My Trip to Bicester Village – Luxury Shopping blog.

My Trip to Bicester Village – Luxury Shopping blog.

A picture of myself at Bicester Village.

Bicester village prada from google images

Bicester Village is one of the most popular attractions in England along with Buckingham palace and the London Eye.

The village is notoriously known for selling luxury superbrand designer items at exceptionally cheap prices.

I’ve been 3 times before to Bicester Village before and based of personal experience so I knew what to expect. A personal favourite spot of mine – and if you’re someone who’s interersted in luxury fashion who loves discounts like me – then you’ll enjoy it!

If you are looking to visit Bicester Village one day, or perhaps you want to know what all the hype is about then definitely read this blog.

Along with explaining my day out, I’ll explain what you can expect, what you can eat, what’s to do & buy as well as any other note-worthy experiences that you may want to know.

 How I got there ?

Getting there was a tricky part. I didn’t wish to start this blog of with the whole ‘getting there’ process as it was rather long but as that was the first thing I did; I thought I should start of with it.  I live in West London, so getting there was quite difficult.

Leaving at 8 in the early morning,  I rode many trains to London Marylebone station and then I took the Chiltern Railway train going towards High Wycombe which was such a trek!

If you are looking to visit; I would recommend coming in a car with a friend or someone as the fares are costly and time consuming. Check the website here for more information on how to get to Bicester Village. 

Starting my day early at Bicester Village: 

Have you ever heard of the saying; ‘the early bird catches the worm?’

Well, then you’ll know what I mean when I say I had to get there nice and early. Because Bicester Village is an extremely popular tourist attraction, loads of people are going to be there. The discounted prices on many designer goods make it all the more attractive to everyone and often means it’s sold out by the time you get there.

busiest and quietest times at Bicester Village
Here are the busiest and quietest times to shop at Bicester Village taken from the website so you can plan your day out!

As you can see, the most quietest times are morning weekdays.

If there’s an item on your mind that you wish to purchase there; chances are – others want it too! By getting there nice and early you’ll have a better chance at finding what you want as you’ll beat everyone to it!

Speaking of having an item on your mind; the purpose of my trip was to pick up a few of these luxury goods…

What was I planning on buying at Bicester Village?

Word of advice my fashion loves – always go in with a goal of buying a specific item.

I went into Bicester with the intention of buying this coat:

Burberry trench coat cashmere

As well as these shoes:

PRADA HEELS I want Aren’t they gorgeous ?

Due to the high demand of both of these products; I was unsure as to whether I’d find any of these and I prepared myself to adjust my preferences if something similar were to come along.

I love the brand Prada. It’s so elegant, classy and chic and what’s not to love about that? The craftmanship of Prada shoes is what makes it so iconic.

Nothing screams class much like Prada does. Prada is one of the many few brands which take pride in not having flashy logos or colours on their products. The shoe simply speaks for itself.

I despised flashy logos and I always believed that your clothes shouldn’t tell people that it’s expensive but it should show people. Through the fine stitching and the beautiful material anyone would spot it were Prada a mile away.

I wanted this trench coat for many reasons; one being how classic it is.

As I was going to spend lots of money on it, I wanted to know that I could wear it any time of year on many different occasions- as the camel coloured ones can only be worn in the autumn seasons.

A Burberry black trench coat is an iconic item that I wished to own for the longest time. I chose this colour because of how you could wear it in the evening and the morning whereas with the camel you cannot.

Although Prada shoes and Burberry coats are expensive; knowing that you can find some at Bicester Village for a cheaper price made me run to the stores. But did I manage to find it? 

Did I manage to get it? 

I arrived at 10 in the morning (after leaving at 8 am sharp) and ran to Burberry first thing to get ahead of the game. A sales assistant approached me and asked what I was looking for and I told him that I wanted a black trench coat in cashmere wool.

