A Tale of Two Resale Purchases

Sale PSA: A classic Patagonia sweater fleece, now 30% off (I’m obligated to recommend living in the Bay Area), a Vince satin silk top, now 40% off (I also like the matching pants, also 40% off) and a really cute swimsuit from Tularosa, now $70 (poke around if you’re looking for swim here – tons of great options)

You might have noticed that recently I’ve been resale shopping a lot. This is part of a larger trend (as covered by The WSJ, amongst many) and I’m definitely a fan! I love getting a deal and also feeling like I’m giving new life to items that would only just sit unused in a closet. And it’s more eco friendly to boot. I wanted to share with you today two pieces I recently purchased, from The Real Real and Fashionphile respectively, both sites I shop often. And just so its stated, none of this is sponsored, all of it is completely my own experience!

First up, from The Real Real – this Ulla Johnson dress:

So I love Ulla Johnson. She’s one of my favorite designers though I don’t necessarily live an “Ulla Johnson life”. Maddingly, a lot of her prettiest pieces don’t really make it to sale or if then, past first discount, but I always try to wait it out and thus miss out on some pieces. This dress was one of them – I actually wanted the gorgeous orange color (a very similar version here), but have never seen it in my size. This black version popped up the other day, and I grabbed it immediately! Actually I usually wear 0 in Ulla but this is a 2 and I think it is fine. It arrived totally scrunched up in a paper envelope (one thing I really dislike about TRR – the high shipping charges!! For both buying/return) but I shook it out and the material was perfect. So comfortable too.

Another note – I’ve been shopping on TRR to long enough to know that Ulla Johnson has a pretty high resale value (bad news for me). It’s like Zimmermann, in that it commands a pretty high price compared to retail. I paid $175 for this dress + shipping/tax which I found fair, but of course it’s not one of those SCREAMING deals you dream of (like I got for this Akris coat).

Okay – now onto the next! This Hermes Confetti bracelet, from Fashionphile.

I find Hermes fine jewelry interesting in that I think it doesn’t do so great on the resale market. There’s a lot of great designs too and if you’re after one, especially in gold, there are some great deals to be had. I had actually never thought about this Confettis bracelet before, until I saw it on Fashionphile – it was already a good price, but I decided to wait until it hit 10% off, and it did, so I bought! Overall it was around a 50% savings from US retail.

A little out of focus, but so you can see how it hangs!

It’s funny – this is one of those pieces I felt so so about, but after trying it on, I really love it! It’s so fun and unusual and not a piece you see every day. Yet it’s also classic Hermes and very pretty and comfortable. It’s the sort of piece I would have really loved as a little girl and I hope one day my daughter feels the same way. There aren’t any gold items that I saw online but there are a few of the sterling version. Including this necklace here (a GREAT discount), and here for a little more.

Also – if you do get the bracelet – please note that I got the size “SH” which stands for short which is their smallest. It has two rings to hook it, and I wanted to do the smallest ring, which would let a bit of it dangle, however it was too tight and uncomfortable! If you wear a Cartier Love in a 15, you could probably manage it. I have it on the larger ring here. SO if you have a wrist around my size (between 16 and 17 in the Cartier Love) and want it to dangle, I might actually recommend the regular length (called ST).

One other note about Fashionphile – on each item, when you scroll down to “get discount alert”, you can see when each item will get marked down. I’ve found that the number of “hearts” and “shopping bag adds” is a decent indicator of if the item will go until then – it’s not foolproof of course, and if the price is right and you love the item you should move, but for this bracelet for example – it was like 4 other carts, which is a pretty low number. So I felt comfortable waiting to see if it hit 10%. Any savings are good, right? A few other great Hermes 18K items here, here, and here.