KDH is thrilled to share a Super Saturday shopping survival guide penned by our fabulous friend, Jenn Birn. Through trial and error, Jenn has  mastered the art of Super Saturday, so check out her tips below that will benefit amateur as well as novice Super Saturday shoppers:

Super Saturday, is an annual designer garage sale at Nova’s Ark Project in Water Mill – but so much more! It’s a place where you can shop guilt-free knowing all of your purchases benefit charity since all of the proceeds benefit the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF)! It’s one of my favorite days of the year, and it’s coming up Saturday, July 30.

I attended my first Super Saturday in 2003, and I haven’t missed one since – despite the fact that I moved to Los Angeles three years ago. I travel back for it.
My love for Super Saturday comes as much for the tradition of the fun-filled day two of my best friends and I established nearly a decade ago as from the fact that I accrue a large percentage of my wardrobe from the sale that’s been called “The Rolls Royce of garage sales.”

What to wear:  Wear something that makes it easy to try clothes over and under. There are no dressing rooms at Super Saturday (you’re fortunate to find a booth with a full-length mirror), so if you want to slip something on for size, you’ve gotta be wearing something that won’t cause you to flash the masses in the process.
The past few years I’ve gone with a simple short, cotton strapless dress. In this ensemble I can often adeptly slip a dress or shirt over my head and tug the dress I’m wearing down and I can obviously pull on a skirt or pants underneath. While the slashed prices may leave you saying, “Eh, it’s only (insert dollar amount here),” many of the clothes are unmarked sample sizes and if you go home with a stash of clothes you’ll never wear, then the only good the clothes will do you is make you feel good about the charitable donation.

Footwear:  Something you can quickly slip off will help you try on the often limited selection of shoes before someone snags the last pair in your size.

Be ready for the heat!:  Dress prepared for a blisteringly hot day, wear sunscreen (and preferably something that won’t potentially leave unforgiving tan lines) and stay hydrated -but, not too much. My friend once found herself in the back of an ambulance on the premises when she consumed too much water consequently sweating too much and fainting from dehydration. She was fine after being fed a bit of Gatorade, but it’s a break in the day best avoided.

Get there early: It’s not necessarily necessary to spend the extra $200 for the privilege of the preview hour that begins at noon, especially since the extra cost customarily comes with a goodie bag that their website says is no longer available, but account for traffic (it’s terrible) and aim to arrive just before 1pm when gates open for those with the regular $450 day passes.

Favorites first:  If there’s a specific designer among the 200+ participating booths that you’re really keen on checking out, go there first. The sale is set up with rows of booths in organized in alphabetical order, so shouldn’t be too hard to find. If they have something you absolutely love, and there aren’t many of them, grab it. If they have lots of them, wait till later. Trust me.

The same goes for the whole sale. Items designers only bring a few of tend to go fast and retain their price, if there are dozens of the same item, the price will generally be slashed incrementally throughout the day, so you might as well wait or you’ll be the girl squealing, “Ugh, I got that when it was still $200 and now it’s only $50!!!” But, like I said, if you really want it enough that you’ll be beating yourself up if it’s gone, which can happen, and you’re ok with the price that will already be marked down at least 50 percent, then get it.

Window shop:  After you’ve hit your predetermined absolute favorites, go back to the beginning. I’ll usually do a power lap A-Z to get a lay of the land and then start over at a slower pace checking out individual booths.

Don’t forget to eat:  After you’ve checked out all the booths and purchased all your must-haves, take a break for lunch. There’s a buffet that’s hit or miss and last year there was even a Pinkberry stand – which was like heaven in a cup with the heat.

Practice the art of negotiation:  Prices go down on nearly everything incrementally every hour, so if you’re on the fence and won’t be devastated if you miss out, wait. You can also haggle a bit. The person manning the booth may get a bit annoyed, but they expect it, so if you want a discount for buying three dresses, ask for it.

Shop smart:  Don’t buy something just because it’s inexpensive. This is easy to do when you see things like Vera Wang dresses marked at $50, but if you’re a size 2, what good are a bunch of size 10 dresses going to do for you?

Stay until the end: In the last 30 minutes or so they’re almost giving things away – and in some cases they are. I once bought a Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress that was marked down to $20 in the last minutes – and they gave me a second one free! I also once saw a pair of Manolo Blahnik’s (that five years later remain among my favorites) that had fallen beneath the table and got them for $75 when they were packing up! The vendors have to either schlep the remaining product back to the city or donate it to the charity without receiving a penny, so they’re very open to negotiation as the day begins to wane.

Make sure you’ve cleaned out the trunk:  You want to have space for all of your purchases, you’d be surprised how they can add up.

Bonus tips my friends and I enjoy:
*Each year Amber, Ali and I go back to Ali’s house at the end of the day, crack open a bottle of champagne and put on a fashion shows with all of our new clothes. We also each lay out all of our day’s purchases, add up what would have been the retail amount and subtract how much we spent to see how much we saved that day. It’s always an amazing figure that quickly neutralizes the $450 price of a ticket.
*Don’t forget to keep your receipts to write off on your taxes next year! Yes, the whole day is even tax-deductible ;)

So, get your ticket to Super Saturday, that this year will be hosted by longtime regulars Donna Karan [who underwrites the entire event], Kelly Ripa and InStyle as well as Emma Roberts and Ariel Foxman.. Tickets are still available at http://www.ocrf.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=93&Itemid=312 – and yes, the cost of that too goes to the OCRF.

*You can check out how I did this year next week on my blog Simplyjen at www.jenbirn.com. And, if you can’t attend, check out tonic.com Saturday morning to see how you can still get in on the Super Saturday fun.

Happy shopping – and contributing to the OCRF, the largest independent organization in the United States dedicated exclusively to funding ovarian cancer research– and to finding a cure.†