After returning from the back with several coats it came to my dismay that none of them fit me. Some were to small and some were too big. He then proceded to apologise and walk away and I was left feeling quite upset.

I bumped into another SA who said that she couldn’t help me as she was busy then I began to lose hope.

Suddenly, a lovely woman came up to me and asked to help me and at this point was extremely desperate.

I used an old trick I had learn’t from a friend of mine who was an ex-SA for luxury brands and it worked! She had got me the exact coat I wanted and I was over-the-moon! (Scroll to the end to find out my trick that works EVERY SINGLE TIME).

It was the last black cashmere trench in the size 4 which felt like it was fate. In that moment I knew I had to get it.

Aside from my coat; did I find my heels? Maybe it wasn’t in stock? Maybe there was something else?

So, what was in Bicester Village? 

Not everything I wanted was in Bicester; but they were close enough!

I did manage to find a Burberry Trench Coat in cashmere in a different design – and I ended up falling in love with it!

The prada shoes, unfortunately weren’t there and I didn’t want to settle for less. Also, the SA’s were extremely busy and I waited half an hour and wasn’t seen 🙁

I randomly strolled in YSL with no intention to buy anything but came out bag which retails for £1500
including VAT & I got it for £900!

 

(Click here to see my review on the Pochette bag from Louis Vuitton) 

By now I wanted to look for shoes and I accepted my fate of knowing that there was no heels my size at YSL and decided to try out Fendi.

You’ll never guess what happened in Fendi…

spilling the tea

I’m a big fan of Fendi and I especially love Kim Jones artistic flare which he brings to both Fendi and the fashion industry so I expected to see at least one item I loved but it wasn’tt anything like I had in mind.

The stock was from 5 seasons ago and was still on the shelf which was explainable given the fact that the shop was closed for the last 6 months.

However, there was no sign of any newer season (not be confused with the newest) and the shoes were still very expensive despite being extremely old stock.

Not to mention the Fendi staff were so horrible I didn’t want to stay in that store any longer.

Anyway, back to my story; I was dissatisfied with the shoe collection so I moved onto sunglasses and boy  was I in for a suprise (not the good kind anyways).

As I went to try on different shades; the SA signalled to the security guard to watch me – in front of me!

At first I ignored it then the SA who was working the till also kept her eyes fixated on me until I eventually stopped and walked out.

I was extremely upset that they would treat me like that especially when I’m such a big fan of Fendi’s sunglasses and would have happily brought something from the store that day.

If there’s anything you should take from this – is that half of the time – Bicester doesn’t have great stock, and half the time – it does!

So keep that in mind when shopping at Bicester and always go with an open mind.

Which leads me to the last part of this blog.

What my overall experience at Bicester was and what you can take away from it.

Below are a few tips or words of advice if you will on what to expect if you ever want to visit Bicester Village.

  • Go on a weekday
  • Arrive early
  • Eat lunch earlier
  • Don’t set too high expectations.
  • Have an open mind.
  • Enjoy the day out!

That was my experience at Bicester Village. I wanted shoes and walked out with none. I wasn’t planning on buying a bag and walked out with one and I planned on buying a Burberry coat and walked out with one. You have to expect the unexpected and try your luck as you’ll never know what you’ll find!

The trick I wanted to mention to you was; Never ask go into a luxury superbrand store and ask if they have the item you’re looking for in the back – always ask to see it.

By this I mean that instead of saying; ”do you have this Burberry coat?” say “show me the Burberry coat in this colour” or “can I please have a Burberry coat in this colour”. This works everytime. If you show you’re adamant on buying it; they’ll help you! It works like a charm.

In conclusion the day was unexpected but sooo much fun. I enjoyed it and I hope you enjoyed this blog on my day out to Bicester Village. Have you been? Or are you looking to go? Comment below on if you have your mind set on a particular luxury item and if you’d like me to do more of these in the comment section below and turn on your notifications so you can know when I post another blog like this! 🙂

Yours Truly,

Aliah x

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