the time or desire to head to the mall or waste hours online shopping, I recommend you give it a try. I think you’ll like it.