best places to shop sale items in london

london is one of the most expensive places to live in the world, especially with the conversion from USD to GBP not in our favor. this results in $8 lattes, $28 fish + chips, and $150 dunks (especially when they are basically on sale everywhere else)

on top of that, the brits have a more strict sale cycle when compared to our previous rundown of sales, usually only occurring once around the december holidays

among a dense city of highly fashionable people however, everyone seems to have no problem getting their fix of overcoats, high quality layers, and on-trend boots while stomping through the towne

if you dont want to spend all your time digging through the basements of thrifted goods in brick lane, your options for finding a good sale pickup in the london area are limited, but luckily your resident newsletter writer did some ground research

after 3 days of wandering around soho and visiting almost every A.P.C. surplus in the city, here are my findings for the best places to shop sale items in london:

garbstore

located in notting hill, garbstore is a retailer for menswear staples and a homebase for their own label as well. they have a wide selection of other menswear brands like engineered garments & needles in addition to more streetwear focused brands like dime and stussy

they are currently running an archive sale with 50-80% off their own label and 30-50% off other brands (archive sale ends tonight, sorry)

end clothing

as the beacon of british streetwear in the middle of soho, end clothing is also one of the the largest online retailers with a massive selection of online inventory (arguably larger than ssense). on their site, they have a perpetual sale selection of items mostly marked down to around 30-50% off, with some older items at 60-70% off

when in-person, i was surprised that they actually have markdowns in the store as well, closely matching their discounts on their online platform. this is a huge W if you’re a chronically online END shopper or are just sick of losing out on their launches for sneaker drops and actually want to purchase something on the other side of the globe with free shipping

labstore london

the actual store is a little bit of a nightmare, but most high-end streetwear retailers are degenerate to some degree. tucked away in an alley off oxford street, the staff wasn’t super helpful, the layout is chaotic and the discounts in person don’t match the online prices, but at least there’s an extra 20% off for halloween (code: HERESJOHNNY)

hopefully this won’t fright your bank account: rick owens at over 50% off

dp-us outlet

london doesn’t have too many sample sales (unlike la & ny), but the dp-us outlet has a pretty consistent offering of high end brands on sale. in their shoreditch location, i was shocked at how they were able to get larger quantities (with multiple size runs) of luxury streetwear onto their racks at around 30-50% off

with inventory from stone island, cp company and off white, dp-us offers the high-end department store items at prices that might be worth considering (especially if you’re a cp company enjoyer)

other notes

• the major department stores (harrods, selfridges, liberty london) have un-marketed sale racks in store seasonally near the holidays, but the large majority of their business is not catered toward sale purchases, so definitely don’t expect to find any deals here unless visiting around the 2 weeks before Christmas

• apc surplus stores are a consistent sale outlet, but items usually don’t go below 50% of the retail price. they are well stocked though and carry slightly different inventory throughout the year, so if you’re a fan of the brand it could be worth the visit

• for visitors, spending time thrifting in brick lane is most likely not worth the effort; charity shops have much better pricing, but a lot minimal selection for menswear

overall, london is a fashion-forward city to visit and can help inspire you to buy that overcoat or move to a slightly bigger city or watch that latest episode of chicken shop. just make sure you find those deals and our stateside dollars just might be able to stretch a little further across the atlantic