Brandy Melville: London Carnaby Garage Sale

Finally getting down to blogging about this - Brandy's Garage Sale in London on 31 May. If I'm not wrong this is the first time BM held a sale in London, so it was pretty exciting. Brandy had been holding garage sales around Europe for the past few weeks and finally it was London's turn. I got to know of it on Instagram about 2 weeks before, right after my exams and I literally screamed after I saw LOL so I was looking forward to it so much! Carnaby also had a 20% off shopping party on the Thursday of the same week, but I didn't go as I was quite busy that evening and also I was hoping to get the new pieces in store at 50% off during the sale.

Anyway on Sunday morning, I woke up late. LOL. I meant to wake up at 8/9 to do some stuff / pack a bit but I guess I'd been too excited the night before and couldn't sleep, so I only woke up at around 11.30am. Got changed quickly and walked to Oxford Circus where I was supposed to meet E because she said she'd check out the sale with me! We walked over to Carnaby and arrived at 1254 when the sale was supposed to begin at 1300. Mistake :( The queue was already this long by then:

So we went around the corner and joined the back of the queue which was all the way past the bar on Kingly Street. THEN IT BEGAN TO RAIN. I had my waterproof jacket but of all days it rained super heavily that day. I never had the habit of bringing an umbrella. Surprisingly no one left the queue and most people had umbrellas with them. Also saw a few parents with their kids. I suppose most people came better prepared than me LOL.

Waited for super long. E left to run some errands and she brought back a raspberry magnum for me. Regent Street was having some Magnum event that day. At least I had magnum to munch on while waiting. E left after a while hahaha so I started talking to this Korean girl who was in the queue next to me, she was pretty cool. We'd started queuing from 1255, and we'd only just managed to turn around the corner at Toms at about 1428. That was 2.5h just to get to Toms. And after Toms there was still a long way ... So near yet so far.

Finally reached the store window at about 1535. O M G. Tried to peer in to see what was on sale cause we had absolutely no idea at all. Much to our disappointment they'd bordered out about half the store with all the new arrivals, which meant that the new arrivals were not going to be part of the sale. Great ... regretting not going for the shopping part on Thursday, I could've gotten one of the tote bags T_T Anyway, the sale was only a small portion at the centre of the store, so we couldn't really see what exactly was on sale. Spotted a few floral shorts and skirts at the side so I made a mental note to get those once I got in.

... And this was taken right before I got in at 1609 LOL. That was 3 hours of solid waiting o m g.  To shop just for 10 minutes. Anyway they'd let in about 20 girls right before us, so we were right at the front of the queue!! Then after a few minutes the guard said we could go in, so we rushed in. We had to leave our bags and coats at the counter and just take our wallet. I was too busy grabbing clothes to take anymore photos LOL. But basically it was just a few racks, like at the front of the sale there was a rack of skirts and below it was a rack of shorts. I grabbed 2 floral Heather skirts, 2 Remi shorts, a pair of Eve shorts, 3 Vodi shorts and 2 Kaitlee skirts from those racks. One of the Vodis and one of the Remis were the last piece in that design, so I had to get them. Off to the next one. There was a rack of long pants behind that rack and I saw the Alexah pants in the bohemian print and the new orange floral print, but decided against them because I don't like the waistband on them. Then going from clockwise direction it was outerwear, knits, tops, more tops until the counter. Saw the Scar jacket and was sooooo tempted but decided against it cause I wasn't sure of the quality and if I'd wear it. 

In the centre of the store they had a box of halters and tanks, so I managed to pick out a super nice Edel knit tank in baby pink, a white ribbed Joanne tank, a striped Mary tank and another blue marl loose tank top (which I later discovered stains on ugh should've checked). Saw a few bandeaus and a few of the striped Sachis but I don't really like the material of the striped Sachis. The next rack was all dresses. Omg. They had the Herika dresses in the rare older prints, so I got one of each since I didn't own any Herika dresses before that. Skipped the plain mint one cause it looked a bit sheer. Then there was the Alena dress in this textured material that was quite thick, so I got that too along with a tartan print Abigail dress. The next rack was all Luana tops, saw a plain dirty green one and a baby blue one but decided against those. Oh and I found the crochet design Joanne and crop top (I think it's either the Giselle or the Ellie?) against the wall so I got one of each too. By then I think my arm was starting to shake under the weight LOL the wooden hangers are super heavy. Walked around a bit more and realised I didn't have time to look at the Nadine tops but then they said the 10 minutes was up so we had to go and pay T_T Never mind I don't think I could've handled anymore anyway. So I went to pay and I think I bought the most number of stuff in the group T_T And the worst thing was they ripped out the price tags after scanning the items so I couldn't even check how much I'd spent on each item or if they'd miscounted or anything. Anyway my items amounted to a total of 235.50, which I thought was pretty okay considering I'd gotten 22 items. But I'm still pretty annoyed that I don't know the price of each individual piece I feel like I need to know argh, plus they don't give you a proper receipt so you can't return the stuff but that means you can't check either. I don't get why they wouldn't issue the receipt though, I mean if someone tries to return you can just check the date to make sure they didn't buy it during the sale and at 50% off? Idk. Lesson learnt: Should've taken note of price tags before paying. 

Paying. THE VODIS I'D BEEN SEARCHING FOR THEM FOR AGES. WOOHOO. And the Bruna shorts are right below. Then the Herika dresses. WOOHOO.

Mandatory hauls of the day photo!!

Most of the stuff were in perfect condition, except for the blue tank which had stains. So annoyed and I haven't tried washing it off yet but I've left it in London so will only be able to do so after I get back ... Some of the stuff had a few loose threads, didn't have time to check properly either :( Nothing too major though, thankfully, at least not any I've spotted yet. But otherwise everything else was in perfect condition!! Super happy with my Edel knit, the colour is gorgeous and really comfy to wear! As well as the Mary tank, I wore it during my last week in London haha. And finally managed to find the Vodi shorts in the black and blue floral print, I'd been looking for that for ages and it was the last one!! Had some loose threads on the bottom though but pretty expected due to the material and it wasn't too major anyway. Also super in love with the Bruna shorts, they're in a pretty shade of pastel pink and used to cost like 29 or something. And the Herika dresses. Okay whatever I basically love everything I bought!!! Except the blue tank but I guess it'll be fine once I wash the stains out. I hope. Super regret not looking at the Nadine tops and slightly regretting not getting the Scar jacket but argh whatever. I'M HAPPY WITH MY HAULS!!!

Okay so that concludes my first BM sale LOL never would I have thought that I'd be able to actually attend one ... They're always holding warehouse sales in the US and I've always been so envious of people who get to go. Anyway hopefully I'll be able to go for more in the future hahaha crapz my $$$ ... #brandy4life ayeeeeee.