Where are the best places to buy inexpensive clothing in Paris and London?
 

Hello everyone. <BR> <BR> I am going to London and Paris with my wife in July and I wonder where we can do some clothing shopping at reasonable prices. Last time we where there, we walked a lot through Oxford street in London and Champs-Elissés in Paris, but we found prices to be quite expensive. Any tips? Thanks to all replies.

Hi, <BR> <BR>when you get to London, pick up a copy of Time Out. They typically list some places to go to get discounts... also, depending on your tastes - Camden Town has some outdoor markets - clothes are cheaper there. (but quite trendy - don't know your age group). <BR> <BR>Covent Garden is nice too, again, trendy - but not outrageous like Oxford Street. <BR> <BR>Paris - not sure what to tell you. I usually buy books there more than clothes. But the Latin Quarter is good for all of the above.

Don't know your age group so difficult to advise. H&M aren't bad for the younger set in the U.K. Boulevarde St. Michele had casual clothing boutiques (on a par with Esprit); it's near the Sorbonne so obviously catering to the student set. If you're older I would recommend the department stores - they have some less expensive lines and bargain buys sometimes.

Good luck finding any buys, even during the July sales, in London. Prices are high even in comparison with Paris, where we live. The Time Out addresses are your best bet. Paris has good discount designer places described perfectly in Let's Shop: Paris (there's also a London version), available in any bookshop. H&M is a good chain, present in London and Paris, as well as many other European cities; like a European Limited. Quality is mediocre. You also do a search in the recent Paris Hosted Forum where many good addresses were published. Good luck, send email if you have any specific questions.

Sorry, that's Born to Shop: Paris.

Go to the Bonjour Paris site at www.bparis.com. There is an article (in English) about obtaining French style where the woman writing the article goes shopping with some of her French friends and it names the stores they go to.

For Paris, during the recent hosted forum on Paris, the question of discount clothing was covered.

In Paris, Rue St. Placide, near the Bon Marche in the 7th, has many off-price stores and as well as inexpensive shoe stores. You do have to pick through the merchandise in the clothing stores, but I was able to find Petit Bateau t shirts for half of what we charge here. the area near the Picasso Museum in the 3rd has many off price men's clothing stores.

Paris also has chain stores like Prisunic and Monoprix which have inexpensive clothing, a la Walmart or Kmart.

I agree that if you are really into this, you should get one of the books on shopping in Paris, there are several about good buys. I agree that there are several discount store shopping areas in Paris (eg, the rue St-Placide mentioned above by someone) where you may not get super bargains but are definitely better than the Champs-Elysees. Another good street for consolidated discount shopping in rue d'Alesia in the 14th arr., west of the Alesia metro stop towards the Plaisance stop. There are lots of discount female clothing stores in here, some with designer names (called "stock" for some reason I don't understand when it's a designer outlet), some not. Rondissimo is a decent, moderately-priced female clothing store with several stores in Paris, one just west of the Alesia metro stop. You can probably do pretty well just by going to the regular dept stores sales which should be going on at the time you are there. You can get pretty good deals at Bon Marche, for example, during their July sales, at least I like them. I think they're the best overall; Galeries Lafayette is okay, too; la Samaritaine is pretty dowdy, I wouldn't bother. There are some men's discount designer stores on rue d'Alesia but I don't look at them much and I don't think they are as good as the women's but there are some. I suppose it depends where you're coming from, but I don't go to Paris to buy clothes as they're so expensive there; I had a friend who lived in Paris for a year or two as an intern and she came back to New York City to do clothing shopping as it was so expensive in Paris.