What happens when five fashion bloggers get together on a Saturday morning? We go out and SHOP! In this edition, myself, Hawley Dunbar of Sidewalk Hustle, Kimberly Lyn of The Souls of My Shoes, Anita Clarke of I Want I Got, and Nelia Belkova of Style Blog, all jumped into a shiny and new 2013 Ford Escape (courtesy of Ford Canada) and hit the road up to Vaughan Mills. Wrapped up in capes and fur vests, eyes shielded with designer sunglasses and trying to hide our giddy smiles, we probably looked like a bunch of escapists from a Shopaholics Anonymous group.
It has been years since I last visited Vaughan Mills, so to familiarize myself with their shops I scrolled through the directory of stores in the new Vaughan-Cierge app. Not only is every single shop listed alphabetically, but you can easily locate each one on the mall map, making it super easy to organise your shopping game plan in advance.
Vaughan-Cierge is a brand new addition to Vaughan Mills and it is exactly as it sounds – a concierge at your fingertips, but even better. Right from the app you can snap, share, tweet and check in. Not to mention find essential information on parking, hours, events and promotions. My favourite part of the app is Cost Per Wear, a handy little calculator that helps you justify the price of your fashion finds.
Of course the first thing I found was an incredible pair of Tom Ford shoes at Holt Renfrew Last Call. They’ve got a sculptural pearl heel with lush black velvet wrap ties, and they fit like a glass slipper – had to be mine, right? Well, first let’s do some math…
The original price of these shoes was $1495.00 – obviously that is quite a bit out of my price range but I wondered how the price would break down even if I were to pay full price. They are definitely not every day shoes, so I figure I would wear them at most four times a year, but I would have them forever. If I were to only wear these Tom Ford shoes four times a year over the course of 10 years they would break down to $37.38 – doesn’t so bad when you put it that way, Vaughan-Cierge!
Because Last Call is Holt Renfrew’s massive clearance location, the Tom Ford’s were discounted to $655 from the original price. On top of that, their current sale offered an extra 40% discount off the red tag, bringing the total to $420. However, paying a quarter of the original price doesn’t mean I would wear them any more, but at only $10.50 per wear, I screamed “SOLD!”
As you can imagine, I was tapped out after our first stop at Last Call. But the girls kept on going to find gems at J.Crew, Joe Fresh, H&M, and more. Here’s a snap of Anita, Hawley and Kimberley skipping back to 2013 Ford Escape with their Vaughan Mills scores.
Good thing we arrived with an empty trunk, we didn’t find it hard to fill it up!!
Here are the incredible Tom Ford’s in action, as seen in my latest What I Wore post. Honestly, I never thought I’d own Tom Ford anything (aside from a lipstick, maybe) for a really long time, BUT Last Call and Vaughan Mils literally made my Tom Ford dreams come true a helluva lot faster.
If you would like to go on a Vaughan Mills hunt to find some amazing treasures of your own, they have graciously offered a $100 gift card to one luck GracieCarroll.com reader – seriously, this birthday week just keeps getting better and better for you guys!
To enter to win: LIKE Vaughan Mills and Gracie Carroll on Facebook, FOLLOW Vaughan Mills and Gracie Carroll on Twitter, and TWEET: “I heart @Vaughan_Mills and @GracieCarroll” and tell us where you would spend the $100.
Winner will be announced this Friday – GO! GO! GO!