(Parts 2 and 1 follow) Part 3- Century 21- Accessories Great Sunglasses What makes C21 a legendary place is that it hides some awesome bargains throughout the year. Whereas for designer luxury clothing those are most likely to occur only in sales seasons, you may find quite some cool deals on some accessories all year long. Where these are most likely to be found is sunglasses’ section. They literally have it all there: Prada, Dolce and Gabbana, Burberry, Dior, Stella McCartney, Ray Ban, you name it- C21 have it!

There are separate sales staff for the sunglasses section who guard the high end and more pricey pieces. This makes it quite cumbersome to actually try the stuff on: you have to ask, they take the alarm off the particular piece, then you ask for another piece (you may need to wait until shop assistant becomes available again as they serve multiple customers at once), and so on and so forth. There are certainly more efficient ways in organizing commerce (C21, take note!) as one has to be really motivated to shop to go through such process. Said that, even for those higher end pieces the prices are extremely attractive: 109 USD for Prada, 79.99 USD for Burberry or 69.99 USD for D&G are well worth the extra effort. Zoom on the pics with price tags if you don’t believe me. You are likely not to get such prices even in the best outlets of these brands anywhere else in the world, so C21 is a great place to renew your sunglasses’ collection.

Unfortunately you are very likely not to be provided with a box for sunglasses. This is not a rule but what happens in most of the cases. Sales staff have “take it or leave it” attitude, so it may be hard to convince them to look for a matching box for your purchase. I got these Ray Ban and Valentino on my last visit and spent about 60 USD for each. No box unfortunately. I find those on kind of special price section (with no sales assistants involved) but still literally had to fight crowds in trying them on. When we are talking such bargains though, it’s all well worth the effort!

Miserable shoes

Sadly, when it comes to shoes, C21 is not the best place in the world to shop. No great brands and not that great prices.

Shoes’ section has an appearance of the separate store, however it is connected with the main store, so go and visit if you have time, but don’t have high hopes.

Said that, to find well priced designer shoes in the US is quite a challenge, so C21 is no miracle solution to it.

Expensive bags

There is a decent size bags’ section in C21 with less known brands or lower price range lines of Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger, DKNY. Those are generally priced in the 100-200 USD range.

Not my taste really, but if you see bags as purely something to “put your junk in”, then you may find quite  a few not-too-bad and not-too-expensive pieces (though not really designer stuff) there.

There is a small section with luxury bags too. Those are quite pricey, even if discounted on average 50% from regular retail price. Said that, to pay 660 USD for non- leather logo Fendi bag is not exactly the best deal you can make either.

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There is more to C21 than what I described in my 3 posts and there are more locations than that of Ground Zero vicinity (which still is the most famous). Visit me again for the next post on another great C21 store. I will also write about some practicalities on making the best of your shopping experience in this fabulous establishment.