In the last couple years there’s been a boom in online shopping. This is true across all categories and formats, but especially so for high-end fashion. Accordingly, savvy entrepreneurs went after the discount-seeking, designer-loving crowd with a bevy of so-called online “sample” sales and “private” shopping clubs. Initially there was an attractive mystique spawned by the idea of invite-only shopping, but as the number of sites and customers in the arena grew it become clear that there wasn’t anything truly private about the deal. Now, there are more of these sort of sites than this blogger cares to name, but a few you might recognize include ideeli, Editor’s Closet, Top Button, Cocosa, and Hautelook. And then there’s Gilt Groupe, a slick shopping club site that has distinguished itself among the pack with it’s premium inventory, tech savvy marketing, and expansion into the travel arena. The company has made it clear that it’s not your average online sample sale by teaming with print magazines and being the leaders of the iPad app pack. Now Gilt widens the gap between it and the rest in the sector by being the first to have a capsule collection designed specifically for the site.
Yoko Devereaux, the dearly departed menswear label and Williamsburg boutique, is getting a resurrection this fall. After its backers cut funding, the brand disappeared last summer with a bang… Now, it’s making a brief return via Gilt Groupe. Sometime this September—most likely the first week after Labor Day weekend—Gilt will hold a sale of Yoko Devereaux pieces designed exclusively for them.
If the experiment does well, we should expect to see similar collections for Gilt’s core customer, who shops for womenswear. In the meantime, don’t be surprised to see small sizes of those cropped jersey slacks being scooped up by clever ladies.