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by The Backseat Stylers | November 18th, 2011 
Overheard on Twitter earlier this week: “I’m gonna be all @backseatstylers styles at @VAWK!” In case you didn’t know, this is officially a figure of speech now, borne of the time I went to the VAWK sample sale and famously cleaned house. It’s a phrase meant to be used only in extreme situations in which you mean business (as defined, quite rightly, by Tricia Campbell-Hall). Sample usage: “I’m lining up bright and early for Versace for H&M; as soon as they open those doors, I’m going to go all Backseat Stylers on that collection.” Easy to use, and gets the message across loud and clear. Feel free to add it to your repertoire of catch phrases.
The benefit, by the way, of being the serious shopper that I am (aka “being all Backseat Stylers styles”), is that I often snag incredible pieces at ridiculously disproportionate prices. The VAWK leather trench I wore to Sunny Fong‘s Fall 2011 show at LG Fashion Week is a prized piece in my closet and a spoil of war from last year’s sample sale. It’s a piece that’s beloved by all; R!c, who sent these photos over, captured me as I was being shot by the Toronto Star and then interviewed by CosmoTV. All this attention because of this gorgeous VAWK coat…and all I had to do was throw a few ‘bows to make sure it came home with me at that infamous sample sale.
Speaking of VAWK sample sales, Sunny Fong is throwing another one tomorrow, Saturday, Nov 19 from 11am to 1pm. Select runway samples from past collections, including Spring 2011 and Fall 2011, will be available at much-less-than-runway prices. To make an appointment or for more information, click over here. And be ready to go all Backseat Stylers on that sale!
  
VAWK Spring 2010 leather trench / Sea NY leather-trim silk blouse / Thakoon pants / VAWK belt / Alexander McQueen shoes / Chanel bag
xx, S
Image Credits: R!c
by The Backseat Stylers | December 20th, 2010 Read just a handful of my posts and you’ll already know that I’m rather serious about my shopping. Once something makes my wish list, I do everything in my power (within reasonable limits, of course) to make sure it happens. While you’ll never see me in a catfight with a stranger over the last pair of sale Louboutins, I’m willing to line up at ungodly hours in less than comfortable conditions, order from retailers on the other side of the Atlantic, and wait over half a year for a sale to get what I want. It’s with this take-no-prisoners attitude that I entered the VAWK sample sale this past Saturday, the very first to arrive. If you follow us on Twitter, you may have already seen that I was outed by @geekigirl as having ”cleaned house” at the sale, and already have spied the sneak peek photo of my loot that I tweeted. Having piqued your curiosity over the weekend, here’s a complete confession of all the fabulous pieces that followed me home from the sale that day.
EXHIBITS 1 & 2:
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by The Backseat Stylers | December 15th, 2010 
Even with the bitter cold temperatures we’ve been getting in Toronto this week, nothing warms my shopaholic heart quite as fast as the words “sample” and “sale” strung together. This Saturday, Dec 18, 2010, VAWK is doing their part to bring some holiday cheer to Toronto’s fashion set with a 2-hour sample sale. I’ve been dying for some VAWK in my life since I watched designer Sunny Fong win Project Runway Canada, and now I finally have my chance…and so do you!
The sale is being held at an undisclosed downtown Toronto location and is by appointment only. Sale details can be found on the VAWK website and through e-mail at info@vawk.ca. Pieces that will be included in the sale are identified in the photos (after the jump) via pink arrows and are from the Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 runway shows. See our reviews of both collections here and here.
Everything’s bound to sell fast, so I’ve set up my appointment already. I suggest you do the same! Can’t make it to the sale? Not to worry – you can also find VAWK at The Room at the Bay, where a fabulous designer sale is currently underway.
Photos of the sample sale selection after the jump!
