Simon Doonan is the Creative Director at Barneys New York, and this holiday season they created this very entertaining and clever video of Simon asking the staff at Barneys New York what they want for the holiday. What makes the video so brilliant, is that they have turned it into a video gift guide, by finding out what each staff member wants.

I love Barneys and I think they have some of the best selection of clothing and accessories, and the video makes me hope I get a gift from them!

BTW Barneys is currently running their awesome designers sale and save up to 40% off! Have a Witty Holiday!

http://www.barneys.com/

Nau.com the eco-friendly activewear and outdoor clothing company has just launched a new way to shop for clothing, called the Changing Room.

The concept works like this: Visit their website and select clothing that has been flagged with the Changing Room icon or browse all clothing in the Changing Room category. Once you select the clothing your interested in, you pay half now, to try out and test the clothes for 30 days. If after 30 days from date of purchase you don’t return the clothing, Nau.com will charge the other half to your credit card. If you don’t like something, return it within the 30 days and they’ll give you your money back, no questions asked.

All Changing Room orders come with free UPS Ground Shipping and include a pre-paid return shipping label with your order. Pretty sweet deal and low risk way to buy clothing if you ask me.

Nau.com for details.

Marisa Taylor a writer for the Wall Street Journal wrote an interesting piece on the growing number of private-sale luxury sites growing in this cash strapped economy.

The article talks about member only sites like Gilt, wich allow shoppers to buy heavily discounted luxury brand merchandise anywhere from 50 percent to 70 percent off original price, without the guilt or stigma of paying full price for luxury goods.

Sites like Gilt are on the rise especially in this down economy, where consumers are looking to get the most value for their hard earned dollars. With the luxury-goods market not expected to recover until 2011 or 2012 this will become the norm for how people buy and shop for luxury items in my opinion.

And even Saks Inc, is testing its own version of “private event” shopping online to compete with sites like Gilt.com, RueLaLa and HauteLook, etc.

While buying discounted designer fashions at outlet stores is old news, this approach takes it to a whole new level. It shouldn’t be long until you see Neiman Marcus take a stab at cashing in on the private web sale.

What do you think? Have you bought from sites like Gilt.com, RueLaLa and HauteLook? Share your experience and thoughts in our comments section.

Want to see an excellent chart that shows the true cost of owning a smartphone, like the iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre, MyTouch 3G, and Motorola Droid?

The fine folks at BillShrink did an amazing job of breaking it down by features and cost.

[Via BillShrink]