…who has the best staff of all? You do at La Vallée Outlet Village.
I love brand Marni. However the hefty price tags mean I can only afford to buy, when the clothes are deeply discounted in the sales, or are available at a Marni outlet.
I have been to the La Vallèe Outlet, outside Paris, four times in the last six months. Each time I found the Marni shop staff unendingly helpful. They are also knowledgeable and enthusiastic, with a good eye for what suits a customer’s size and body shape. Clothes were piled high for me to try, different sizes were patiently fetched and gems produced from the stock room (they don’t keep all the clothes on the shop floor). I was never pressurized to buy and on two of the occasions I was there, I didn’t.
Pictured above are: a gold brocade skirt and a pretty cream silk blouse, spriged with pink rosebuds. Both part of recent Marni haul.
The time to get rock bottom bargain prices at Outlets is towards the end of the sales. Outlet shops operate on the same seasonal merry-go-round as regular retailers and they will reduce, at sales times, the already discounted stock further to make way for clothes that match the season. The start and finish dates of French sales is strictly controlled by law. I was last in La Vallée at the end of February. This was after the official end of the sales but most of the shops still had winter stock (2009 season) at ‘ petit prix’.
To get to La Vallée Village from central Paris take the RER (train) red line A, in the direction of Marne La Vallée (Disneyland). Get off at the Val d’Europe stop, turn right when you exit the station and you will find the outlet village behind the Val d’ Europe Shopping centre (approx 7/10 minutes walk from the station). The train journey is approx 40 minutes.
Just Add Attitude 
I love Marni too! I go as often as I can to The Mall outside Florence where there is a Marni outlet.
I am very envious – lucky you!