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"If you fancy a bit of retail therapy every now and again, you must get to know Leslie Price, the blogging babe behind Racked.com. She&amp;#x27;s got the super-inside scoop on what stores are opening and closing, which designers are collaborating, and which sample sales you absolutely can&amp;#x27;t afford to miss. STF: How did you become a full-time blogger? Why did you choose to focus on retail? Leslie Price: I was a food writer for a magazine, and I was writing about retail on the side. Lockhart Steele (of Curbed), and Ben Leventhal (of Eater) approached me with an idea for a shopping site. I jumped at the opportunity, and we launched it in March of 2007. One of my earliest ideas for Racked was sample sale reviews. No one was doing them, at least in an easy-to-digest way. There was all of this information about shopping on members&amp;#x27;-only message boards. I wanted the site to be fun and funny, without being too saccharine or too nasty. STF: What are your three favorite stores to shop at in NYC? LP: Prada, Gucci, Dior. Kidding. That&amp;#x27;s the question I always get, and it&amp;#x27;s not easy to answer. There are stores where I like to browse, and there are places I can afford to actually shop in, like Muji. I. Love. Muji. Everything there is so simple and perfectly suited to tiny Manhattan apartments. You pay more than you would at, say, Ikea or Wal-Mart, but the quality is good. I go to Beacon&amp;#x27;s Closet a lot, both to consign and to buy. Two days ago I saw an Abaete dress in perfect condition there for $45. And finally, Barneys. Usually that&amp;#x27;s more browsing than shopping, but they&amp;#x27;ve been having some good sales. STF: What neighborhood is the most overrated in terms of shopping? Most underrated? LP: I think Soho is a little overrated. There are lots of beautiful stores, but if you like ferreting out discounts - and I do - go elsewhere. The Garment District is underrated. That&amp;#x27;s where the majority of showroom sample sales are held. STF: If you could only wear one designer for the rest of your life, who would it be? LP: If you had asked me this question when I was in middle school, the answer would be easy: Gap. I used to think Gap was just the coolest. I remember saving up for a pair of $50 jeans. Now that I live in the fashion capital of the world, and not rural Pennsylvania, it&amp;#x27;s a harder decision. I still dress pretty casually. I&amp;#x27;d say either Tucker tops (I have five, in different colors and prints), with jeans, or Mayle. Too bad she&amp;#x27;s killing her line, it&amp;#x27;s really excellent. STF: How do you think blogging has changed the way fashion is reported, interpreted, created? LP: I hope it&amp;#x27;s made fashion more approachable, and more democratic. All that material that used to only be available to fashion editors, like lookbooks, is online now. I definitely think blogging has sped the pace of fashion up. It&amp;#x27;s no longer okay to write about a new store five months after it&amp;#x27;s opened, or to cover a fashion show the day after it took place. People are able to watch shows unfold from their computer as we liveblog them, and are able to see the interiors of shops before they even open. STF: How has the retail scene changed since youve been blogging for Racked? Do you think we will be able to bounce back from the economic crisis? Will shoes ever become super important again!?!? LP: Obviously, things have changed a lot in the past two years. I remember when we were worried about bank branches popping up on every corner, homogenizing the city. That&amp;#x27;s certainly not a concern right now. I think the fashion industry is still searching for a way to deal with the economic crisis, and it&amp;#x27;s going to be rough for at least the next year. No one knows what is going to happen. I do think we&amp;#x27;ll bounce back, but I feel that people&amp;#x27;s relation to consuming, and to money, will have changed permanently. STF: What fashion blogs do you read daily? Other blogs? LP: Every morning before I start writing, I get up and read through hundreds of feeds. But the sites I click to first are: WWD, Refinery29, Fashionista, The Cut, Style File, Apartment Therapy, and The Shophound. For fun, I like to check out people&amp;#x27;s personal style blogs, like Sea Of Shoes and Fashion Toast, and food sites like Smitten Kitchen for recipe ideas. Check out Racked.com for your daily dose of retail therapy, and don&amp;#x27;t forget to meet some of our favorite Blogging Babes of the past! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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