Mimi here!
Now, I loves to shop. Like, mega style. Think of that one
person you know (we all know one) who shops all the time. Is always wearing
something new. Is always coming home or coming into the office with bags and
bags of goodies at lunch time. That person to whom you often say, “Nice top/jeans/bag!”
and they reply with, “Thanks it’s new”. That person is me. Hi there.
I know where I got my love of shopping, and my love of a
bargain, from; my Mum! We affectionately call her Bargain Betty. Always kitted
out in chic, stylish ensembles, she has a keen eye for unique, versatile,
flattering, fashionable, yet age-appropriate clothes and pairs them with eye-catching jewelery, shoes and bags. And ALL at a fraction of the price it originally retailed for. Whether she needs a top at £2 or not (true story), or whether I
need a pair of ankle boots reduced from £15 to an ACTUAL pound (ALSO a true
story), Betty can sniff out a bargain at 20 paces and is mighty proud of it.
Why pay more, right?
Now, being the busy little bumblebee that I am, I do a
lot of online shopping. I wholeheartedly appreciate the sheer convenience of
being able to buy online. Sometimes, just looking at a store's new arrivals can
help me figure out what I need in my wardrobe, what I need to get rid of, or
what sort of look I might go for if I have a particular occasion coming up. I
research. Then I buy.
Isn't it strange how there are now shops online that
don't have a physical presence on the high street? I am of an age where I
remember the pre-online, pre-mobile phone days. Online shopping is great for
getting your size in an item that wasn't stocked on your high street, but more
and more I find myself buying from retailers that don 't actually exist as
physical stores. Trippy, man.
I buy A LOT from H&M and Sports Direct (due to there
usually being a discount code or online offer available) and more so from
MissGuided and Forever21 also. But it is my love of fashion from the Far East,
and their ridiculous prices, that I am going to write about today.
Ladies, welcome to the world of what I like to call “the random
Chinese shop".
My first ever armchair-to-overseas purchases were from
sellers in China on eBay. I bought a few tops here and there and my experiences
were generally a hit or a miss. A great fitting find here, a cheaply made
disappointment there. But the prices
were SO GOOD that anything I bought that wasn’t up to scratch was put down as a
relatively cheap learning curve.
That is why, my friends, I have shopped til I virtually
dropped in these Asian online stores and came up with a guide for getting a
great deal on a great item without getting stung by the various pitfalls. Yep,
I did all that shopping just for you. You can thank me later.
Rule 1: Know your
measurements
What is the circumference of your waist? Where is your
waist? Nobody know? I want you to get yourself to your local shop and purchase
a measuring tape. Then take that measuring tape and wrap it around various key
parts of your body:
- Your waist (about 1-inch above your belly button)
- Your hips (your widest part)
- Your bust (straight around your front over the nipples
Take a note of what they are EXACTLY in inches AND in centimeters (because the rest of the world likes centimeters). Make a note of
it somewhere you can access easily, like on your phone. The reason? Because
when it comes to buying in “the random Chinese shop” you CANNOT rely on the
sizes stated.
WHY?
Did you know the average Chinese woman has a 34A bust, is
about 5 feet tall and weighs about 8 and a half stone. This average woman may be considered an Asian
size Medium. The UK average is a UK16…see the difference? An Asian size Medium
is like our size XS-Small in many cases. Most Asian stores online provide a
size chart for this very reason where it will provide measurements in centimeters usually. There is usually always some variation, so if you are just
fitting into a cute dress based on measurements, go for the next size up…you
can always have it altered (which leads me to my next rule)…
Rule 2: Be
prepared to Get Your Clothes Altered
I would imagine that there are very few people in this
world who are a true size “anything”. With sizes varying so much between shops,
it can be very hard to buy something that fits PERFECTLY. It’s always better to
overestimate your own measurements and order a size larger from these Asian
shops because measurements can vary so much. A lot of what I have bought has
been slightly too big, but is easily rectified with a trip to my local
seamstress. I tend to go to the same one because they are quick, cheap and do a
fabulous job (big up Sew Quick in Bellshill). Yeah the top you want to buy is
£5 including postage…but spend that extra £5 and get it tailored to fit you
properly…it certainly won’t look like it cost you a tenner.
