Went to VIP night tonight and I definitely feel like last year's sale was better. I managed to look at everything in this sale within 40 mins, and that was with me spending a decent amount of time looking at different bags/accessories and trying on a bunch of different shoes. There was a decent amount of clothing at this sale, but I feel like nothing really caught my eye, which perhaps is a matter of taste, but I just feel like nothing was really interesting or unique to Acne at this sale.
For starters, there was a lot of variety of bags at this sale (more so than last year; there were quite a few different masubi styles, platt styles, and the acne tote bag), however, the prices were definitely higher than they were last year. Basically, all bags were $250, with more unique "runway" bags being priced at $350. There was a decent amount of jewelry, some belts, etc. They had some variety of scarves but none of the popular acne scarf style. Additionally, they did have the popular Acne beanies, however I only ever saw them in a reseller's basket, so I wouldn't count on getting a beanie at this sale.
All shoes were upstairs, there were not many men's styles, and I believe the remaining men's styles were limited to sneakers. Shoes were priced pretty fairly at $90 for sneakers and $150 for everything else, but even at VIP, most popular women's shoe sizes were gone. There were different styles of leather/fur boots, rain boots, heels, and sandals. However, pretty much every shoe style had no more size 7-8 left, it was really just 5-6 and 9-10 remaining so if you are a women's size 7-8, I wouldn't count on finding shoes here.
There were quite a few racks of dresses, but it is a bit annoying as one side of the racks has more plain dresses priced at $175. The other side of the dress racks has more unique and interesting dresses, but they were all runway pieces and were marked with a red zip tie, meaning they were $350. I didn't find any $175 dresses that I found to be worth it. There were some jeans but nothing very unique - more skinny/mom fit jeans and not many trendy wider-fit jeans, and not really any of the unique Acne acid wash either. There was 1 rack of shorts and skirts respectively, none of which really caught my eye. There were some jackets/outerwear, but pretty much all the jackets they had for women were different variations of blazers in different cuts or materials (i.e denim). There was like one black bomber style that I assume was the outerwear category for women, I will say the men's section had significantly more variety in terms of jackets/outerwear than women did. There were a few knits/sweaters and some tops, but again nothing really interesting. I remember finding a lot more interesting blouses and dresses at last year's sale, whereas I didn't find any cool pieces at VIP tonight. There were a few racks of trousers, but I didn't really look at them. The men's section definitely had better variety in terms of clothing.
Overall, this sample sale was pretty disappointing to me. I went last year and bought quite a few cool pieces and still left a lot behind, whereas at VIP tonight I was struggling to find something I'd consider buying. The variety at this year's sale feels very minimal. Additionally, I am pretty sure the prices went up by a decent amount at this year's sale versus last year, which also feels more frustrating when the options at this sale are worse. Honestly, if there's a long line at this sale tomorrow, I really don't know if it's worth waiting to get in. I don't even own that many Acne pieces, and I was hardly tempted by the selection tonight. That being said, I feel like it'd be better to come to this sale sooner rather than later since I imagine the selection will only get worse as items get bought out.