Here's an article from the New York Times I've never been to a sample sale. Is this what they are like?
November 25, 2003
Like 'Gladiator,' but With Couture
By GINIA BELLAFANTE
Though social anthropologists have failed to take note of the phenomenon, the weeks leading up to the end of the year provide men with a nearly unmatched occasion to understand the opposite sex. In late November and December, many women submit themselves to the Darwinian consumer experience known as the sample sale. It is here that a woman outwardly reticent and contained might reveal herself to be as pitbullish as a Marge Schott, the former owner of the Cincinnati Reds, when in close proximity to a pair of tweed culottes at 96 percent off and three dozen other women determined to own them.
Once exclusive events to which only the most chicly acquisitive were invited, sample sales have become fairly egalitarian affairs as news of their sites has become virtually a matter of public record. Like so many revolutionaries storming the Bastille, editors of shopping newsletters, magazines and Web sites in recent years began to let ordinary citizens in on this strain of bargain hunting, which at this time of year is in its high season. The Web site www.nysale.com, which began in 1997 for the purpose of disseminating sample-sale information, counts 250,000 registered users, more than three times last year's number.
In fact, women can observe men, too, at the moment as more and more have added to the numbers attending sales. "Five guys came in the other day in gray and navy suits and ties that screamed `banker' and this is really new for us," said Katie Liu, vice president of Staff International, which distributes labels like Martin Margiela and had its sample sale in SoHo last week.
But with the growth of the sample-sale universe has come a growth in opportunity for regret. That so many more people go means prices have gotten much higher, said Dany Levy, founder of the popular Web site Daily Candy, another source of sample-sale information. Certainly, it is hard to imagine how someone might have felt good about herself the day after buying a pair of pink angora D Squared underpants for $90 at the Staff International sale.
Sample sales typically take place in downtown or garment district showrooms without changing facilities, and it is common to see women grabbing at cocktail dresses in their underwear or trying to squeeze chiffon halters over their turtlenecks, practices that contribute to an atmosphere of emotional abandon in which many injudicious purchases take place. It is in the chaos of a sample sale that an actuary who dresses like Mary Matalin is most likely to decide she really needs a shrunken motorcycle jacket. After all, one never knows when one will meet a comely and well-read member of the Hell's Angels in a Dairy Barn just off the Southern State Parkway.
Clearly, a certain skill set is required to avoid such potential misadventures. "Never express too much interest in a garment," Ms. Levy proclaimed. "If some other shopper sees you eyeing something, she'll go after it like a hawk."
The inverse of her counsel is just as true. Dale Zeide, who could be found shopping at a Staff International sale, said she would advise a novice never to buy anything just because someone else is chasing after it. "At Andrew Marc a few years ago, I had two jackets in my hand," Ms. Zeide recounted. "These two women were following me around hoping I'd put them back. I bought them both because I thought, `These are really hot, I have to have them, everybody wants them!' " Of course, later Ms. Zeide realized she didn't want either of them. Last week, though, she fell into another trap having bought a decorative box at a sample sale of Jay Strongwater curios for $750 because it had been $1,500. "I shouldn't have bought it," she said. "I'm getting married, and I've got tons of expenses."
Dr. Ellen Haimoff, a psychologist in Manhattan and Lawrence, N.Y., and a fashion devotee herself, said she would counsel women "to identify the primitive feeling of the hunt" when they find themselves foraging at sales.
Dr. Haimoff pointed out that at sample sales it is harder to deploy the tried-and-true tactic of "leaving the situation, sleeping on it and only coming back the next day if you're really still longing for whatever it is you wanted," she said. The harriedness of a sample sale leads you to believe you will never encounter the object of your desire again, though in truth there is a chance it will not sell at all and materialize at the same designer's sample sale six months later. (The sales are often held twice a year.)
"I was trying on a pair of thigh-high boots recently which were utterly ridiculous," Dr. Haimoff said. "Subliminally I had a picture of myself as Britney Spears or Beyoncé. So I'd tell a woman to ask herself, `What is the subliminal image beyond my desire?' "
Of course, sample sales often present perfectly sound temptations. In many cases, the garments available are not absurd forays made on the part of the designer. Often designers must pay for 60 shirts from a factory when they have orders for only 52 of them from stores, because it is more economical. The leftovers wind up at the sample sale (and so do actual runway samples). Sometimes, too, designers create clothes expressly for their sample sales. With excess fabric from her fall collection, the designer Alice Roi had miniskirts made just for her sample sale because they were popular this season and she had not included any in her collection.
