A shopping trip to Livingston Designer Outlet

Recently I’ve been a bit fed up with the the same old stores on the high street.  I’ve also been on the hunt for new jeans for ages and I can’t seem to find any that I like, they need to be black, slim fitting and tapered towards the bottom.  That might seem like a pretty basic wishlist, but I’ve been unable to find anything that fits the bill on the high street at all.

Last month, I got an email from Livingston Designer Outlet – Scotland’s largest designer outlet – inviting me along to check out some of their new menswear retailers.  Even though it’s easy to get too and located in the middle of Glasgow and Edinburgh I hadn’t actually been for years so I was keen to see what had changed.

I genuinely think I was a kid the last time I visited Livingston Designer Outlet but I’d heard that the place had undergone loads of changes, and it definitely has.  The first thing that I noticed was that it was much bigger than I had remembered. There are over 70 boutiques, a cinema, adventure golf course and loads of places to eat.  It’s definitely somewhere that I could spend a whole day.

I prefer shopping when it’s not as busy so I visited in the morning.  This makes it easier to have a good look round the shops and grab the best bargains before the masses arrive.  I’d taken my new denim mission to Livingston to see if I’d have anymore luck than I did on the high street but before I could start looking properly I was derailed by the Cadbury shop.  Yes, there is an actual shop that stocks nothing but Cadbury’s products.  It’s amazing!

Most of the shops within the mall are pretty well zoned together so they make it easy to find what you are after; in fact most of the menswear stores are located along one big stretch.  As well as high street outlets like Marks & Spencer and Gap there are an impressive selection of designer and premium retailers like Levis, Barbour, Tommy Hilfiger and Timberland sitting side by side.

I don’t normally shop in G Star but the sign in their window offerings an additional 40% off the last marked price drew me in for a look.  I picked up the first pair of black jeans that I saw and was amazed to find that they were just what I had been after.  A pair of slim (not too skinny), black jeans with a touch of stretch too and with 80% off the RRP they worked out cheaper than a pair of high street jeans would have too.

Feeling on a roll, I popped into Nike too in the search for some new gym tops.  Outlets stores are the ideal place to pick up branded training gear at a reduced price.  Who really cares if your gym shorts are ‘so last season’ anyway?  They actually had so much it made it hard to choose a few items, but I eventually settled on a couple of new t-shirts and a pair of joggers for kicking around in too.

Outlet malls can sometimes be a little bit of a lottery but they are always a great place for picking up basics and staples like underwear as well as household stuff like bedding.  Staples like those never date and rarely change much in design so you can often find yourself getting a really great bargain.  On top of the already reduced prices I found that a lot of the stores also had extra deals like 50% off the last ticketed price so make sure that you pay attention to the signage and the shop staff too.  Now that Livingston Designer Outlet is back on my radar, I’ll definitely be back again soon for another look round.

To find out more about the Livingston Designer Outlet or start planning your visit head over to their website.

This post is in collaboration with Livingston Designer Outlet but as always all words and opinions are my own.