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by The Backseat Stylers | October 19th, 2010 
It’s been a year now since I first laid eyes on Christopher Bailey’s Spring 2010 collection for Burberry Prorsum, but I’m still fantasizing about one day finding a piece of the collection at an insanely marked down price. It almost happened today too! The Outnet‘s usual Tuesday morning e-mail landed in my inbox and I discovered that this gorgeous knotted skirt from that heavenly Spring 2010 collection had just arrived at the store, freshly marked down by 60%…but sadly still a whopping $598. Adding insult to injury, there’s only one size left and it’s mine. That’s always the case, isn’t it? Someone please buy the skirt and put me out of my misery!
xx, S
by The Backseat Stylers | August 6th, 2010 I love living in Toronto and can’t imagine living anywhere else in the world (for now), but there is one thing we’re missing in this city that once in a while makes me want to pack up and move – New York sample sales. I’m tired of hearing about all the Louboutin and Manolo sample sales every year that I miss out on and can only daydream about. It’s high time Toronto had it’s very own sale that puts the entire city’s fashionistas into a frenzy!
Well, fellow Torontonians, I think I have found it. These past 2 weeks, The Room at the Bay has been clearing out its Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 merchandise, and they mean business. Jason Wu, Prabal Gurung, Balmain and Matthew Williamson, among others, can be had at 85% off (ticketed at 70% off plus an additional 50% off). If your jaw just hit your keyboard, then you’re having the same reaction I had when I heard about the sale. While news of the event only reached me a week into it, I still managed to nab some amazing finds, so if this is the first you’re hearing of it, RUN – don’t walk – to the 8th floor of the Bay Queen Street…today’s the last day!
To give you an idea of what was available (until I snagged them!), here are my newest acquisitions:
This Prabal Gurung Fall 2009 ivory silk skirt makes me feel all prim and proper. I have no idea when I’ll have the occasion to wear it since the heavy silk makes it all fancy shmancy, but I had to have it. I imagine that Michelle Obama’s closet is full of such skirts, so I’ll mentally reserve this piece for when I get an invite to a White House social function. Yes – it’s that sort of skirt.
On the complete opposite spectrum from the sophisticated Prabal skirt is this Barbara Bui leather shift dress from Fall 2009. I can’t find a photo of the back of the dress on the internet and I’m too lazy to take one myself, but there are horizontal cutouts in the back that make this dress fierce with a capital ‘F’. I’m also unsure as to what occasion would call for such an edgy piece (certainly not a White House function), but when the right event presents itself, my dress and I will be ready.
I adore Erin Fetherston – her designs are ultra-feminine and chic. I’ve already had some great Erin Fetherston finds from The Room in the past, but this is my favourite to date – the Bianca jacket from her Spring 2010 collection. In fact, I love the navy and black tuxedo jacket with its matching bow belt so much that I bought the long-sleeved mini dress version too. My friend J told me it wasn’t crazy to buy both, and I chose to believe her!
I’ve also been drooling over Erdem’s Spring 2010 collection at The Room all season and I finally got my hands on a piece. It doesn’t hold a candle to the stunning black rosette dress my friend J snagged, but this black and white floral pencil skirt will be perfect for work. Unfortunately, this runway photo doesn’t do the floral print on the skirt any justice, but it’ll have to do for now.
I picked up a few other items as well, including a Sonia Rykiel red tweed jacket, Jason Wu ruffle shirt and ADAM by Adam Lippes tweed skirt. All in all, I’m feeling pretty darned happy. What would make me deliriously ecstatic, though, is if this clearance sale became a regular thang…a Toronto institution of sorts. Like the Vera Wang sample sales in New York. Here’s hoping!
xx, S
by The Backseat Stylers | July 16th, 2010 Not to worry – I’m alive and kicking.
I disappeared for a few days, because literally the whole city of Toronto is on sale. Hitting up The Room at the Bay’s 70% off sale, Holt Renfrew’s up to 60% off designer sale and TNT’s 70% off clearance sale takes time, my friends. Plus, Baby Backseat Styler is still a shopaholic-in-training, so he’s been slowing me down a bit. Nevertheless, I managed to snag the last few items on my Spring/Summer wishlist.
First up is this 3.1 Phillip Lim bow wrap cardigan. I’ve been trying to convince myself since seeing the runway show that this is a DIY project opportunity, but the fact of the matter is that I’m not a DIY person. And so I waited for Holt Renfrew to finally mark the sweater down to 6o% off before finally taking it home. I have a feeling it’ll be in the work rotation quite a bit this fall.
