Buying clothes in South Africa is mission. I’ve yet to see our local Zara as I live in Cape Town, but as it is, there just aren’t enough places to buy fashion forward clothing at prices that won’t break the bank. As a result, Karisa and I are taking the plunge in that we’re going to try and start buying more clothes online – even with the exchange rate and shipping, it should work out to cost less – or ‘even’ at best. Our only real worry is how much we’re going to get klapped at customs. That and the whole ‘OMG, what if it looks awesome online, but fits like kak up close’ issue…
Anyway, our first online experient is currently under way with Forever21. They’re like the Mr. P of the states, but offer way more variety, are more on trend and most things are a bit better quality. We’ve made a point of buying a smallish mix so we can check out the fit, service, shipping, potential tax dramz etc.
Anyway, this is one of the jackets I bought:
Its $29,80 so that works about to be about R238. Still, my boyfriend gave us the best advice; take everything you see and then double the price in case you get screwed on the tax (R460) and then, if you still want it, buy it. So ja, I totally popped it into my basket. Just worried it might not look as awesome in ‘real life’ as it does on their models (who are all pretty much anorexic-looking, just so you know…)
Anyway, between K and I, we snapped up ten items and international priority shipping was only $58 – about R464 which split between the two of us is just over R200 each.
Can’t wait for everything to arrive and will be sure to let you know how it all turns out,
X x x
Lipgloss is my Life 
cool can’t wait to hear how it goes! would love to shop for clothes online but am also terrified about customes etc.
Ja, we’re v excited. We each spent about R500, so if worst comes to worst it’ll be R100, but then we’re still getting five pieces of (hopefully) fab clothing that nobody else is likely to have, so its still totally worth it.
Agreed! When do you expect the merchandise to arrive? Can’t wait for the post!
Oooooh, I’m so excited! (but nervous at the same time) – hope the stuff is awesome.
My friend and I lived in the States for a while, and finding something to wear is always a battle in SA. If you dress from Woolies etc, you are bound to bump into someone at the same event wearing exactly the same thing. Tha lack of variety is so frustrating. Everyone that goes to the States falls in love with Forever 21, and I was hoping Forever New was similiar, but unfortunately turned out not to be the case. Didn’t know US online stores shipped to SA, thanks for the suggestion. Give Asos (uk version) a try, they ship to SA for free! I’
It’s a struggle, hey? I sometimes feel like Woolies is one of the only places I can buy clothes – but I’m totally with you on the ‘everyone else is in it too’ thing. Also, half their stuff is sooo boring. ;-( Very excited to see how Forever 21 works out and have been skulking around Asos too (my friend Clouds is an ASOS freak), but we opted for the former ‘cos it wasn’t as expensive. Can’t wait!!!
I have many a time browsed around Forever 21 online store and then backed out for all of the reasons you stated so will be great to see how the quality, cut, price truly is 🙂
I love this. I can’t wait to see what the goodies look like. That blazer is adorbs. I’ve heard good things about Forever21, so hopefully everything looks fabulous in person. I’m petrified of customs and that’s probably the main reason I don’t really buy online. I know if you mark something as a gift then you can sometimes slip past customs.
P.S. Thanks for popping by my blog and for commenting. 🙂 Check out all the comments on your blog. What were you talking about? 😉
Ja, I’m so excited. Like every five seconds K and I BBM each other going ‘OMG! I want it to arrive NOW!’ The site didn’t say how long it would take so I’m hoping its nolonger than a week – or less. Will be sure to relay every scrap of info we can and hope they don’t screw us too much re taxes; I’m already itching to put together shipment number two. 😉
So exciting for you! If you ship it with a courier, they nail you a bit more with customs, so be prepared – think around 40% of the total price. Sending it to the Post Office takes longer, is a bit riskier, but works out a tiny bit cheaper. I’ve bought things (clothes/jewellery/prints) from all over and have always received everything at the Post Office. Also, if your order is under a certain amount (customs seem to suck this out of their thumbs though), you don’t pay any customs. I think it’s around R500 total. I’ve bought packages for <R300 and paid no customs. Ooh and check out Etsy for stunning jewellery. And have you checked out the local shopping sites? 36Boutiques is a bit boring and mainstream, but Spence is fabulous.
Oooh what fab advice! Ja, I used to shop a lot on strawberrynet.com and would always pick unregistered shipping as opposed to registered ‘cos then it would go via the PO and you wouldn’t get taxed. Only downside is the sucky PO would lose your shizz half the time. That’s also why, if I bought 3 things, I’d split them up to better the odds of at least one arriving as opposed to possibly losing everything.
Anyway, I can’t wait for this all to arrive, will be sure to let everyone know exactly how it all rolls out.
X x x