Gilt-y Dresses for under $100

Since I had a Hudson's Bay gift card burning a hole in my wallet, I went to their site and browsed what sorts of apparel they carry these days. I was so stoked when I saw this banner for "Must Have Dresses":

Photo: from TheBay

The featured dress above for "The A Line Shift" caught my eye and I thought I'd hunt it down. I tend to gravitate towards shift dresses - I must have been a paper bag princess in a past life. However, I felt a bit duped because there was nothing like this red, black & white colour block dress at all in their online selections and I have no clue what label its from. They had other nice dresses, but not that one.

So forget The Bay, I'll browse shoes there on another day! For summer dresses I ventured to Gilt, one of those members-only flash sales site, and found they had plenty of pretty dresses ranging from a lot of inexpensive not-so-familiar labels like The Letter and Alex + Alex to Giambattista Valli, Monique Lhuillier, & Zac Posen at other wallet-draining end. There were up to 6 or 7 pages of options for under $100. It sure beats straining your fingers going through the racks at Winners for these prices. There were styles to suit all body types, silhouettes and trends (ie: the lace, the high-low hem, the maxi, etc). Here are a few of my favourites from the site:

L -> R: Alex + Alex, Edun, The Letter, Winter Kate, & Sam & Lavi, all for under $100 CAD
Photos: from Gilt.com 

For years Gilt never shipped to Canada, now they do for a reasonable $9.95. And most prices include duties and taxes, which is a nice bonus! Just to Gilt.com and sign up and ask for an invite (or you can ask me via msg on FB or in the comments below)  Small hoops to jump through.. also the thing about flash sales is that inventory changes daily so impulse buying is unavoidable (sorry!) The other disadvantage is Gilt doesn't allow for returns from Canada. This is why I'd recommend purchasing less expensive items and save the splurge purchases for elsewhere.