Francesca must admit to having a certain penchant for the Old Navy Womens-Plus collections. The clothes are usually not “for me,” but she appreciates that Old Navy has a place in the world. Francesca has purchased some items from them, in fact, on occasion. She is glad they exist. And even if they did take their plus-size clothing out of the physical stores, enraging almost everyone, she’s glad that at least the clothes are still available online.
Recently, in an attempt to garner some positive publicity on fashion blogs, Old Navy sent a sale code to various fashion bloggers, including Francesca, which we could use to take $25 off any Old Navy item. The point was that we would then review the item on the blog.
In consultation with Manolo, Francesca took the offer, with the understanding that everything must be on the up-and-up with our readers, and that if she has received a discount on an Old Navy item, she must inform the readers in the review so that everyone knows what is going on.
However, Francesca did not want to spend too much of her own money just to get an item to review from Old Navy. For an Igigi dress or Stewies, yes of course, but spending money just because you get a discount is not really a bargain. We understand, yes?
OK. So Francesca decided to try buying a bra online. The $25 sale code offered an opportunity to experiment. Francesca is always preaching about the importance of buying a well-fitting bra. She usually buys hers in boutiques with professional fitters. Here was a chance to see how it would go, buying a bra from an online catalogue.
So she ordered a pretty bra and matching panties, whose cost, with shipping, came out to $33. Francesca was willing to lose $8 on the experiment, no problem.
The panties (which unfortunately are no longer available) were perfectly nice and wearable and pretty, etc. Good start.
The bra is also very pretty, and the quality is not too bad. However it was missing the padding inserts! The inserts were nowhere to be found!
And without the inserts, the bra did not fit correctly (though it seems to Francesca that it would have, with the inserts).
Francesca called Old Navy and we agreed that I would return the bra and they’d send me an identical exchange.
But the next day they sent me an email saying the bra was no longer available in my size in the color I wanted.
Sure, Francesca could return the bra AND panties and get new ones in a different color, or whatever.
But since the whole thing started because Old Navy was looking for $25 publicity, she decided to just consider the panties an $8 keeper and forget about the bra.
If anyone from Old Navy is reading this, it seems the coupon idea did not work out as well as you had hoped, in this case. Good try, though.
Avenue, too, has incredibly cute panties, 
