online shopping

Miu Miu Launches E-Commerce Site

Ladies, get your credit cards ready!

The Italian fashion house Miu Miu has recently launched their e-commerce site. Known for their eclectic and innovative designs against classic silhouettes, Miu Miu consistently creates fashions that make a statement while transcending trends.

Miu Miu's online store features their full collections, online-only exclusives and our personal favorite -- The Fashion Show selection where you can shop looks straight from the runway.

As much as we may love online department stores and luxury e-retailers, let's face it, they don't always have the latest or the widest range of clothing and accessories. The more fashion companies enter the e-commerce race, the better for the consumer. More options equals better selections and deals. Happy shopping!

Have tips or suggestions? Contact me @marsha712

Tags: apparel, e-commerce, handbags, miu miu, online shopping, shoes

The Fashion Statement: Google's Fashion Engine

by Kristin Young (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel, The Fashion Statement

Who among us hasn't typed in "nude stiletto" in a search engine box and gotten back enough Lucite heels to make a stripper swoon? Well, things are looking up. Yesterday, Google launched Boutiques.com, and it greatly improves the search process when you're shopping for fashion items online.

Google posted the back story on its blog: "A year and half ago, our team (which at the time was part of Like.com) started to wonder if we could create a better experience for people to shop online. We jokingly called ourselves the computer nerds and fashion nerds (and a few of us were both). So, we set out to create a new way to browse, discover and shop for soft goods online."

The site uses visual search technology developed by Like.com (which Google acquired in August) using images to drive the search rather than text typed into a search box. You can teach the site your style by either taking a quiz or sifting through images while hitting "More My Style" tabs. When you're finished creating your own "boutique," it then helps filter out items you dislike and adds more of what you'd like. It's kind of a Pandora for fashionistas.

Tags: Boutiques.com, BryanBoy, Carey Mulligan, ginnifer goodwin, Google, lauren conrad, Los Angeles Times, online shopping, Susie Bubble

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The Fresh Lobster Company Wins the Readers' Choice Award for Best Online Seafood

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Services

What better way to get fresh lobster than straight from the fishermen themselves? The Fresh Lobster Company does exactly that – part of the reason it's the winner of the Luxist Awards' Readers' Choice Award in the best online seafood category.

Located in Gloucester, Ma., The Fresh Lobster Company has built its name by forming relationships with the New England lobstermen and using the connection to get the freshest fish possible. The company's offerings are taken directly from the boats and shipped overnight all across the country.

Gallery: The Fresh Lobster Company

The company specializes in shipping live lobsters, ranging from tiny (one pound: $20) to jumbo (twelve pounds: $152), which are delivered in special water-filled contained to ensure optimal freshness. The Fresh Lobster Company also offers live sea urchins, live sea scallops, live crabs and other critters; there's also gourmet sushi, steaks and desserts on the menu.

Tags: awards-main, best seafood, lobster, luxist-awards, online shopping, The Fresh Lobster Company, winners-outdoor-entertainment, winners-outdoorentertainment

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Peter Luger: A New York Institution since 1887

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Services

Since 1887, Peter Luger Steak House has served the finest of steaks. For 26 consecutive years, Peter Luger has been the number one steak house in New York, according to Zagat's, and its customers have included a host of celebrities, from Alfred Hitchcock to James Cagney and Robert De Niro.

Fans of the New York institution rejoiced when the esteemed steakhouse entered the cyberworld of online meat purveying with the launch of PeterLuger.com. It is easy to understand why Peter Luger is nominated for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Online Meat Company.

Peter Luger Steak House offers only the finest USDA PRIME meat available. The selection process is crucial and is done only by members of the family who visit the wholesale markets on a daily basis.

Gallery: Peter Luger Steak House

A new online ordering service allows Peter Luger customers to order its famous USDA Prime Dry Aged Steaks, including its famous Porterhouse cuts. All meat packages are shipped via FedEx Overnight. Shipping rates are calculated upon check out after the shipping destination has been entered. All shipping is done Monday through Thursday. Meat orders received by 11AM will be shipped that same day for next day delivery. All orders received after 11AM Thursday will be shipped overnight the following Monday.

