leggings: Girlfriend Collective
I'm usually a little skeptical about things that claim to be high quality but are being given away for free. I rarely get sucked into the free gift with purchase deals at department stores ,and when people are handing out items in front of little boutiques, I always think twice before grabbing it. I love free stuff just as much as the next person, but I'm also aware of what it takes to create quality and that, my friends, is not cheap.
However, this time I took the bate. Girlfriend Collective has run through the typical fashion media circuit by appearing on Refinery29, Fashionista.com, and a handful of other major websites "advertising" its free leggings. Yes. Luxury leggings that they are giving away FOR FREE. Now there's a catch, obviously, but it's not like the ones you usually come across. Girlfriend Collective is a brand new luxury loungewear brand that wants to get its name out there, so instead of going the normal route (make product, sell product, pay a few bloggers to write a review, etc.) the co-founders decided to go a different route. They are offering their first batch of leggings to the general public for free and all you have to pay is shipping and handling. The shipping and handling prices are atrocious ($19.99 is extreme for ANY product from anywhere in the world), but the leggings are completely made of recycled material and are entirely designed by the Girlfriend Collective startup team. Due to the overwhelming amount of orders (again: everybody loves free stuff), the first batch has been backdated for delivery in August. I'm not particularly crazy about leggings, but I do love loungewear so you can expect to see me in my GC leggings everyday once August rolls around.
Photo from Girlfriend Collective