What dates are these treks given? Are any tickets or other materials sent by mail? Where do we go on this trek? How many people will be on each trek? What is a "garment district showroom"? What is a "sample sale"? Is transportation provided? Where does the trek begin ? Who will be taking us around? Should we tip our leader? Why are these treks only given from Monday to Friday? What types of clothes can we expect to see on this trek? What sizes will be available? Will we be able to purchase clothes? What is "wholesale"? What are the typical prices of the clothes on this trek?
We have Garment District Diva Treks scheduled for just about every Monday, Wednesday & Friday plus some extra days during the Christmas holiday season.
No. When you register you will be taken to a confirmation page, plus receive a confirmation email & that will be your receipt for your purchase. Both of those will have a detailed information sheet giving you all the pertinent info. We have record of participants so no tickets are needed. You will receive your book & info sheet on the day of the trek.
We go to garment district showrooms that are not open to the public and available on to Elegant Tightwad Shopping Excursion guests. We may hit a sample sale or two if there is something interesting available, but 75-100% of the stops we make are not open to the public.
We allow only 6 people per group. This gives us the ability to meet the needs of everyone in the group and to move at a relaxed pace. This is a shopping trip after all!
These showrooms house the offices that designers and manufacturers use to show their merchandise to buyers from the stores which will sell their clothes. They are not open to the general public. Some showrooms will also have design, cutting or stock rooms in the same location, so you will get a real look behind the scenes of the garment industry.
At least twice a year, spring & fall, designers & manufacturers create a new line of clothes. The garment industry works six months in advance, so the fall line is created in the previous spring. A sample line of these clothes are manufactured for the salesmen & showrooms to show to buyers from department stores & boutiques. When the season is upon us, the fall for instance, all the clothes for that season has been sold, cut, manufactured & shipped. At this point they have their sample line which is no longer needed, hence a sample sale is held to sell these items.
This is a walking tour, but we don't hike all over the city. We stay within approximately 3-4 blocks. There is more than 1 building on each block & many times more than one showroom in each building. There are places to sit at each showroom, if need be, along with restrooms.
We meet in the vicinity of 39th St & 7th Ave for this trek, however detailed instructions will be given on your confirmation page when you sign up & also will be emailed to you at that time. We don't want people just showing up without having already registered with us, so we don't give specific info on the website.
Either Pamela Parisi or one of her personal shoppers will be your fearless leader for the day.
Although tipping is not mandatory, most people do. Some of the factors to consider when determining the amount of a tip on a tour like this is, how happy you are with your service, of course, if the leader goes overtime & for how long & the amount of savings accumulated on your purchases.
Because we go to showrooms and do not go to stores, they are only available during regular business hours Monday to Friday from 9-5.
We will see every category of clothing on this trek from business to casual to evening to outerwear to sportswear. They are all current season designer clothing & accessories. Some of the labels you will recognize, some you will not. They all high quality brands that are sold in department stores like Macys, Bloomingdales, Nordstroms and upscale boutiques, not the type that are sold in places like JC Penney or Kohls.
Are men welcome on this trek or is it just for women?
Men can join us & often do. If you are the type of man who loves shopping with his significant other, you will have a great time & may get a item or two for yourself. Understand though that most of the showrooms we visit have only women's clothing. We do have 1 showroom as part of the regular trek that has men's leathers & shearlings & there are at times men's sample sales happening that we visit.
We also have another showroom with men's fine Italian suits, outerwear, shirts, ties, etc. This showroom is not visited on the regular trek, but it is in the same area & we will make an appointment for you to visit at the end of our trek.
We will also do a private couples trek where this is part of the itinerary along with the women's showrooms.
All sizes from a US size 0 - size 22 will be available on this trek, however not every showroom will carry every size. If you are size 2-12 you will find the most choices available. If you are a 14 - 16 the choices will be slightly less. If you are an 18 - 22 there will be choices available, but not as extensive as the other sizes. We also have a couple of showrooms which will make your garment to order. Keep in mind that we do get many, many participants in these size categories and usually everyone finds items that are right for them and that they love. We will also see some accessories on the Garment District trek.
Be aware also that we ask you your age, size, style, etc. on our order form, so we know who is coming on each trek before we meet. This ensures we have the correct showrooms on deck for the participants of each trek.
Yes!!!!! Of course!!! This is the entire purpose of this trek-to shop till we drop. This is not a sightseeing tour, this is a shopping trip. You will go behind the scenes & see the workings of the garment industry & we will answer any questions you have, but our focus is SHOPPING AT WHOLESALE & BELOW.
True wholesale is usually about 1/2 of the regular retail price. This is the most you will pay for a garment with us. Many, many of the items available will be below wholesale, which will be less then 1/2 of the regular retail price.
Most of the showrooms we visit will be middle of the road designer wear. This means that most of the time, on our regularly scheduled treks, we don't visit the Gucci's & the Prada's. We find that many people are not interested in getting a $2000 item for &1000 but rather they would like to get that $250 item for $75-$100. So most of the prices of the garments are between $25-$150 here. We will also see items that are priced higher, but there is enough in various price ranges to fit a wide variety of budgets and styles.
What are names of the showrooms we will visit?
We don't mention names beforehand. There are a number of reasons for this.
First, the primary purpose of these showrooms is to sell from buyers from department stores & boutiques. We may be scheduled to visit a particular showroom & then at the last minute a buyer calls for an appointment. If this happens we will have to skip that showroom. That will not affect the quality of the trek, because we have many more showrooms available to us then we could possibly visit in one day. If one cancels we have plenty more to fill in. But if we say we are going to a particular stop and then we can't we run the risk of disappointment and we don't want to risk that.
Also many of the showrooms we visit do not want us to advertise that we go there. So shhhhhh! Don't tell anyone!
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