(Today, his height is a plus for designers and fashion editors. "He can wear the designer samples," Mr. Bedard said).
A Posh Sample Sale WEDNESDAY -- Lighthouse International will hold a preview of its annual Posh sale, which features designer samples and accessories.
Among others like her, with an entree to designer samples, she is a rarity in choosing to make her own clothes to suit her individual style.
Those granted access to the front row at a Prada show usually boast a wardrobe filled with designer samples, a driver and a position at the top of a glossy magazine masthead.
Designer labels used to be cut out, designer samples were commonplace, returns were not allowed, men shopping with their wives waited on a bench and there was only a communal dressing room.
Of course, a comprehensive listing of the most expensive sneakers ever sold would have to take into account all-but-extinct Nike and Reebok makes, obscure eBay postings, auction records, one-off designer samples and historic pairs, like the sneakers Wilt Chamberlain wore when he set the NBA's single-game scoring record and which Sotheby's sold in 2000 for $55,000.
Sites like Rue La La, and its major American rival, Gilt.com, take the exclusivity of designer sample sales onto the Web.
In February, the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center asked the textile and carpet designer Madeline Weinrib to transform its charity thrift shop on the Upper East Side into an occasional pop-up boutique for designer sample sales.
Flash-sale Web sites that try to recreate the rush of a designer sample sale have largely relied on alerting their members to upcoming deals via e-mail notifications.
Maybank recalls hearing about the idea and completely relating to it because it basically put a favorite pastime of hers and Wilson's — the designer sample sale — online.
Sales to Sample FOR years, sample sales -- where upscale designers sell sample outfits of their collections at greatly reduced prices -- were a closely guarded secret of hard-core fashionistas.
