When all you think about is shopping, when there is no greater thrill to
you than finding something you're in love with for a ridiculously low
price, you do a LOT of website vetting. I troll the vast and glorious
interwebs daily - seriously, daily - for new and exciting sites I can
shop. Most of the time, I return from the hunt kinda disappointed. There
are a lot of cool sites out there, but I already have my favorites, so
it takes something legitimately wow-inducing to break into the circle.
And that's why I'm so psyched about Bib+Tuck. It didn't just break into
the circle, it crashed in and went right to the middle and was all "look
at me!" But not in an obnoxious way, in an "I'm going to save you" kind
of way.
(Bib+Tuck founders, Sari Azout & Sari Bibliowicz)
You see, Bib+Tuck is way different. I will bet my Christopher Kane
aqua gel clutch you haven't seen anything like it. (Please don't like
make a site like it just so I have to give you my prized possession. I'm
sure you can find one on eBay.) It's shopping but it's a game and a
social community. Users "bib," which means basically put their items up
for "sale." And they "tuck," which means grab those items like nobody's
business. And the currency is bucks. You earn bucks and buy bucks - you
don't just use money. That's where the game part comes in. You
accumulate a bucks balance on Bib+Tuck, it's like getting more and more
points in the game of being awesome. You get 15 just for joining, you
get 3 for following Bib+Tuck on Twitter, 3 more for tweeting at them,
etc. You get bucks for bibbing your first item. And then when you find
something you want (approximately once every ten seconds, according to
my studies), you can pay for it with your bucks. I mean, some of those
bucks involve no financial support from you. It's AMAZING.
And because we love each other and like to shop together, be sure to
take advantage of the cool community vibe on Bib+Tuck. Follow your
favorite users to keep tabs on what they're bibbing, tucking, loving,
all that jazz. This is how you'll be able to score covetable things as
soon as they hit the site. And you'll make friends, too, duh - friends
like Kimberly Ovitz and Yigal Azrouel! You can find your style
soulmates.
So you join, you bond with partners in shopping, you earn points,
you use them to shop. SO FUN, right? It doesn't even feel like you're
shopping, it's so different from your run-of-the-mill e-commerce sites.
There's more to it, since you can be social and play the game AND score
stuff.
One of Bib + Tuck's two founders, Sari Bibliowicz says that she and the other
founder, Sari Azout (Sari squared!), met in pre-school and then found each other again in college in
New York (destiny!). Sari B. was working at Gilt Groupe and Sari A. was trading stocks when they
had the idea for the site. She explained that she, Sari, and their
friends were always borrowing each other's clothes and lending each
other clothes - they even had things they wanted to swap out for good,
giving them over for something that caught their eye in a friend's
closet. That's when the idea hit - everyone does that swapping and loves
it, so what if they could do it online, with way more people than the
girlfriends that live nearby? Sari and Sari started tinkering with the
idea and building the site, and it's thanks to a
Vogue editor who
wrote about Bib + Tuck in the very early stages that the
girls fully launched it - so thanks, Miss Editor! The site has only been
live since August (with its official launch in November) but it's
already taking online shopping by storm with tons of followers that
include some fashion heavy-hitters. And with the site's unique spin, who
could be surprised?
As far as what you can find on Bib + Tuck, here are some of Sutton's and my favorite items:
Handbags and Hugs,
Astor
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