When you chain a shop-a-holic with a lot of free time to an internet-enabled desktop, she is bound to get herself into some trouble. Without the advent of e-commerce, I would be bored out of my mind. Despite my meager income and non-socialite/celebrity/royalty or otherwise rich-and-famous lifestyle, I tend to window shop for luxury and designer label merchandise online. Window shopping online for items out of my reach is not futile, but keeps me updated on trends and outlets where you can purchase these items.
Some of the online shopping portals I frequent are...
Founded by Natalie Massenet, a former fashion magazine journalist, Net-A-Porter.com was her ingenious solution to solving a long-time issue with purchasing luxury designer merchandise. Launched in June 2000 Net-A-Porter.com has revolutionized the accessibility of runway fashion.
The website offers designer apparel, lingerie, shoes, bags and accessories. Alternatively, you can search for what you desire by designer whether they are budding or established in the world of fashion.
ShopStyle is also an online portal for luxury fashion merchandise, but is unique in that it compiles these goods from other websites and when selected, re-directs you to its original location on another window.
Shopbop.com shares the spotlight next to Net-A-Porter.com as a leading one-stop-online-shop for designer apparel, shoes, bags and accessories. In addition to launching in 2000 and offering a designer index, the website also offers sale items, a tab with a collection of lookbooks, and another tab devoted to more helpful styling lookbooks based on trend, exclusives, occasions, essentials, top sellers and editors' picks. Due to these additional features, Shopbop remains my favorite online shopping portal.
NOWNESS formerly known as eLUXURY, took off where eLUXURY started with high fashion but has expanded to include art, travel, gastronomy and entertainment. The former company, eLUXURY.com offered luxury handbags, shoes, accessories, beauty and fragrance, and women's and men's designer ready-to-wear. Like Shopbop and Net-A-Porter, eLuxury was founded in the same time in 1999. It was based in San Francisco and operated as a subsidiary of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
Polyvore is my new best friend and your new stylist. Do you ever dream about piecing together dream outfits? Well millions of people do it everyday and they do it on Polyvore. To be exact, there are 30,000 sets posted on a daily basis. Members create fashion, celebrity, interior design or wedding "sets" made up of products they found online.