Best of Lei Chic 2008: It's Reigning Deals

As we get set to ring in 2009, Lei Chic is taking a look back into our archives and bringing you some of the best stories we published during 2008. Enjoy and see you next year!
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Originally published August 8, 2008

Your personal fairy tale:  forget the pumpkin – and the ball. You’re on a worldwide shopping spree buying up the latest runway looks from every top designer. And then you do it again every season.

It’s no fairy tale for sisters Azzura and Yana Alliata, Italian princesses who live part of the year in Hawai‘i. Their closets are brimming with designer duds from vacations and shopping trips all over the globe.

This summer they started selling off some of the pieces they no longer wore, and offered some of the proceeds to charity. Their periodic sales proved popular with their friends – and friends of friends, too. Now, they have a small private boutique right on the grounds of their Tantalus home that’s open by appointment only. Besides their own things, the shop carries items collected from the sisters’ other three siblings, their parents, and friends. Insiders around the island have been heading to the converted garage space to shop at Royal Vintage, as the boutique’s called, and score finds like a $3,000 Dolce & Gabbana gown for $200.

This weekend, Royal Vintage is opening for a rare public sale before the princesses head off to college for the year. That means tons of barely-worn designer items from Versace, Armani, Manolo Blahnik and others, most priced 75 percent less than retail.

It’s one fairy sale you can believe in.

Royal Vintage Boutique, 2615 Tantalus Drive, Honolulu. Public sale begins at 10 a.m. Saturday. Other shopping times are by appointment only. Call Tina Maharina at 808.282.8703 to schedule.

Note: Royal Vintage is open this weekend, December 27-28, 2008.