More Jason Wu on eBay than at Target

According to Elle.com, there's currently more of the Jason Wu for Target collection on eBay than at Target stores and Target.com. And frankly, I'm not surprised. Among the 10,000+ eBay items, there's this insanely priced ($500!) straw handbag. The seller quips “The designer made famous by Michelle Obama has now taken on a new challenge, the first designer collaboration with Target after the Missoni for Target fiasco.” And the average eBay price of the $55 trench coat that Blake Lively wore to the NY launch party a couple of weeks ago (shown here) is running about $200.

Reader Giveaway: Global Girlfriend scarf

Yesterday’s post on Spring color inspired me host another reader giveaway. This time I’m giving away this bright turquoise scarf, currently available online at Target.com for $19.99. At first glance, it reminds me of one of the Calypso St. Barth for Target prints from last year, but this beauty is from Global Girlfriend. Global Girlfriend promotes fair-trade and eco-friendly accessories and apparael hand-made by women in communities in need, and you can learn more about their products here on their website.

To win, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post - along with your email address - by Sunday, Feb. 12th. This giveaway is limited to U.S. residents only, and the winner (picked at random) will be announced on Monday, Feb. 13th. Good luck!

Brad Goreski is crazy for color at Target...

Let's move on from the Jason Wu wipeout, shall we?

Do you every peruse the racks of cute clothes at Target, only to be at a loss as how to pull outfits together? Then check out the latest video on a Bullseye View, where celebrity stylist Brad Goreski shows you how to mix, match, and inject color into your wardrobe. He's admitedly "crazy for color", and raids the racks of Target's spring offerings to create 20 must-have looks, including the three shown here.

“This is a great transition collection,” says Brad. “This is your chance to transition from the winter blues into wonderful, beautiful colors and the promise of spring.”

Couple wipes out Wu from Target store

Talk about a new low! The NY Daily News reports that a Miami couple enraged fellow shoppers when they bought out a Miami Target store of its entire supply of Jason Wu clothing and accessories on Sunday.

Customers who arrived at the store on the day the sale began in order to get their hands on the hotly anticipated Jason Wu for Target collection could only watch as the entire stock was depleted in one fell swoop. One shopper, who captured the entire event on her camera and posted it to YouTube (click here to watch) said that the couple planned to resell the items on eBay.

Frustrated shoppers unite on Facebook...

I love this! Frustrated shoppers, taking matters into their own hands, have started a Facebook group called "Jason Wu for Target :: Swap, Sell & Buy." The group currently has over 400 members attempting to locate the Jason Wu items they want, swap items for different sizes, and even take orders for strangers from their local store. Most of them would do anything but resort to buying from the greedy vultures on eBay. Speaking of which, there are now over 11,000 Jason Wu for Target items on eBay, some already having sold for three to eight times their retail value.

Link love from MSN and Styleite!

I promise you I won't let it got to my head, but my husband just called to tell me that right this instant there's a link called "Jason Wu sparks Target frenzy" on the home page of MSN that links to a Styleite article that quotes my blog. Almost makes up for the fact that I never got my Jason Wu tote bag!

Jason Wu for Target will possibly be re-stocked...

Take this advice with a grain of salt, dear readers, because I'm not sure how reliable it is. According to Examiner.com, a Target staffer has advised shoppers looking for the Jason Wu line to "check for returns and restock online". And to do that, they suggest "bookmarking the Jason Wu for Target page on Target.com – and place “Jason Wu for Target” in the search box (exactly like that, including the double quotes) on Target.com’s search box at the top right-hand side of the website."

Now I get bookmarking the page, but the search term seem redunant, as you're already in the Jason Wu section. In fact, I just tried this, and all it does when you search on this term is to refresh the same page.

They claim that searching the term "returns an easily searchable list of items that give up-to-the-second restock data, such as whether the item is 'out of stoc online” or 'available in stores' "... but honestly, I don't know how up-to-date this information actually is. Before heading to the last Target on my list yesterday, I checked that store's availability on some items, and when I got there the items were gone. Yes, they could have sold out in the 10 minutes it took me to get there, or they could be in the dressing room with other shoppers... or more likely, the online stocking information is only updated by Target once a day.

UPDATE: Do NOT trust Target's "in stock at store" finder! My sweetheart of a husband went to a store 20 miles away today to try to get me the cat tote (which Target's site was IN STOCK at that store) and not only didn't they have it, but a store clerk told him that their store never got any in the first place :-(