Fred Segal Melrose: Say Good Buy to the Recent Past

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• A hot mess of an Alexander Wang bag, originally priced at $895
• These Awang ribbed sweaters have languished and lingered from the last two sales.
• A fuzzy L'Agence…um, is it a sweatshirt? for $250, less markdowns.
• That Carven dress that is inexplicably enticing (picture from the last sale), still $735
• Kova & T studded dress, $525
• Up close and personal with the shoes
• Topshop dress, original price $325
• We are smitten as all hell for these Margiela shoes, and crossing our fingers they're still there when shoes go down to 66% off
• Elizabeth & James dress, $508

We provided you with a report on the big Fred Segal Santa Monica sale, but we couldn't not check out the action at the Melrose Avenue mothership. We ventured relatively early on Saturday morning, which explains why we were outnumbered by staff in the shoe department, by a factor of about 8 to one. No pictures, sorry. Fred Segal Feet has racks and racks of fanciful (read: impractical and adored with stars or fringe) shoes. If your lusting after Loubs, sorry -- we didn't see a single pair, but we saw plenty of Max Kibardins, Jerome Rousseaus, even a few terrific pairs of Martin Margielas. Since most of theses shows bore stratospheric prices to begin with -- like the Max Kibardin fringed booties for $960, 50% off still doesn't exactly make them affordable. And if you've never been to the sale, know this: you don't get to try the mate on until after you've purchased them. Gimps, clubfoots, and asymmetrical-foot-sized people, beware.

The clothing is a grab bag. There's plenty of Alexander Wang, but it's not the most exciting merchandise. And a good portion of it was present at the last sale. Yes, there's a bag. No, it's not a Rocco. You'd do well to stock up on the higher end staples: for example, we saw Rag & Bone/Jean long-sleeved tees for $125, less 50%, Of Two Minds dressy tees for $145 less 50%, and even a few Raquel Allegra tees, too.

When we were downstairs, we had the feeling we'd seen a lot of the merchandise before, but weren't sure -- we vaguely remember pining for the boho Topshop dress with the fringed sleeves, but hell, we pine for a lot of things, so we could have just imagined it. But once we went upstairs, we saw some familiar stuff, much of it so utterly ridiculous it's pretty much unforgettable.
For example,those ridiculous, sticky Proenza Schouler X J Brand jeans, still priced at $625. A Haider Ackermann kimono priced at $2,820. And those weird, stiff military-inspired Junya Watanabe/Comme des Garcons pieces are not getting better with age. We're still kind of yearning for that blue and white pinstriped, drapy Carven dress that was originally priced at $735.

This time around, there's some really nice eyewear on sale. Lots of recent and classic styles from both Oliver Peoples and Paul Smith, priced from $225 (regular price) to $350. We predict they will all be snatched up by the end of the weekend.

The way the sale works is that the prices drop as time goes on, but you're obligated to buy more to get it: for example, once the merchandise hits 66% off, you'll need to buy three or four pieces to get the discount; 75% off requires you to buy five or six items (more or less). And on one random day toward the end of the sale, the shoes will be blown out for some ridiculous low price, and you will see grown women trample and elbow each other to score a pair of 6" white patent leather Giuseppe Zanotti booties for $100. Or something like that. As for now, the sale at the Melrose store is holding steady at 50%, but stay tuned right here for updates.
· Fred Segal [Official Site]