Finding Luxe Brand Deals – Tiffany & Fred Paris Sandals

Our May "Score of the Month" is the next article in our series of blog posts where we will be highlighting one of our favorite purchases of the month - at a significant discount, of course! The intent is to help you save money by detailing the strategy we used to find the item, where we ultimately purchased it, the price we paid and the savings. Finding luxe brand deals does not have to be time consuming or expensive. You can check out April’s score here.

This month we are highlighting a few themes that we focus on at Luxe Brand Deals:

1.    First, while luxe brands are more expensive, you rarely have to pay full price to get high quality items that will last years or even decades.

2.    Second, most (not all) luxe brand apparel, handbags and footwear feature high quality materials and superior craftsmanship. The adage, “you get what you pay for” certainly applies here.

3.    Finally, given the cheaper materials and craftmanship you get from mass brands, the products do not last as long, and you can end up paying more over time. A cobbler or leather expert can repair or replace soles and straps from leather shoes and handbags. They won’t touch items made with cheaper materials because they generally cannot be fixed or made to resemble their original appearance.

A couple years ago one of our team members was looking for a pair of slides that could be both dressed up a bit and also worn for running errands. Plus, she needed something easy to throw in a handbag so they could be worn to and from work as walking longer distances in heels was not ideal. She purchased a pair of double strap slides from Sam Edelman for just under $100, purposely deviating from buying luxe brands at a discount as she was in a pinch and thought it would be a good price-to-value test.

The slides did work out great for each of the expected wearing occasions. However, two years later, the straps on both shoes are fraying extensively and the edges of the footbed are separating from the sole. Although we already knew the shoes were made from lesser quality materials, the wear and tear confirmed this and gave us an unintentional sneak peek and how the shoes were constructed (i.e. lots of synthetic material).

As these shoes now needed to be replaced, she was back in the hunt for another pair of slides. That leads us to this month’s luxe brand deal – a pair of Tiffany & Fred Paris cutout leather slides that we found on Gilt.

The brand is from France and is often regarded as a “dupe” brand because they are known for creating affordable alternatives of high-end designer handbags. They use high quality leather and craftmanship and at the price point, she was only paying $4 more than she two years ago for a lesser quality pair of shoes.

Original price - $279

Final sale price - $104

Percent savings = 63%

Total savings = $175

Even though we are familiar with Tiffany & Fred, she will be the first one of us to purchase the brand. We will report back to see how these shoes compared to the Sam Edelman slides.

Happy Shopping!