During a recent trip to Chicago, I toured the gorgeous new Zara store at the Old Orchard shopping center just outside Chicago. Not like, an "official" tour, hence the lack of interior photos, but I went there with my mom and sister and we all agreed it is truly a pleasurable place to shop. Zara is spacious, clean and highly organized. Track lighting illuminates neatly arranged garments, shoes and handbags just like an upscale boutique--Prada comes to mind.
This ain't no Forever 21, nor does it try to be. Styles appeal to an older, more polished clientèle--there's plenty of business casual attire that can take today's sophisticated working woman from the boardroom to a posh nightclub--and yet the prices are not those you'd find at a designer boutique. Wool peacoats were on sale for $80. My sister bought a chic black trench full price for just $89. Also, Zara generally avoids knock-offs and instead offers the latest runway-inspired trends. I saw a leather patchwork hobo only vaguely reminiscent of a Miu Miu bag; plenty of luxe plaid jackets; black leather bombers; studded belts; oversized clutches; lots of dark colors; and what seemed to be an entire Gucci-inspired collection with peasant blouses, embroidered details, and coin link belts.
What I would like to see is an improved sale section, and perhaps a less somber mood, which will most likely happen in the spring when bright colors make their return. I didn't purchase anything on this trip, but I will definitely pay them a visit each time I go to Old Orchard, and need a reprieve from the sensory-overload at the mega-Forever 21 a few doors down.
What I would like to see is an improved sale section, and perhaps a less somber mood, which will most likely happen in the spring when bright colors make their return. I didn't purchase anything on this trip, but I will definitely pay them a visit each time I go to Old Orchard, and need a reprieve from the sensory-overload at the mega-Forever 21 a few doors down.
I have to say I have always shopped there, since I was about 3 and my mother would take me to the only one in town, downtown. 20 years pass and it is still my favorite store of all times (now there are more than a dozen just where I live, which is a fairly small town), it presents high end fashion at extremely affordable prices (I am not sure it is that way in the states, because it's imported for you, but in Portugal very rarely does a jacket, for example, cost more that 50 euros, without it being on sale).
The quality of the clothes is amazing, I have items with more that ten years that I still wear.
Of course there is a downside to it, many people go there, so may people buy the same things, but since they renew their stock with new clothes twice a week that problem is easily overcome, and also, because of this every week there is a sale section from the week before, and once the "old clothes" get of the store you just have to wait about a week or so to find them at "lefties" (there is also one of these for every sing town), which is sort of an outlet for clothes that are two weeks old! lol
About the clothes being a little sofisticated for a younger audience the group that owns zara has othes stores, more targeted for a younger market, "berska" and "stradivarius", for instance, and also the zara store itself as a section for teens, "trafaluc".
I have to say that I gravitate more towards zara basics exactly because it has a more grown up style, I look so much younger that I am, that I have to do something to look my age, otherwise no one believes that I am a year short of being a doctor (that is a problem at the hospital, believe me!)lol
(what a long comment!)
This may be worth making a trip though. I've a friend from Europe who swears by it and probably 80% of her closet is Zara, haha.