Clapboard paradise where shopping is still in fashion
The world economy may be flirting with disaster once again but in a sleepy corner of Oxfordshire they are shopping like it’s 2007.
Well it looks like it anyway: in a uniform of sunglasses, skinny jeans and wedge heels, crooked arms strain under the weight of Burberry, Gucci and Prada shopping bags. But the glamorous shoppers are all in on a secret; they are part of a club that has quit Bond Street for Bicester Village, a designer discount outlet an hour’s train ride from London that by stealth has become one of the world’s most successful shopping Authentic Prada Shoes For Sale centres.
With its New England-style clapboard houses and pristine flagged walkways there is no evidence of the wrecking ball that has been knocking chunks out of the UK’s traditional high streets. It is a prelapsarian shopping bubble, Wisteria Lane with shops instead of houses and celebrity shoppers such as the Middleton clan, Samantha Cameron and Claudia Schiffer.
Last year model Erin O’Connor joined the celebrity fray, appearing at a British Designers Collective pop-up store launch at the village.
Bicester is at Apertura Outlet Prada Montevarchi the vanguard of a shopping trend that is helping upmarket brands to defy the downturn and, whisper it, get rid of unsold stock to the hoi polloi. If you have ever pressed your nose against the window of a Burberry or Prada boutique but felt too intimidated to go in, worried you will be turfed out Pretty Woman-style by a snooty shop assistant, places like Bicester, Portsmouth’s Gunwharf Quays and Cheshire Oaks are for you.
At Bicester there’s 70% off at the Duchess of Cambridge’s favourite high street store Reiss and you can pop into Prada, Jimmy Choo and Burberry without fear of reprisal. Last year 4.5 million people visited its shops and owner Value Retail reports sales up 28.5% so far this year.
With 20 outlets similar to Bicester, the European market leader is McArthurGlen, the owner of Cheshire Oaks. Its marketing director Shaeren McKenzie says the formula for success is simple: «We obsess about the environment; Bottega Veneta looks just as good in our Venice centre as it does on Sloane Street – and you also get to save some money.» She is wearing a cream linen Bottega Veneta tailored jacket but confesses: «I paid full price for it because I am an idiot.»
McArthurGlen also demands that its staff are friendly: «If our chairman walks into a store and the staff don’t greet him he walks out and phones the chief executive,» says McKenzie.
A trawl around Britain’s most successful designer outlets reveals a marriage of high street and high-end, with brands such as Burberry rubbing shoulders with Ted Baker and Superdry. For luxury brands like Gucci, Prada and Burberry it is a way to clear unsold goods under the radar and McKenzie reveals that while fashion labels «don’t like us to talk about them», they «make a ton of money out of their outlet businesses».
Alex McCulloch, senior consultant at retail property analysts CACI, says the recession has forced shoppers to drive further to visit designer outlets, of which there are now 49 in Britain. «People are harder up and these shopping centres are a destination trip. People still need to buy clothes and they provide an opportunity to do so more cheaply.»
Tourist trail
On Friday morning, trade at Bicester is brisk. Rebecca, who is on holiday in the area, Are Prada Nylon Bags Worth The Money has Agatha Ruiz Prada Online Shop bought back-to-school coats from Helly Hansen for her children. At £30 she says they were «less than half price», adding: «I haven’t finished yet.»
More typical is Viki, a Chinese student in denim miniskirt and knee-high boots who has just graduated with a business degree from Norwich and is on a celebratory shopping trip with her sister. With a Burberry handbag already slung over her shoulder she says she «loves the British brand» but Authentic Prada Bags Outlet Online on this occasion is clutching shopping bags emblazoned with Prada and Vivienne Westwood.
Dounia, visiting from Morocco, can hardly carry her haul of Guess shoes, Burberry T-shirts and Armani handbag: «It is much cheaper than at home and way cheaper than in town.»
Like Big Ben and Blenheim Palace, places like Bicester Village have made it on to the trail followed by wealthy tourists from places like China and the Middle East, who are single-handedly propping up the global luxury goods market. China’s ambassador is reported to have told David Cameron last year «to build more Bicester Villages» if Britain wants to pull in more visitors. They are already a force to be reckoned Agatha Ruiz Dela Prada Sale Uk with, as illustrated by statistics for tax refunded sales generated by Chinese visitors to Bicester, which were up 61% in the first six months of this year. The figures for south-east Asia and the Middle East were 96% and 68% respectively.
Luxury brands treat their images with kid gloves and fret over how to get Authentic Prada Handbags Canada rid of unsold stock, especially when they don’t officially go «on sale» like the rest of the high street. Options include the TK Maxx chain or the internet, such as the private sales offered by Vente-privee or Net-a-porter’s The Outnet, but insiders admit that even then, orange harem pants can come back to haunt them. «Even if you sell it to Ukraine, it somehow seems to pop up next Authentic Prada Wallet For Sale Philippines to one of your stores,» says one.
Sceptics, who suspect outlet centres are a dumping ground for orange About Prada Products jumpsuits and size zero hotpants, will be gratified to spot the odd shocker. A latecomer to the yeti look that was popular last winter could snap up a less-than-half-price Gucci fur-sleeved leather jacket handbags for £2330, though the Italian brand is also selling some sensible black wool/silk trousers, in a size 14 no less, for £190. It is a similar treasure hunt in Alexander McQueen, where there is a blue-and-red bodycon dress – which only someone with the body mass index of Kate Moss should attempt – that has 75% off at £214. There is also a beautiful corseted chiffon evening dress that would be easier to get Authentic Prada Purses Sale away with, but even at below half-price is a hefty £1,150.
At Bicester it is hard to ignore the number of orange Superdry shopping bags being wielded by shoppers. Chief executive Julian Dunkerton is a big fan of outlet centres: «Our main stores don’t have a sale so it is the perfect valve for [disposing of] out-of-season stock or a product where we don’t have all the sizes. It doesn’t hurt you at all. When you look who else is there [Bicester], it is every top brand you can think of.»
McKenzie, who says her best bargain to date is a Jil Sander coat reduced from €2,000 (£1,740) to €900, believes the prolonged downturn is turning Britons on to the charms of outlet shopping. Even in Greece, where McArthurGlen recently opened a new centre in Athens, she says sales are flying: «You would think it was a different planet.»