Two weeks ago I posted about my wondrous discovery of the 3.1 Phillip Lim hairpin lace skirt in ivory on sale at Holt Renfrew At the time, the black version of the skirt was also sitting on the sale rack, but I decided to be good and only took home the ivory. I’ve regretted it ever since and I decided to try my luck yesterday and see if the black might still be waiting for me to come back for it. Quite unexpectedly and miraculously, it was. How could I leave the poor thing behind a second time?
Truthfully, some items have been on the wishlist for so long that I’ve forgotten about them. That was the case with this 3.1 Phillip Lim croc sequinned dress I spotted in the Holt Renfrew window months and months ago, and only remembered when I spied it hanging rather lonesomely on the clearance rack at TNT yesterday. It wasn’t even remotely my size, but at 70% off and with a lovely seamstress capable of taking the dress in several sizes for me for a reasonable cost, I was sold!
 
You might have noticed a recurring theme here – an ever so slight obsession with all things by 3.1 Phillip Lim. I was like a kid in a candy store at the TNT clearance sale, trying on all sorts of Phillip Lim sale merchandise, whether it was my size or not…you know, just in case. Through an elimination process that required a call to my friend J – who talked me down from buying silver sequin shorts – I managed to limit myself to this draped tuxedo jacket with satin lapels in black. Menswear-inspired clothing with just a touch of feminine detailing makes me happy. Paying 70% less than the original retail price makes me even happier.
xx, S
by The Backseat Stylers | June 30th, 2010 
I dropped by The Room at the Bay today and found all Spring 2010 sale merchandise selling at 50% off plus an additional 20% off, which was music to my shopaholic ears. The little Jason Wu red dress I’m coveting was still way beyond my budget, but I’m quite pleased with my consolation prize – these Erin Fetherston Spring 2010 silk ruffled shorts. I’ve been building up my shorts collection lately (with this pair, this pair and this pair). Dressier shorts are a new discovery for me and I’m rather enjoying them, which is a relief since I wouldn’t know how to work a pair of ripped denim cutoffs if my life depended on it.
xx, S
Photo Credits: SSENSE.com
by The Backseat Stylers | March 26th, 2010  
The Zara March 2010 lookbook is now online – very timely, given that the month is almost over. Disappointingly (or maybe not), this is the first Zara lookbook in a while that I don’t want a million things from. The only item I’m interested in is the ivory brogues with perforated details that I already picked up last week. They’re so versatile – perfect with a spring dress or a pair of jeans.
Check out the rest of the lookbook here. xx, S
by The Backseat Stylers | March 25th, 2010 
The Stella McCartney for GapKids Spring 2010 collection launched today in the US, but the rest of the world, including Canada, will have to wait until next Tuesday, March 30th. In the meantime, there are preview pics to tide us over. There isn’t anything that has me overly excited this time around, but that may change once I see the collection in person. So far I just have my eye on that denim blouse (for me, not Baby Backseat Styler).
See more preview pics here.
xx, S
by The Backseat Stylers | March 23rd, 2010 
Over the past few months, I’d managed to avoid the overabundance of pop-up shops that have been plaguing every major metropolitan city, because – if you haven’t heard – pop-up shops are the new big thing. Well, that all came to an end this past weekend when I couldn’t resist stopping by Chloe’s Closet with my friend J to check out the Aime by Monica Mei sample sale with designs fresh off the Spring 2010 runway.
Not only did I have the opportunity to catch up with Monica Mei and discuss the fashion calendar controversy, the state of the American retail market, and everything in between, but I also had the very good fortune of finding this gorgeous cardigan with metallic accents on the clearance rack. I can’t decide what I love more – the metallic elbow patches (genius!) or the amazing deal I got.
BlogTO
I also put in my order for this Spring jacket I’ve been coveting since the runway show last October. The light grey colour of the jacket is perfect for my largely black/white/grey wardrobe, but adds a hint of surprise with just the right amount of coloured print for a non-adventurous gal like me. I’m counting down the days until the jacket arrives next month…I can’t wait to wear it!
And here’s me trying on a sample of the exquisite jacket in question and insisting that the poor innocent bystander who didn’t have her glasses with her take a photo of Monica Mei, me and J. Bit on the fuzzy side, but you get the point…it was a delightful afternoon!
Check out Chloe’s Closet for Aime, Brazen Hussy and TFNC over the next few weeks at 803 Queen Street West in Toronto.
xx, S
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THE BACKSEAT STYLERS BY T & S
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