Annie Sez – The Fashionista’s Secret Weapon

A friend recently sent me an invitation to attend an Annie Sez preview event.  At first I was a little hesitant about attending, because although I had heard of Annie Sez, I really didn’t know much about them.  For some reason I thought they catered to little old ladies and not to divas like me .

I decided to do a little research on the store.  First I checked out the Annie Sez website. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they featured some top of the line brands on their website.  Then I headed to twitter and did a search for any mentions of Annie Sez.  I found a couple very enthusiastic tweets from people who were tweeting about some of their purchases at the store.  Deciding that it couldn’t be that bad, I decided to attend, and I am so happy I did, because I think I just found my new favorite store.

Annie Sez has been around for a long time. They opened their first store back in 1974.  They specialize in high end designer fashions for women at deeply discounted rates.  If I had to compare them to another store, I would compare them to TJMaxx or Marshall’s.  However, they are different in that you don’t have to spend hours searching through their racks to find your size.  Their clothing is very neatly arranged kind of like how a department store arranges their racks, nice and organized.  They are currently undergoing a makeover and they started with their store in East Brunswick.

The East Brunswick store is beautifully designed.  It is an 11,000-square-foot shoppers paradise.  It is nice and roomy and well lit.  This was what I saw as I entered the store:

All of the bloggers who were scheduled to attend had not yet arrived so I started browsing around and was shocked by how many high end designers they carried.  They had Prada, Missoni, Calvin Klein, DKNY, Elie Tahari, Cynthia Steffe, Lamb and much, much more.

Later, when all the bloggers had arrived, Fred Forcellati, the chains creative director, addressed us to give us a little background on the store’s history and their new makeover.  He also talked a bit about some of their offerings and fashion trends and how Annie Sez strives to keep abreast of fashion trends.  He also mentioned that the Annie Sez store in East Brunswick is their “flagship” store which will serve as the model for all new and remodeled Annie Sez stores.

Fred kept the presentation short, because we all wanted to go shop!  I met some fabulous fashion bloggers and had a blast exploring the store and shopping with them.  This is what I came home with:

A fabulous pair of Steve Madden Troopa Boots!

Disclosure: I received a complimentary Annie Sez Gift Card for attending this event.