“But hey, you can just return the item if it doesn’t fit
and order the next size up, why err on the side of caution” I hear you cry.
Well…
Rule 3: Returns
and Fraud
As a rule, eBay has the most reliable system for returns
and exchanges because any shops are bound by eBays rules and agreements. If a
store gets a bad returns reputation, they will not fare well on eBay, plus I
think eBay protects it’s buyers from any tomfoolery.
For example, I bought a bikini from an Asian shop and it
arrived. Unfortunately the bottoms fitted and the top was mahoosive. Like,
unwearable. So I contacted the shop and asked about their returns process.
Helpfully, they said that it would be less hassle for all if they gave me a
partial refund and I just kept the top that didn’t fit. So, I paid £6 for a
bikini, got £3 back and spent another £6 on a second bikini in a smaller size
so I could get a top that fit. I then listed the too-big top and the too-wee
bottoms separately to sell on eBay for, yep, £3 each.
NO MONEY LOST.
And no postage costs in returning items either because I
didn’t need to return them. This has happened to me a few times and it’s great
when it does. It’s even happened when I have been dissatisfied with a product
and have wanted to return it. I even received a full refund AND got to keep the
item. I think it’s generally just so much hassle to send and receive items from
overseas that companies are happy just to make you happy.
I have, however, been burned.
I bought a number of gorgeous dresses (our Kennedy
Cupcake polka dot dresses to be precise) from an Asian eBay store. Weirdly, the
dresses were MASSIVE (very uncommon) so I had been left with a size small and
medium that could be worked with, but a large and XL that were unwearable and
unalterable. I contacted the eBay shop and asked to return them (the dresses
were around £20 each). Unfortunately the company’s return postage policy was so
expensive (tracked to China was going to cost me £40) that it was simply not
cost effective to return them. So either way I was out £40 whether I sent them
back or not.
Great.
The company didn’t make this explicitly clear on their
page and experience has taught me to ask about returns if buying something more
expensive from an Asian online store in future.All’s well that ends well though
as I managed to sell both dresses on to very happy people, for the price I
bought them at.
The second time I (kinda) got burned was when I purchased
from an Asian store called SheIn.
I LOVE SheIn. Like, really LOVE IT. The stuff is quite
cheap, they have a great selection and actually the quality had been pretty
decent so far. Their measurements are accurate about 70% of the time though,
which has meant items have arrived that I would like to send back.
I done a quick Google search (“SheIn + returns) and
found that many people were extremely dissatisfied with their returns efforts. SheIn have a very swish online system where you
can log your return before you pop it in the post, but many people had said
that their items never arrived at the other end and that they were left with no
item and no refund.
Pants.
Luckily I haven’t fallen victim to this and have just
decided never to return to them. Anything I buy that doesn’t fit, can’t be
altered or gets put on eBay or given/sold to a friend. I did buy a dress once
that was so short my PANTS were visible, so I contacted them and told them
their pictures were not accurate representations of the item. I also told them
that I was reluctant to send it back to them because of the poor reviews I had
heard. They apologised and gave me a full refund and a discount code for my
next purchase. DONE. HOW NICE.
***TIP: Fancy a wee £ or ££ off your order with them? Add
items to your SheIn basket then close your browser. I can guarantee within 24hours
they will send you a discount code. It MAY say 30% off…it’s not. But it’s still
a couple of quid off. ***
The moral of this story is basically to be wary. Do a quick
search of the shop name and “scam” afterwards and see what comes up, or look up their eBay feedback. This will also highlight any fraud issues too. Read into
their returns postage policy and confirm it with the seller. If you are not
into their policy, be sure you really want what you are about to buy, or be
prepared to buy two sizes.
Rule 4: Be Sensible
With any online shopping be wary of what you are buying.
If something looks not quite right, it probably is. For example, I saw a gorgeous
dress on SheIn and wanted to buy it...
Something about the photos was putting me off though.
