The Shopping Section
We've compiled some of the best sites and stores out there to help you target your shopping and avoid the frustration of not knowing where to go for what.
While you're building and maintaining your stylish, fabulous, decidedly non-frumpy wardrobe, please click on the links below. Image Interpreters is affiliated with many of them and since you're shopping anyway, your purchases will help us offer contests and giveaways. Style and fun in one!
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- Broad spectrum selection: both classic and on-trend designs offered at reasonable to higher price points. Broad selection also ensures "something for everyone." Better designer selection than most department stores.
- Very user friendly website: can shop online & return in store, excellent online jeans fit tool.
- Head-to-Toe dressing: good for finding apparel, footwear, intimates and accessories.
- High end design at discounted prices. Fabulous for discovering new designers and scoring deals!
- Look to Yoox for investment pieces, whether they be classic or cutting edge
- Limited but diverse selection: fewer options than department stores but much broader than the invite-only "designer-at-a-discount" sites
- Modest without being matronly.
- Apparel selection limited to dresses but plenty of options. A few shoes & accessories as well.
- Shopping made easy - Vignettes are entire outfits, including shoes and accessories, offered at a discount.
Can't say enough good things about Nordstrom!
- World-renowned customer service!
- Fabulous sales throughout the year!
Yoox - One of the most gorgeous and FUN shopping sites ever!
An insider secret for a while but word was bound to get out.
An insider secret for a while but word was bound to get out.
A great little discovery I stumbled upon thanks to another blogger.
Decidedly non-frumpy modest dresses!
Must visit!
- Unbelievably large selection on clothes, shoes, and accessories for women, men, and children. The only downside is getting lost searching through all the options and pinning down what you really want.
- Free shipping both ways = hassle-free internet shopping. Service is excellent.
- Mostly mid-range price and design. Makes it easy to stay within your budget but the high-end and couture lines are expanding. Exciting!
Zappos revolutionized how we shop for shoes. Then they added clothes and accessories - the rest is history... rewritten!
- Style leader in plus-size fashions.
- On-trend styles cut to fit properly and maintain proportion. Tent-like clothing just makes you look larger!
- Find apparel and intimates at very reasonable prices.
- Head to Toe to... Home! Mid-range design at mid-range prices. Huge selection of apparel, accessories, intimates, footwear, etc. Look to Zappos, Heels.com, or Nordstrom for a more interesting shoe selection.
- Also operates Bloomingdales.com, the world's first department store and the high-end designer side of the family. Peruse the site for inspiration if it's outside your budget.
- Superior service and secure shopping. An American institution for a reason.
- On-line boutique site selling exclusively women's shoes. Recently opened a store in their headquarter city of Charlotte, NC.
- Good range of designers and prices. Classic and on-trend designs. Excellent navigation tools to narrow down to exactly what you need.
- Free shipping, free returns, price protection, and loyalty program make online shopping simple.
The average American woman is a size 14/16.
When you're a larger size it's even more important to find stylish clothes that truly fit well. You'll feel and treat yourself better.
When you're a larger size it's even more important to find stylish clothes that truly fit well. You'll feel and treat yourself better.
Macy's - 150 years old and still America's department store. Dress everyone in the family!
Bloomingdales introduced the first "designer shopping bags" to take your purchases home. Many are now collector's items.
Bloomingdales introduced the first "designer shopping bags" to take your purchases home. Many are now collector's items.
When you know exactly what you need, like a new pair of high heels, a boutique shop can be a better option.
You don't have to search through departments you don't need and the staff is extremely knowledgeable.
You don't have to search through departments you don't need and the staff is extremely knowledgeable.
- Classic and refined without being boring. Chief Frump Fighter lived in Ann Taylor suits during her road-warrior sales years! Now I break them into separates for date night and to dress up jeans.
- Look here for classic staples; skirt or pant suits and very wearable accessories.
- Reasonably priced with enough quality to stand as investment pieces. Recently won In Style's award for best cashmere sweater and we agree! You'd wear it for a lifetime.