Peter Luger Steak Sauce is world-famous and can be ordered online. It is available in boxes of six ($34.20 a box, plus shipping) or twelve bottles ($57.90 plus shipping). The online butcher shop also offers steak knives and cutting boards.

Vote for the Online Meat Company that you believe is the best of breed. The voting period runs through July 31 and winners will be announced on August 1.

Tags: awards-main, best online meat, best steaks, luxist-awards, online shopping, Peter Luger, Peter Luger Steak House, steak, steakhouse, steaks

Lobel's of New York: A Family Tradition for Over 140 Years

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Services

Lobel's of New York is a nominee for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Online Meat Company.

The family-owned and operated business is located on the Upper East Side of New York. Ten years ago, Lobel's launched Lobels of New York (www.lobels.com), an online butcher shop, enabling its customers to order and have its products delivered to their door in all 50 states.

The Lobel family have been in the business for five generations. It all started back in the 1840's when Nathan Lobel began raising cattle in Austria, and with the help of his son, later added a slaughterhouse to the business. Nathan's grandson Morris joined the famly business as a boy, and in 1911, at the age of 17, he emigrated to the United States. He eventually settled in New York where he opened a butcher shop, first in the Bronx and later at the current location at 1096 Madison Avenue (at East 82nd Street) in Manhattan.

Gallery: Lobel's of New York

Service and quality have always been the hallmarks of the Lobel's business. Morris' sons Leon, Nathan, and Stanley, followed in their father's footsteps. Stanley remains active in the store, while his sons, David and Mark, as well as his nephew, Evan, have emerged as the fifth generation of the Lobel family to work in the business.

Tags: awards-main, beef, Lobels, Lobels of New York, luxist-awards, online shopping, outdoor-entertainment, steaks

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Net-A-Porter To Launch Men's Shopping Site

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel, Men's Style

Do men like to shop online for clothes as much as women do? Following in the footsteps of sites like Gilt Man, website Net-a-Porter has announced it will be launching a menswear site in January. Mr. Porter will include collections from the spring/summer 2011 shows and will feature brands such as Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Yves Saint Laurent and Dunhill. Like Net-A-Porter it will have an editorial component offering style coverage.

The founder Natalie Massenet, shown at right, was a former fashion editor at Tatler. She sold her share of the company to luxury conglomerate Richemont this year. She is still the chairwoman of Net-a-Porter and believes that she has a built-in audience for Mr. Porter, the men in the lives of Net-A-Porter customers. Men shop online at least as much as women do and some studies indicate that while women browse and may then purchase in stores, men do more immediate buying.

Tags: mens shopping, MensHealth, Mr Porter, Net-a-Porter, net-a-porter.com, online shopping, shopping

$1.6 Million Mistake Means No Ice Cream For Zappos CEO

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Some lucky shoppers at Zappos.com sister site 6pm.com got a deal on Friday when a pricing error capped all prices at $49.95. The Las Vegas Sun reports that the website lost $1.6 million due to the error because at that price many items were sold at under cost. Zappos has decided to honor all sales that took place during that time period. Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh took the news in stride with his usual good humor tweeting "$1.6 million mistake on sister site @6pm_com. I guess that means no ice cream for me tonight."

The silver lining to the mistake might be the added publicity to 6pm.com The site offers "online outlet shopping" promising savings of up to 75% off. It includes shoes, clothing and accessories from brands like Nike, Oakley, Nine West and others for women, men and children.

Tags: 6pm.com, online shopping, tony hsieh, website error, zappos, zappos.com

Superfish Launches Window Shopper Tool

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Gadgets

Superfish is a new program that helps you window shop, your computer monitor replacing the need to actually leave your house and stand in front of an actual window. And, you know, walk.

