A Fashion Discovery

The other night, I made a bit of a new discovery to myself, not that it is probably anything new to anyone else, but I finally got around to checking out ASOS.com, an online fashion site.

I've often seen them credited in magazines and blogs as the source of different items of clothing, but had never actually ventured onto the site myself.  A few days ago, prompted by seeing someone return something to them at the Post Office, I did just that and was very pleasantly surprised indeed.

Although I'd say that the site is largely geared toward younger fashion fans, it does have a very good range of sizes and brands available, ranging from petite to plus size ranges, with tall, maternity and curve ranges in between.  Despite being in my forties, I do like to try to dress with an eye to current trends and at the risk of being accused of dressing too young for my age, I did find lots of things I liked on this site.

Some of the big name brands on offer included Cath Kidston, Jack Wills, Birkenstock, Ultimo, Has Beens, Converse, Nike, Whistles, River Island, plus hundreds of others. The choice was quite phenomenal, and I really liked many of their own brand designs, hence why it took me an age to look through some of the categories.  I persevered though, as I didn't want to miss any great bargains in their sale, which is still running.

On my first visit I didn't go too mad, but I did order a few t-shirts that are on my capsule wardrobe list.  Delivery is free, if you spend over £20, which is great too.  

It will be very interesting to see how the quality and sizing pans out, but all being well, I can see me returning to this site in future, when I am looking for specific items of clothing or for gifts for other younger family members.

Be warned though that it is a very popular site and some things become sold out as you are on there looking.  In particular, one item I was looking at, went out of stock whilst I continued searching, which was very disappointing, but I persevered and kept going back to it, in case someone had put it in their basket and not actually bought it.   Lo and behold, it became available again and I was able to buy it.

I made use of the saved items facility where you can bookmark items you like and return to them if you later decide to buy them.  This was great, as it meant that I didn't have to keep going back and re-find items that had timed out of my basket (as they are only kept in your basket for 60 minutes at a time, which I didn't realise).

I found the easiest way to negotiate the site was to save everything I liked first and then go back, compare the options available and add final choices to my basket just before I was ready to pay for them.  You can, of course, risk something going out of stock completely, shopping this way.

I was also very impressed by the fact that the site delivers to hundreds of countries worldwide for free, providing a spending limit is reached.

I've passed this information on to my sister in Australia who has a very fashion conscious son, who can't always buy some brands over there.  I've not tested this aspect of their service, but if it does work well, then it is a fabulous bonus and would be a great place to buy gift vouchers for relatives living abroad.