They were quite grainy and you couldn’t see the model’s face (it had been
cropped). So what did I do? I put on my Mac, got out my pencil and went all
Columbo up in their grill. I saved one of the photos and done a Google Images
search (go to Google Images and click on the wee camera logo on the search
bar…you can attach an image and search for other instances of THAT image on the
web…also handy to find out if anyone is catfishing you online). Hey presto what
did I find but that the photos had been lifted from ASOS. The ASOS dress (the brand was Chi Chi London) was
much more expensive, which made me question whether the product listed on SheInside
was going to actually be anything like the one pictured.
I decided against it in the end. If there is a lack of
images or the images are poorly lit/too cropped/grainy or appear overly edited,
so a quick search and see what comes up.
SheIn also has a helpful feature which encourages
buyers to post photos of themselves wearing their items along with their own
sizes and the size they bought in order to help people decide if they like the
item or not. It helps you actually see what it is like on a real human being. They
have also started featuring a “catwalk” for some of their items, meaning a
video plays of a model wearing the item. I therefore tend not to order anything
from She Inside now that doesn’t have a couple of photos next to it of regular
folks who have bought the item. The reviews also allow people to state their
dress size etc. and whether the item was true to size or not. HANDY.
Rule 5: Be
Prepared to Wait
China is like, far away. Don’t know if you knew that, but
it’s like, ages away. All of Asia is actually, so don’t order stuff and expect
it to be here in a week, a fortnight or even a MONTH. eBay sellers tend to give
an estimate of when an item will arrive and some online shops provide tracking
information but not all do (SheIn do and it’s actually pretty good). If in
doubt, check out the FAQs of a seller or contact them and ask their average
delivery times to your country. I have often forgotten I have ordered stuff and
been very surprised when it has arrived 7 weeks later.
I must say that She Inside tends to post quite quickly,
and I have received items within 1 week in the past.
So, if you have scrolled past all of the above
information in a bid to read some handy conclusions, here they are…
PROs:
Cheap clothes
- Online shopping (can be done while in the bath)
- Some stores offer discounts
- Some stores offer customer reviews
- Some returns advantages (50% refund and let you keep the
item)
-
CONs:
Delivery takes an age
- Quality can be a hit or a miss
- Returns can be extortionate and unreliable
- Detective work needed to suss out legit-ness (totes a
word)
- We haven’t even STARTED to think about the potential
ethical issues involved in some companies. As far as I know, SheIn are an
ethically run organisation.
- ADDICTIVE
- People asking you where you got your cute top / jeans /
coat. HOW. ANNOYING.
Thought I would share some photos of just some of my purchases from
SheIn so far that I have been happy with. Now go buy yourself a
tape measure and HAPPY SHOPPING!
 |
| Soup Bag, £12.62 SheIn |
 |
| Red lace dress, £15.17 SheIn. I had it altered at the waits- was too big. |
 |
| Black & white Breton-style dress, £17.90 SheIn (had the dress altered at the waits, too large) |
 |
| Dress £15.47, SheIn. I had the straps shortened 'cause I'm a shorty. |
 |
| Blue floral playsuit, £14.04 SheIn (was a perfect fit) |
 |
| Two-piece set, £11.39 SheIn (was a perfect fit) |
 |
| Top, £9.36 SheIn. Best buy by far. Looks and feels great, true to size and had many compliments on it. |
You'll notice everything here is under £18. Natch.
:)
On checkout we were able to take a short Uber ride to their offices where they stored our luggage for the day, leaving us hands free until our evening flight. Complimentary snacks and drinks were available as we awaited our taxi to the airport in the comfortable, very stylish waiting area they provide. A stress-free end to what was a pretty perfect stay. We highly recommend you check Sweet Inn out if you're Paris bound this year. With apartments also in locations such as Madrid, London and Milan (to name but a few), we may just need to organise another girls' weekend away in 2018!
As an extra special treat to celebrate Mimi's 30th, our wonderful mum treated us to an evening at LIDO. A Parisian spectacular, this was one of the most impressive, outstanding productions we've ever seen. We opted for the 9pm performance and were given what we perceived to be the best seats in the house (in the centre of the upper balcony). 
With around 45 performers, including dancers, acrobats and a vocalist, it was a real feast for the senses. The costumes alone stole the show and halfway in we'd lost count of how many costume changes there had been. From a traditional Can-Can to contemporary, jazz to poppin' and lockin', it was truly breathtaking from start to finish. 
