SAMPLE SALE SCANDAL: Shoe Sale Shoppers Get Stymied This Season

This time of year is a bonanza for Sample Sale shoppers, and it isn't done yet, but two of the sales most likely to turn otherwise perfectly respectable women into vicious scavengers have gone out of their way dial down the frenzy. A couple of weeks ago, Manolo Blahnik managed to hold its sale without a single advance notice from blogs like Racked or Madison Avenue Spy who normally keep their readers abreast of such events without fail. Apparently, it was a tweet from André Leon Talley, who has been serving as the sale's de facto "host" in recent seasons, that alerted anyone that the sale was happening at all, long after the typical wrapped-around-the-block lines could have formed.

This week, it was the Christian Louboutin sale that bedeviled bargain hunters. While bloggers learned that the invite-only sale was to begin today, when the tireless folks at Racked appeared at the showroom, they found the above sign on the door along with a small but determined line of hopefuls who weren't willing to believe what was plainly in front of their faces. Madison Avenue Spy reported that VIPs and celebrities had been scooping up discounted shoes all weekend, but that instead of the loose "invitation" policy that many showrooms follow at their sales, Louboutin would be strictly enforcing its guest list with no exceptions. Adding insult to injury, they had cruelly cut the Spy and other such bloggers who report on samples sales from the list. Damn, so cold!

While there are still more Sample Sales going on in New York than anyone could possibly cover singlehandedly, it may mean something that the two most famous shoe designers who run two of the most popular sales are trying to rein in the excitement and the publicity over their seasonal stock clearances. Perhaps they simply want to move the activity back to their boutiques and later end-of-season sales, but we will keep an eye out to see if this constitutes a trend just a case of a couple of weary showroom staffs trying to give themselves a break.

Christian Louboutin Sale in Full Swing (Madison Avenue Spy)
Louboutin Says There's No Sample Sale This Morning, The Manolo Blahnik Sample Sale Started This Very Morning (Racked)