The boutique where I bought the most amount of clothes was the Banana Republic Outlet there. At my initial impression, the clothes look just as trendy as the ones from a non-outlet mall boutique. However, looking retrospectively after washing the clothes, the material and workmanship is really sub-par. Banana Republic is usually regarded as the high-end of the companies that The Gap owns, but that was not reflected from the outlet store version. The stitchings were literally coming out of the pockets and the top lining of all the chinos I bought – I could deal easily with that, but it was so bad with one pair of chinos that a back pocket ending up having a hole.
Upon research on the Internet, I discovered that current outlet boutiques for the most part were like “whole different animals” than their conventional mall retail counterparts, meaning that most of the clothes nowadays sold at outlets are specially made for outlets to reach a low price point often sacrificing material quality and workmanship. It was not like what I thought previously which was over-stocked clothes/prior-season clothes from the regular mall counterparts. But overall, I didn’t return the defective chino because the amount I paid for it wasn’t that large, and it wasn’t worth my time to drive back to Auburn.
The Coach Outlet at Outlet Collection Seattle really caught my eye, and from touching and viewing the products there, I felt like they disgraced the luxury brand. Though the material and craftsmanship was not as bad at the chinos I bought from the Banana Republic Outlet, I saw lots of minor imperfect stitching and micro pieces of fabric coming off of various bags. In addition, I saw bags that seem to be crafted out of vinyl instead of genuine leather. Many of the bags were clearly visible that they had a lower stitch count that regular ones sold at non-outlet malls. The Coach Outlet would definitely not be where I would shop for a fashionista or girl with princess sickness.