I wanted to write personally to explain why koodos has ditched the private sale. Koodos held its final private sale last week. I wanted to clarify to all why we are closing down private sales and why it might matter to you.

In the current credit crunch environment, our customers want a choice of bargains all of the time and do not want to wait for them. Private sales create a barrier for retailers and customers, offering only limited goods for limited periods of time. We know from speaking to you that you are looking for high standards of service and ease of shopping, as well you should.

Koodos introduced the private sale model to the UK when it first launched almost two years ago. Koodos soon added open sales to the mix, finding them an answer to the limitations of private sales. At the time there was relatively little fashion discounting and the closed environment of private sales helped us to win over brands which were initially nervous about offering their merchandise at a discounted price. However, brands now view the fashion discount sector as an established part of the sales mix.

We look at the proliferation of sites now, two years later, offering private sales. On these private sales sites, customers cannot purchase until their favoured brand is scheduled and then have to wait, often for weeks, for their purchases to arrive. We at koodos pride ourselves in offering the speediest delivery possible, often next day. Speedy and reliable online delivery is expected and will be crucial in the run-up to Christmas.

Also, the practice of referrals and membership, with the need to remember passwords and log ins, further complicates the buying process for customers. What started off as a way to offer you fashion bargains has in my humble opinion devolved into a way for other sites to rationalise poor customer service.

So what will koodos do now?

We will keep offering fashion bargains on thousands of styles from over 150 brands every day.

Koodos will enhance open sales with sale previews, providing frequent customers with the opportunity to sign up for 24 hour advance access to chosen brands and events. This follows the success of brand alerts, where we let you know when we get new arrivals from your favourite brands.

The company is also launching bargainista.co.uk, which will champion online and offline fashion bargains and create a community of bargain hunters. The community will feature independent advice on fashion bargain shopping, with guides and deals. It launches this month with guides to Christmas gifting and the best London fashion bargain stores and sample sales. Watch this space for more details.
The private sale model has served its purpose in helping to start discount fashion retailing here in the UK. But business changes, and as the sector’s pioneer, we are changing with it. We want to be the champion of fashion bargains and the go to source for independent advice on the best offers. We believe this is what the customer wants. Opening up our doors 24/7, offering speedy delivery on your purchase, and helping you find deals outside of koodos is the best way for koodos to offer what you have been telling us you want.

I am green with envy over Caroline, the glamorous winner of the koodos / handbag.com competition. Not only did she get invited along to London Fashion Week, to sit on the front row of a couple of London’s most sensational catwalk shows but she became a designers muse for the day. As part of her prize, she got to pick an outfit from one of four of the hottest up and coming designers who featured in koodos’ Vauxhall Fashion Scout online Boutique. The lucky thing, especially liked the look created by the seductive and highly stylish designers, Harriet’s muse.

Harriet’s Muse is famous for tailor fitting unique corsets and dresses, so not only did Caroline win a beautiful silk dress created by the hands of the immensely talented designers Cheryl Partington and Craig Spellar; she got to have it made to exactly her size. Guarantees no ‘friends’ borrowing your favourite dress hey?

Here are few pics of her having it fitted. Are you jealous too? If so go check out Harriet Muse’s boutique on the first floor of Kingly court, just off Carnaby street. Plus, you could always enter a koodos competition too and maybe next time, YOU could win something as fabulous.

Exciting news people.

As koodos gears up for London Fashion week, it was with great success that Vauxhall Fashion Scout held a salon evening last night, with the organisers John Walford and Martyn Roberts working closely with koodos, for up and coming fashion designers, a number of whom are going to be showing their collections at VFS during London Fashion week next month.

As part of our presence at London Fashion Week in September as a sponsor of the off schedule catwalk event Vauxhall Fashion Scout, koodos  has established a mentoring program, again working closely with VFS, for young designers and last night was the first furor into the the new initiative.

Our hugely experienced CEO, Miriam Lahage, was the guest speaker at the evening, held in the beautiful Craft Central building in Clerkenwell, speaking to the assembled designers about her experience within the buying arena.

Miriam gave some invaluable tips and hints on how a young designer can prosper in a very challenging market. Not only did she offer advice on how to deal with buyers, but also how to deal with the current economic downturn, insight into how designers get stuff out there and more importantly get seen.

A cosy event, with Vauxhall Fashion Scout designers (and a few designers just after some advice) in attendance, all said how helpful and insightful the evening was.

We are all super excited about our mentoring scheme and as a result we will be announcing which designers we will be featuring in a special Boutique on the koodos website.

The Boutique will be open during London Fashion Week and in Miriam’s own words “It isn’t easy for young designers to break into new outlets and also money is tight for them. We have created the Boutique to help the designers as well as enable the fashion loving public to access some breathtaking collections that wouldn’t otherwise be available to them.”

More exciting news about Vauxhall Fashion Scout, the Boutique and London Fashion Week coming soon - watch this space.

Photography by Nick Stovey

This will definitely be the mantra of the fashion-obsessed for the next month, as legendary department store Harrods opened its doors to the renowned Summer Sale yesterday morning.

In true tradition of female celebrities starting the sale, Miss Kim Cattrall of Sex and The City arrived just before 9:00 in a fabulous cream outfit and Givenchy shoes that would make even Samantha drool. After pulling up in a horse-drawn carriage, the British-born actress (that’s right! She lived in Liverpool for the first three years of her life) was greeted by owner Mohamed Al Fayed in front of hundreds of eager shoppers.

While perusing the incredible mark-downs on YSL and Gucci handbags she went on to say, “from the clothes, shoes [and] handbags…I’ve been a faithful Harrods shopper since I got my first credit card.” Ahh the life of the rich and famous!

But even for the rest of us, who only dream of maxing out the card in those hallowed halls, can find bargains galore from now until July 26^th, when the sale ends. Rumours have been circulating that Chloe shoes and Vivienne Westwood dresses have dropped to prices half their original value! The sale also takes place online, just in case you can’t drag yourself out.

(Speaking of online…don’t forget about koodos’ clearance sale going on right now as well. Hurry up and have a look! The cutest things always go first!)

So, with even more discounts and special events for cardholders, Harrods (and koodos) is surely THE place to be for the rest of the summer – see you there!