Warehouse Sale Redux: Barneys Lands In Loehmanns

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Take a deep breath. How we do we start discussing the dumptruck of deals from Barneys that has just unloaded at Loehmann's? How about whetting your appetite with the mention of $99 Alexander Wang dresses, $150 Brunello Cuccinellli cashmere, and a veritable sea of Dolce & Gabbana? Lured by a cryptic Loehmann's email promising a huge shipment from a "hip Madison Avenue store," we dropped by last night.

The vast quantities of luxury labels, including Barneys-exclusive items, drove us to ponder the paradox of choice and use our iPhone down to 5% battery life (had to snap photos this route after a rack-pushing associate wagged his finger at our camera). We also twittered a few breathless impressions; just one perk of following us on Twitter.

Does Barneys need a quick injection of cash or what? The goods on offer are not simply last seasons—although we did have an uncomfortable run-in with a Marc by Marc Jacobs dress we turned down at the Warehouse Sale a year ago. A plethora of Moschino coats, Elizabeth & James jackets, and Prada that only just left the stores.

After wading through the worst of it, we realized that the selection was so vast and the brands so varied that we could no longer trust our memory to keep track of it. So we began a list...

This is a list of the lines you'll find amongst the racks on the third floor, women's designer department of the Chelsea Loehmann's. Done in no particular order, simply as we tried to make sense of it all...
· Kate Moss for Topshop (seems to be only that flapper dress) · Pollini · Prada · M Missoni · Moschino (lots, have fun!) · Brunello Cuccinelli · Helmut Lang (so tempting, their selection) · Versace · Roberto Cavalli and Just Cavalli · Valentino RED · Dolce & Gabbana (the good stuff, not D&G) · Dsquared · Cynthia Steffe · Twelfth Street by Cynthia Vincent · Maison Martin Margiela (crazy, we know!) · Barneys Co-Op · Barneys · John Galliano · Jean-Paul Gaultier · Michael Kors · Yves Saint Laurent (very limited, but it's there alright) · Marc Jacobs · Marc by Marc Jacobs (a huge selection, but it all seems like larger versions of the dresses we wore at age 7) · Alexander Wang · Costume National · Philsophy di Alberta Ferretti · Peter Som · Piazza Sempione · Theory (seemed to be sprinkled in everywhere) · Armani (Giorgio and Armani Collezioni) · Elie Tahari · See by Chloe · Twenty8Twelve · Loro Piana · Ralph Lauren · Isaac Mizrahi · Stella McCartney · Milly · Leroy & Perry (from Lutz & Patmos) · Generra · Elizabeth and James (quite a bit, including leather jackets) · Pringle · Coming Soon (how did a Yohji Yamamoto brand get wrapped up in this?)

Someone please do us a favor and keep Michael Kors far away from Loehmann's this weekend, lest he decides to check his sale stuff out and suffer a fainting spell. Same goes for Isaac Mizrahi.

Now let's talk pricing: the highest we saw (and we checked over 100 tags) was a Prada dress at $999. The occasional standout coat from the biggest brands could reach $599 (down from the crazy thousands, of course), but the most popular numbers looked to be $199 and $399. Cheapest were possibly the Marc by Marc Jacobs tops, and definitely some See by Chloe at $50.

If you're planning on doing some serious damage and don't have enough arms to carry everything, Loehmann's does have a personal shopper: Victoria Nielsen at Victorian@loehmanns.com. Of course, resorting to a personal shopper means that you've already exhausted your supply of best friends, work lunch buddies, and gays.

One last note: Since the store closes at a point in the evening, we were unable to sniff out the similar deals downstairs in mens and we even missed stopping into the shoe section. If anyone swings by and discovers steals, please share the info in the comments!