Gilt Launches New Shop Devoted to The Ultimate Dress
Gilt has long been known as a pioneer in the world of flash sales and designer off-price merchandise, but as of late, it’s been trying to break into more permanent categories and bolster its editorial reputation.
Today at 12 p.m., the site will unveil a new shop devoted solely to dresses, dubbed (appropriately) The Ultimate Dress Shop. Unlike the site’s flash sales, this shop will be permanent, though the merchandise will be updated on a weekly basis on a rolling theme—from beach dresses to work-to-party dresses.
We were invited to a lunch at the NoMad Hotel to fete the launch of the new shop (and scored a gift card to try the new site for ourselves), and got to chat with the site’s new editorial director, Tracey Lomrantz Lester, who was previously a contributing style editor at Glamour.
According to Lester, dresses are Gilt’s biggest category—”by far”—and the editorial director described dresses as a “transformative” item in one’s wardrobe. Apart from the shopping element, the new dress shop is part of a new push to integrate more editorial into the site’s sales. The Ultimate Dress Shop, for example, will feature two ways to wear one dress each week, as well as styling tips around the dresses. “I think it’s a great place for us to become a style resource for our members, and not just a place to shop,” says Lester.
There’s a charitable bent to the site’s launch, too: For the first 2,000 dresses sold, Gilt will donate $5 to Dress for Success Worldwide, an organization that helps women dress the part when interviewing.
So what’s Lester’s favorite dress of all time? The answer took a bit of thinking, but was ultimately pretty firm: “It is a neon-pink cashmere Michael Kors sweater dress that I scored for 90% off.” Now that’s a dress!
Gilt’s new Ultimate Dress Shop launches today at 12 p.m. at gilt.com/ultimatedress