It works somewhat like CoolIris: you download the Superfish software, and when you go to any one of a ton of online stores – literally, it works all over the web, including Yahoo Shopping and Google – a "See Similar" icon will appear over enabled items. In the pic above, we went to Nordstrom, clicked to window shop for the red pump in the corner, the Pelle Moda Syreta Pump, and Superfish pulled up a host of other options from which to choose. If we had preferred the Naughty Monkey Women's Fiesta Pump (and we don't, for a number of reasons), all we needed to do was click to go to Amazon and purchase it. Superfish also gives you the flexibility of removing styles and colors you don't like. We eliminated that Naughty Monkey pump and styles like it, and they were replaced by other pumps in other virtual windows.

Superfish is new so you will stumble on the occasional WTF, such as when we went to Nordstroms and searched for similar white sport jackets, and were shown jewel-encrusted pendants. And it does launch a lot of new windows on install and a new window any time you click on a one of the links to see a similar item. Other than that, it's a fine way to start comparison shopping if you're genuinely sick of having to leave your bed to get what you want.

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Tags: online, online shopping, shopping, superfish

St. Cupcake Offers Bespoke Mail Order Cupcakes - Yum!

by Deb West (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Children

Sometimes things that qualify as a luxury item are big and obvious; they are encrusted with diamonds, have a well known name and an expensive price tag. Other times luxury can be defined as something small that you do for yourself or a friend. A small Portland, Oregon bakery called St. Cupcake falls into this category of small personal luxuries.

This local bakery has started an online delivery service for their incredibly popular cupcakes. The luxury for the consumer lies both in the incredible wide range of flavor choices and in the fact that you can have home baked taste delivered to your door without lifting a finger. The inspiration for the mail order cupcake business came to owner Jami Curl after customers themselves mentioned trying to ship her delicious baked goodies to friends to taste. Jami thought that "we could develop some packaging and a technique that would allow us to ship the cupcakes so they arrive on the recipient's door step fresh and perfect."

Hence the wonderful and unique online cupcake builder was born. Customers can choose their cake flavors, their icings and their sprinkle colors creating a truly bespoke cupcake. Often this allows for even greater freedom as customers have come up with unique combinations never anticipated by the owners and not sold in the bakery. The cupcakes come in three possible package combinations of 3, 6 or 12 cupcakes. Flavors of cupcakes include the basic vanilla and chocolate as well as more esoteric flavors such as pumpkin spice, carrot and vanilla toffee. A true west coast shop there are even vegan selections for those with dietary restrictions. The buttercream frosting selections include unusual flavors such as mint and fudge while the sprinkle choices vary from standard jimmies to rainbow nonpareil and toasted coconut. It seems that the shopping ends up being as much fun as the receiving.

The cupcakes arrive in an adorable kit with an icing wand and decorating tips. A perfect gift idea for a birthday or even to send to your own family when you are too busy to make home made treats for your children. A simple little luxury ranging in price from $10.00 for three cupcakes to $35.00 for a package of twelve.

Gallery: Bespoke Cupcakes

Tags: birthday, chocolate, cup cakes, CupCakes, mail order, MailOrder, online shopping, OnlineShopping, St. Cupcake, St.Cupcake, vanilla

iGourmet.com: Specialty Cheeses, Fine Foods, and Exquisite Gifts

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Can you shop online and have your specialty cheeses and fine dining too? iGourmet.com thinks so, and it seems plenty of others agree as it has been nominated for a Luxist Award in the Best Gourmet Food category and was named 'best gourmet food website' by Forbes for five years in a row: from 2003 to 2007. It's a family business that originated from three generations of cheese importers and started as a mail order business (known as "International Gourmet") well before the internet was even invented. With no "brick and mortar" shop, igourmet.com has an extensive website complete with large photos, flavor descriptions, usage ideas, and recipes in an effort to not only offer exquisite edibles but also educate its customers so they really get what they're shopping for.

iGourmet.com offers everything from meats to sweets to oils and vinegars, but they especially pride themselves on their extensive line of gourmet cheeses imported from France, Italy, Sweden, and every other European country that exports it. They also offer a wide array of unique gift options for the holidays or any time of year in the form of luxe and beautifully packaged gift boxes, gift baskets, and cheeseboards plus a selection of 6 different gourmet monthly club options including Cheese of the Month (of course), Tea of the Month, and Connoisseur of the Month clubs.

