If there’s one thing, fashion bloggers have in common it’s their love for shopping! Last month, the good folks of Vaughan Mills, loaded a bunch of bloggers onto their Free Shuttle bus at Union Station, gave each of us $100 to spend at the mall in one hour, and set us free. The rules were simple: buy the perfect(est) fashion find for $100 or less in one hour. All finds would then be judged by the Vaughan Mills Style Agents, to determine whose fab find was the fabbest. The winner would get $500 to spend at the mall. Easy, peasy.

From Union to Vaughan Mills, the trip was fun and enjoyable for all. People mingled, laughed, and revealed their shopping strategies. Before long, we were in front of neighborhood 5, and ready to begin our hour-long shopping sprees. Now this part got a bit more stressful. As some of you surely know, Vaughan Mills is huge! To get from one side of the mall to the other takes approximately 30 bajillion minutes, add to that the number of awesome stores to check out, and you’ll see how challenging getting your shopping done in 1 hour was for us.

No matter, I persevered, by running…and no, I don’t mean walking really fast…I was running for my life (and potentially $500), peeking into stores like Danier Leather, Holts Last Call, and Stylesense on my way. When the hour was up, I was back at the finish line, wearing my newly bought oversized Line Knitwear sweater ($40 at Holts Last Call), and a pair of Steve Madden wedges ($69 at Stylesense). Slightly over $100, but pretty amazing deals, nonetheless.

Chatting with the rest of the bloggers about their crazy shopping experience was part of the fun, Kristy of Monochromachic picked up a neon-bright BCBG jacket, Liv Judd of Lou Lou Mag walked away with a classic DVF dress, Fashionights‘ Julio bought an all-leather clutch from American Apparel…it seemed that everyone had a great time speed-shopping that day. The winner – Joyce of Sparkly Playground – wowed judges with her animal print jumpsuit from H&M, and scored an awesome shopping treat for her hard work.

What a fun experience that was! Like ANTM + Survivor + American Gladiators combined, with a sprinkle of American Idol for good measure. But that’s not all! I was also given a $100 gift card to share with one of my readers…who won’t have to do his/her shopping manically in 1 hour…unless it’s your thing, then go right ahead.

Contest details after the JUMP!

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