Sometimes I really have to pinch myself when an awesome opportunity comes my way. The most recent example of this was when the folks at McArthur Glen invited me to their Swindon Designer Outlet centre to shop for the perfect outfit for a Christmas Party- on them! They very generously gifted me a voucher and said I was welcome to bring my Mum along too (to play photographer and help me make decisions) so on Saturday we hopped on the train and ventured an hour out of Bristol to the shops!

The Swindon Designer Outlet is somewhere I tend to visit once or twice a year, usually just after Christmas with my family. I hadn’t been since January and had heard that changes were happening- I’m not usually a fan of change, I like routine but in this case the change was for the better (and things weren’t bad to begin with!). The centre has recently opened the “long shop mall” which is host to many familiar high-end brands including Ghost and Jigsaw- two brand new arrivals to the collection of stores. This post is more about the things I saw rather than what I bought, that I’m saving for another post…

The entire place was beautifully decked out for Christmas, with these amazing nutcracker soldiers all over the place, I couldn’t resist stopping for a quick snap next to one!

Our first shopping stop was Ghost which has only been open for a couple of weeks. Ghost was one of the first brands I ever read about, when I was really quite young. I’ve always associated it with being grown up and sophisticated and I’m pleased to say it lived up to expectation. I loved the red satin maxi dress in the pictures and couldn’t resist trying on this emerald green number- which may or may not have come home with me. The girls in the store were so lovely, probably the friendliest and sweetest out of all the shops we visited; a big thank you for being so damn lovely!

We also checked out Phase Eight which had some stunning pieces (sadly not in my size) and Jigsaw where I fell in love with everything. French Connection had some of the nicest party dresses of them all, the sequin floral number was a particular favourite…

Shoes wise, you’re spoilt for choice at Swindon- Kurt Geiger, Clarks, Pavers, Daniel Footwear and Next had such a gorgeous selection. In the end I picked up a shiny gold pair in Clarks, one of the two you can see in the photos…any guesses which ones I picked and how much of a bargain they were?

I also managed to accessorize with a clutch bag from Fiorelli and picked up some sparkly makeup in the Cosmetic Company Outlet to complete the look. By this point my camera battery was dying (as were my energy levels) but you’ll see photos of those in the next blog post.

Everything at the outlets are 30% off minimum, with savings of up to 70% up for grabs- for those on a stricter budget you can get some really pocket friendly pieces in Next or M&S, but if you feel like splashing out you can make real savings on big name items- the Ghost dress was priced at £50 with a further 10% off with a discount card available at customer information. The French Connection sparkly number was £80 down from a whopping £250! Honestly, outlets are so often overlooked but an absolute treasure trove for special occasion wear and bargain brand buys that otherwise would be out of my reach (and many others I suspect).

We refreshed ourselves with food and drink from the fabulous selection from the Food Hall- between Pizza Express and Wagamamas (with more restaurants to be added soon) we didn’t know what to pick, but ended up with a caffeine fix and a toastie in Starbucks.

I can’t wait to see the whole completed renovation of the Swindon Designer Outlets, due to be finished in the spring time…with a May wedding to attend I’ll be making a beeline to get another snazzy outfit for an absolute bargain price. I even had enough left on my voucher to get a thank you treat for Mum and some cheeky chocolates in the Lindt shop (which smells like melted chocolate and is basically my idea of heaven!)

Stay tuned for the outfit reveal post coming next week- can you guess which dress and shoes I went for? Have you shopped the outlets lately? McArthur Glen have several locations around the UK and I need to know which others are a must visit!

A HUGE thank you to the team at McArthur Glen for making us so welcome on Saturday, it was one of the most surreal yet awesome experiences of my blogging adventures to date! I also bumped in to the lovely Lily whilst I was there, who was completing her shopping mission, I can’t wait to see her post!