White House Black Market

The Easton branch of White House Black Market is my favorite place to shop for business casual and special-​event clothing. I can see how at first glance, the store might appear overpriced, so here’s the secret: the «regulars» are all on the store’s snail mail and email lists, which constantly dish out coupons for 15% to 25% off. There’s also discounts for calling ahead for a style appointment, an 5% Black Book discount for customers who’ve spent more than $ 300 at WHBM in the past, etc.
As for the colors, yeah, the store’s main gig is white and black clothing (hence the name). However, WHBM always has one or two «seasonal colors» that help make your wardrobe pop. Over the past few years, I’ve bought pieces from WHBM that are royal blue, navy blue, bright red, maroon, hot pink, light pink, and a deep jewel-​toned orange – not to mention lots of greys, beiges, golds, off-​whites, etc. There’s also a lot of prints, little details like buttons/​zippers, various collar types and cuts of clothing, etc. that keep things interesting. Check out the brand’s web site if you think I’m making this up.
I usually can’t stand stores where sales people wait on you hand and foot, but Dana at the Easton WHBM is one of the best salespeople I’ve ever worked with. The first time I shopped there, I was in a very grumpy mood. I had a big academic conference coming up, I had struck out at my three favorite stores at the time (J. Crew, Anthropologie, and Ann Taylor), and I went into WHBM as a last resort. I explained all this to Dana, who seemed very nice and was not high-​pressure. I decided to give her a shot. She gave me a good lookover, asked me a few questions about my style preferences, then said «Go ahead and pick out anything you like in the store, and we’ll get you a fitting room started. I’ll pull some pieces for you too.»
It’s a small store, and I was sure that I’d seen and pulled every piece of clothing that might work. But somehow, Dana had pulled 10 or 12 pieces that I hadn’t noticed at all – and when I started trying them on, they were adorable. Many of them looked much better on my body than they’d looked on the hanger, and they’re not things I would have ever pulled for myself but they really worked. A few pieces didn’t look great or were only so-​so, and Dana would take note of what wasn’t so great and pull another piece that improved on it. She was mindful of my needs, not only my style preferences but things like «I don’t dry clean my clothes, ever» and «I’m going to be traveling so this outfit needs to look good coming out of a suitcase.» I left with a great outfit for the conference.
I now book a style appointment with Dana once every 3 – 4 months, basically about once a season. I’m not the only huge fan of Dana’s work: she often has two, three, even four customers in the fitting rooms at once, yet she never makes me feel neglected or like she’s too busy to listen to my reactions. She clearly pulls different clothes for different people; it’s not unusual to come out to «the big mirror» and run into another customer who looks over and says «You look great!» and I reply «You look great too!» but I’m also thinking «Wow, that’s so cute on her but it would look terrible on me.» All of the sales girls are very sweet, and the manager is super nice, but I stick with Dana since she does such a great job. She only works a few days a week, so I call ahead for a style appointment to ensure that I run into her – and because she knows I’m coming, she’ll pull 15 or so pieces to get me started. It’s a big time saver.
A final note: every WHBM store has its own buyer and makes its own choices about which pieces they’re going to carry. This means every WHBM store is going to have a slightly different inventory. Whomever does the buying for the Easton store does a great job.

I have never been to a White House/​Black Market that was good and this one at Easton is no exception.
The sales staff is rude, unfriendly, and generally, unhelpful. I worked retail for nearly 8 years at Victoria’s Secret, so I get how the retail industry works. However, I cannot cut the staff slack for their lack of helpfulness and frankly, overly priced crappy clothes selection. What they offer is no better than any other store at Easton or any mall, and yet they act like their store is Neiman Marcus. Get a grip — all of your clothes are white, black or nude. Frankly, I’d rather go to one of the many other stores at Easton and pay twice as much for better service and selection.