Vote now for what you believe is the best of breed in Gourmet Foods. Readers' Choice Awards for Food will be announced on November 30th.

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Tags: awards-main, cheese, dining, food, food-awards, igourmet, igourmet.com, luxist-awards, online shopping, OnlineShopping

ShirtsMyWay - Men's Custom Shirts Online

by Laura Malesich (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel

For the typical upwardly mobile, successful man of today custom shirts are a must. Yet, finding the time to locate the proper store and make a myriad of decisions can be tough in a busy schedule. ShirtsMyWay provides a great solution offering premium custom shirts through online shopping with free international shipping. You can visualize the fabric, colors, patterns, cuts and details with their digital model. Simply make your choice, send in your measurements, and voila! Original, well-fitted shirts that suit your style needs. Did I mention they have seven trillion different possible shirt designs?

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Tags: custom shirt, custom shirts, CustomShirt, CustomShirts, online shopping, OnlineShopping, shirtsmyway

Portero Creates Private Sale Site

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Luxury auction retailer Portero has created a new private sale site. Portero Private is currently in beta and is an invitation-only site similar to Ideeli or Gilt Groupe offering 24- to 72-hour sales with a limited inventory of luxury brands at special prices.

Like most of these private sale sites Portero Private is starting off small. a select group has already been invited and each member has three invitations. The first sale event,starts on Thursday and will sell Hermes scarves. The Examiner reports that future sales will include Temple St Clair, Montblanc, Chanel, Cartier and others.

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Tags: luxury brands, LuxuryBrands, online shopping, OnlineShopping, portero

Secret Shopping? Online Consumerism Posts 12% Increase

by Tracy Chait (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel

Fashionista's theory is that amidst tough economic times, ~~fashionistas~~ recessionistas are turning to online shopping to get their fix semi-anonymously. WWD reported a 12% increase in online sales as compared to last year, and it makes sense considering gas prices and the general cutting back that's happening across socioeconomic lines. But I like Fashionista's rationale -- that shame is keeping shopaholics from venturing out to do any damage.

It's kind of the equivalent of ordering way too much Thai food when you're home alone on a Saturday night, but at least there's just the delivery guy to keep quiet.

[via Fashionista/WWD]

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Tags: online shopping, OnlineShopping, recessionista

Cheap Chic: Anya Hindmarch for Target

by Tracy Chait (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Handbags

In its latest design collaboration, mass-retailer Target has teamed with handbag designer Anya Hindmarch, famous most recently for her cheeky and impossible-to-get "I'm Not a Plastic Bag" tote. This group of faux patent bags is a bit more styled and features options ranging from an oversized clutch to a chic yet roomy tote. Though the collection won't hit stores until October 12, shoppers will be able to purchase online at Anya Hindmarch's site from October 8 through October 12. Mouses, on your marks.

[via Racked LA]

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Tags: anya hindmarch, AnyaHindmarch, handbags, im not a plastic bag, ImNotAPlasticBag, online shopping, OnlineShopping, target

Baller Toys: "Nothing is Too Extravagant"

by Annie Scott (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cigars, Decor, Gadgets, Garden, Sports, Holiday Guides, Children, Men's Style

Climatech 1001 Climate Controlled Cabinet Humidor, $4,695.00

Baller Toys is a new website designed to bring you the very best in glamorous home entertainment--and we're not talking TVs and stereos!

Above is the Climatech 1001 Climate Controlled Cabinet Humidor. At $4,695.00, it is the least expensive of the four humidors available from Baller Toys.

Some exclusive items from the luxury website include: