Cheryl Shops

If you love shoes and have several hours to spare (this last point is key), head to the annual Shoe-Inn, where you can find everything from UGGs to Chloe—there are over 7,000 pairs for you to sift through. Boots are $39.99-$249.99, shoes are $19.99-$99.99, and new stock is added daily. In the past, everything has been sorted by size and piled on tables several boxes deep (hence why I recommend clearing several hours). 1/4-1/8; 9-7 weekdays, 10-5 weekend; 1356 Broadway (at 36th St.).


Online: If your shoe shopping tends to happen on your lunch break, as mine does, click on over to shopbop, where, with code EXTRA20, you can take an extra 20% off items already 50%-70% off. (Shoes, yes, but also clothes, bags, jewelry, and accessories too!) Through 1/5 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Friends & Family sales used to be reserved specifically for just that--friends and family of a label or store's workers. In many cases, they remain as such, but with the proliferation of (ahem) shopping blogs and coupon websites, Friends & Family sales have increasingly become marketing tools. Not that I'm complaining. There are generally two types of Friends & Family sales: the first tend to involve coupons or discount codes for 20 or 25% off your purchase; the second are warehouse sales in which a designer clears out old inventory, often at ridiculously low prices. This week's Yves Saint Laurent sale falls into the latter category--but it's open to the public and promises prices up to 75% off retail. Lilah Delilah at Madison Avenue Spy has some helpful tips (note to self: watch out for big men hoarding bags), and having been to this sale before, I can attest that prices definitely fall on the last day, if you can manage to wait that long. 10/28-10/30; 8-8 Th & F, 9-4 S; Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 W. 18th St. (6th & 7th Aves.).

If shopping from the comfort of your own computer is more your speed, some stores have already started on fall markdowns, notably Shopbop, where prices are up to 70% off, and Saks Fifth Avenue, where they're 40-60% off.

I was in high school when Club Monaco opened its first store in Chicago; its modern, updated basics got me through multiple internships and my first post-college job. Originally a Canadian chain, Club Monaco was bought by Ralph Lauren in 1999 and has since been churning out chic, trend-conscious yet understated clothes; the store is probably most often compared to Banana Republic, but it's way more stylish and urbane. Unlike Banana Republic, Club Monaco has no e-commerce presence--until now, that is. Shopbop, which also sold Madewell before its own website launch (and continues to do so), is now the official online retailer of Club Monaco for women; word on the street is that Club Monaco is testing the Internet waters before it launches its own site sometime in 2011. As for what's on Shopbop, it's a fall and holiday capsule collection, and as with most of Club Monaco's stock, many of the pieces are work-friendly. One of my favorite items is the Isabel tee, which doesn't photograph quite as well as how it looks in person, but it's a simple top with beautifully detailed beading at the shoulders. I was also quite taken with the Simona plaid skirt, pictured at right--I've been looking for a new pleated camel skirt (specific, I know), and this is one of the best ones I've seen. There are also some great accessories, including the very affordable wool thigh highs (just $24!), luxe but reasonable fingerless shearling gloves, and the supercool metallic liquid scarf.

The best part is that to celebrate the launch, Shopbop and Club Monaco are teaming up for a sweepstakes (which normally I don't mention here, but this one was too good to pass up)--the grand prize includes a trip to New York for two, a one-on-one styling session with Kate Ciepluch and Club Monaco Vice President of Women’s Design Caroline Belhumeur, and two $1,000 gift cards – one to Club Monaco and one to Shopbop. And even if you already live in NYC, it's two free shopping sprees with professional advice. I mean, hello. Click on the little icon below to enter--the deadline is October 31, 2010.

Recommended reading: new on the internets
I have a confession to make: I love Gwyneth Paltrow. She is so incredibly stylish, but that's not all. I love her entire snooty, privileged, Upper East Side, macrobiotic-eating, Madonna-BFFing, weird-naming-of-children demeanor. I feel like the harder she tries to seem normal, the snobbier she sounds. But she is a Movie Star, and she just can't help herself. Case in point: She accompanied Mario Batali on his tour of Spain for PBS (the show, Spain...On the Road Again, begins airing this week on PBS); in nearly every story I read, Paltrow makes it seem like no big deal, like she just decided to tag along with, you know, one of the most famous chefs in the country. And, to top it off, today she launched her new lifestyle website, the questionably-named GOOP. Yes, GOOP. So far, all that's posted is a manifesto (an excerpt to follow below), but if you sign up for the mailing list--and you can bet your bippy I did--you can get a little bit of Gwyneth delivered straight to your inbox. What can we expect from this endeavor?

Make your life good. Invest in what's real. Cook a meal for someone you love. Pause before reacting. Clean out your space. Read something beautiful. Treat yourself to something. Go to a city you've never been to. Learn something new. Don't be lazy. Workout and stick with it. GOOP. Make it great.

Got that? GOOP.

For a less, um, holistic experience, check out the new Shopbop blog, shoptalk. It's written by four gals--Amie, Suzanne, Tonya, and Maureen--whom I'm assuming are Shopbop's copywriters. The posts are much more personal than you'd expect from a corporate blog, but, as you can imagine, the focus is pretty much all Shopbop, all the time. Then again, if you like shopping at Shopbop as much as I do, this is probably not going to be a problem.