- Ann Taylor's more relaxed, casual sister.
- Competes in the very reasonable "upper moderate" price category.
- Great size range to accommodate nearly every figure!
- Romance headquarters! Feminine, whimsical, beautiful clothes and accessories not to be found anywhere else.
- Don't have to be a "girly girl" to shop Anthropologie. A few of these pieces incorporated into even the most tom-boy of wardrobes keeps things soft and elegant.
- Very unique shoe selection but the prices can be a bit steep. Watch the sales!
- Accessible luxury. Think more trendy than Ann Taylor, more dressy than Gap.
- Consistently great design. Taking trends and making them wearable for many years.
- We miss the safari themed shopping bags we grew up with! Wouldn't it be great to resurrect those?
- Founded in 1969 with one simple principle - to make it easier to find a great pair of jeans. Gap still follows that principle today with a very wide range of denim.
- Look here for casual staples and "play clothes", like jeans, khakis, shorts and tees.
- Great sale prices throughout the year!
- Quality standards at reasonable prices.
- Casual basics similar to Gap but with a more preppy, trendy twist and broader selection into fancier/business dress apparel.
- Well-known swimsuit selection at reasonable prices.
- Theme store perfected! WH/BM started in the 80's as separate boutiques then combined in the 90's into one fabulous concept store.
- The wonderful simplicity of black and white dressing interpreted into remarkably different styles, allowing every customer to maintain individuality.
- Very reasonably priced. Great finds year in, year out!
- Not something you expected to find in The Shopping Section, right? Many if not most Image Interpreters visitors are mothers and this is a great site for scoring deals on all those needs, wants and must haves for our little ones!
- Brand-new items from more than 350 designers and most at 40% off retail. That can still mean high prices sometimes (these are designer items, after all) but not always and the sales are great. Navigation tools let you search by how much you want to spend.
- Frequently rotating selection - that means if you love it, grab it!
- Our favorite part? The one-click "cashmere" search from the home-page!
- Pronounced "pret-a-portay", as in French for "off the rack" or "ready to wear."
- Cool website presents apparel like a fashion magazine. World's premier online luxury fashion retailer.
- Look here to either shop for or be inspired by the latest looks. Great place to find the designer shoes you're saving for!
- Net-a-Porter's outlet little sister! Designer items at 40% to even 80% off! Wide selection for technically a discount store.
- Shop theOutnet for designer items, trendy items, or that one perfect trench coat you'll wear for the rest of your life... without breaking the bank too badly.
- Very easy to use website. The Dress Me section offers great inspiration for a variety of looks and situations.
Online-only sites offering a wide range of designer items hard to find in smaller cities.
Shoe Shops!
In addition to Zappos and Heels.com above, check out these other exclusively shoe boutiques!
Beauty Shops!
Style is more than clothes and shoes. Check out these sites for all your hair, makeup, and body needs!
- Founded as a discount beauty retailer when prestige, mass and salon products were only sold through department stores, drug stores or authorized salons respectively.
- Nearly every brand you can imagine at standard to sale prices.
- Rewards program.
- Our absolute FAVORITE makeup brand!
- A clean, simple, modern, sophisticated, non-intimidating beauty line! Nearly impossible to make yourself look trashy with Stila products and instructions, even if you are heavy-handed with the eyeshadow brush!
- Excellent rewards program on their website. Stila is also available at Ulta, Sephora, Beauty.com and many department stores across the country.
- The leading European beauty store that finally came to the US. America's foremost internet beauty mecca.
- Experts at your fingertips! Very well-trained staff know their stuff. If there's no Sephora near you, their website is chock-full of expert tips and tricks.
- Another great resource for all things hair, makeup and body.
- 5% cash back toward future purchases.
- Sister site to Drugstore.com, a great place to find everyday basics if, like me, you have a house full of babies and can't easily get out to the store. Or you're in a smaller town with few stores and limited selection.
