This Is the Secret Place Editors Go to Shop for Cult Items

It’s hard to deny that shopping these days can appear a little overwhelming. With IRL browsing off limits due to the current climate, we’re all having to go 100% digital, but with so many online stores out there it can be hard to know where to start. Of course, we all have our go-tos whose ‘new in’ sections are becoming more familiar than our own family members’ faces, but without the physical act of strolling down the high street, or past your local independent stores, it’s a lot harder to come across those great deals or new names you might have once just stumbled across. On top of that, the hours of screen-staring and searching can’t possibly be good for us.

Enter Lyst. Yes that’s, L-Y-S-T. If you haven’t already heard of it, it’s coined itself ‘the definitive shopping platform’, and they’re not wrong to do so. If you have heard of it, it might be because we reference it A LOT here at Who What Wear, both for their data-driven insights in our articles and, of course, for shopping. It’s our editors’ little secret. But, what actually is it? Well, keep scrolling to find out. 

What Is Lyst? 

Essentially, it’s a one-stop-shop collating over 12,000 global brands and stores, from high street favourites like Mango and & Other Stories, to the latest drops from the likes of Gucci and Balenciaga. There’s also department stores such as Liberty and Harrods on there, and online retailers including Net-a-Porter and Farfetch—even second hand purveyors like The Luxury Closet are part of the platform. This means you can access more than 8 million products through one single search bar providing unparalleled choice and convenience. 

And, as if that wasn’t convenient enough, they’ve just updated the Lyst app, so you can have those 8 million products in your pocket (perfect for those Sunday scrolling sessions.)

The homepage and app content is also a great source of inspiration if you’re feeling overwhelmed. Lyst uses its insights from the search patterns of over 100 million shoppers a year to regularly update curated shopping lists on trending cult-pieces worldwide, so all those people can't be wrong.

How Does It Work?

You can either search for something you have your eye on, or use the drop downs and features to browse as you would a regular online store. The benefit of Lyst’s search, though, is that it will bring up every stockist selling the item you’ve got your heart set on, so you can compare prices and shipping costs to get the best value, as well as checking stock levels. Perfect for keeping watch on those cult items. Who What Wear UK's shopping editor, Joy Montgomery agrees; "alongside mining Lyst for fashion stats, I love using it to compare prices for items I'm looking for, something that particularly comes in handy during the sale season!"

Obsessed with Bottega’s Tire boots or Marine Serre’s Crescent Moon top but still a little out of your price range? Or sold out completely? No stress. Lyst has the unique ability to track deals and updates over time— simply save a product with the heart icon and be alerted as soon as it goes into sale, or comes back in stock. Plus, you can keep your favourite pieces from across all stores in one simplified wish list. 

What Do Our Editors Rate?

It also acts as a helpful litmus test for what’s taking off with shoppers at that very moment. This is trend-forecasting as it happens, so if you like to shop with your finger on the pulse, Lyst is a great place to start. Assistant editor Elinor Block says "it's so brilliant to understand how the wider world is shopping. Quite often you can be in a fashion industry 'bubble' and Lyst can give us data on shopping behaviour that can surprise us." With so many brands and products on site, there’s also a high chance that you’ll discover some breakthrough or smaller brands while you’re at it. 

What Are the Best Items to Shop For?

An insider tip from Hannah Almassi, WWWUK’s editor-in-chief, is that she uses Lyst "to track down items that I missed out on but would still really like to buy. Sometimes you'll discover the supposedly sold-out piece is available at a really niche retail site… and you haven't even had to do the hard work of looking for it yourself!" And apart from being excellent for bagging those big ticket investment pieces, there’s also benefits to searching for the perfect basics— try ‘straight-leg jeans’, ‘white shirt’ or ‘quilted coat’, for example, and comparing everything that’s out there, all in one place. Whether on the app or the site, with Lyst, the fashion world really is your oyster.