No one, in fact, would have looked in need of psychological counseling wearing them.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
November 25, 2003
Like 'Gladiator,' but With Couture
By GINIA BELLAFANTE
Though social anthropologists have failed to take note of the phenomenon, the weeks leading up to the end of the year provide men with a nearly unmatched occasion to understand the opposite sex. In late November and December, many women submit themselves to the Darwinian consumer experience known as the sample sale. It is here that a woman outwardly reticent and contained might reveal herself to be as pitbullish as a Marge Schott, the former owner of the Cincinnati Reds, when in close proximity to a pair of tweed culottes at 96 percent off and three dozen other women determined to own them.
Once exclusive events to which only the most chicly acquisitive were invited, sample sales have become fairly egalitarian affairs as news of their sites has become virtually a matter of public record. Like so many revolutionaries storming the Bastille, editors of shopping newsletters, magazines and Web sites in recent years began to let ordinary citizens in on this strain of bargain hunting, which at this time of year is in its high season. The Web site www.nysale.com, which began in 1997 for the purpose of disseminating sample-sale information, counts 250,000 registered users, more than three times last year's number.
In fact, women can observe men, too, at the moment as more and more have added to the numbers attending sales. "Five guys came in the other day in gray and navy suits and ties that screamed `banker' and this is really new for us," said Katie Liu, vice president of Staff International, which distributes labels like Martin Margiela and had its sample sale in SoHo last week.
But with the growth of the sample-sale universe has come a growth in opportunity for regret. That so many more people go means prices have gotten much higher, said Dany Levy, founder of the popular Web site Daily Candy, another source of sample-sale information. Certainly, it is hard to imagine how someone might have felt good about herself the day after buying a pair of pink angora D Squared underpants for $90 at the Staff International sale.
Sample sales typically take place in downtown or garment district showrooms without changing facilities, and it is common to see women grabbing at cocktail dresses in their underwear or trying to squeeze chiffon halters over their turtlenecks, practices that contribute to an atmosphere of emotional abandon in which many injudicious purchases take place. It is in the chaos of a sample sale that an actuary who dresses like Mary Matalin is most likely to decide she really needs a shrunken motorcycle jacket. After all, one never knows when one will meet a comely and well-read member of the Hell's Angels in a Dairy Barn just off the Southern State Parkway.
Clearly, a certain skill set is required to avoid such potential misadventures. "Never express too much interest in a garment," Ms. Levy proclaimed. "If some other shopper sees you eyeing something, she'll go after it like a hawk."
The inverse of her counsel is just as true. Dale Zeide, who could be found shopping at a Staff International sale, said she would advise a novice never to buy anything just because someone else is chasing after it. "At Andrew Marc a few years ago, I had two jackets in my hand," Ms. Zeide recounted. "These two women were following me around hoping I'd put them back. I bought them both because I thought, `These are really hot, I have to have them, everybody wants them!' " Of course, later Ms. Zeide realized she didn't want either of them. Last week, though, she fell into another trap having bought a decorative box at a sample sale of Jay Strongwater curios for $750 because it had been $1,500. "I shouldn't have bought it," she said. "I'm getting married, and I've got tons of expenses."
Dr. Ellen Haimoff, a psychologist in Manhattan and Lawrence, N.Y., and a fashion devotee herself, said she would counsel women "to identify the primitive feeling of the hunt" when they find themselves foraging at sales.
Dr. Haimoff pointed out that at sample sales it is harder to deploy the tried-and-true tactic of "leaving the situation, sleeping on it and only coming back the next day if you're really still longing for whatever it is you wanted," she said. The harriedness of a sample sale leads you to believe you will never encounter the object of your desire again, though in truth there is a chance it will not sell at all and materialize at the same designer's sample sale six months later. (The sales are often held twice a year.)
"I was trying on a pair of thigh-high boots recently which were utterly ridiculous," Dr. Haimoff said. "Subliminally I had a picture of myself as Britney Spears or Beyoncé. So I'd tell a woman to ask herself, `What is the subliminal image beyond my desire?' "
Of course, sample sales often present perfectly sound temptations. In many cases, the garments available are not absurd forays made on the part of the designer. Often designers must pay for 60 shirts from a factory when they have orders for only 52 of them from stores, because it is more economical. The leftovers wind up at the sample sale (and so do actual runway samples). Sometimes, too, designers create clothes expressly for their sample sales. With excess fabric from her fall collection, the designer Alice Roi had miniskirts made just for her sample sale because they were popular this season and she had not included any in her collection.
No one, in fact, would have looked in need of psychological counseling wearing them.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
i get invites all the time, but i've been too busy lately that i miss out going to the big ones. i did go to a few during the spring/summer. in general, t's a great way to network, meet new people, meet the designers and score some cool, hard-to-find threads for a great price 
