By Bria Berger

Kembrel is a private shopping community for U.S. students
that boasts about its great deals on name brand clothing. I heard about them on
a message board and became a member to do some snooping because I know that
Dedicated readers love a good deal! Kembrel also says it ‘curates’ its
collection for quality and style so there’s no need to sort through countless
pages of boring clothes.

I became a member by signing up with my .edu email address.
This process was a little confusing, because after I gave them my information
they said that it would be a few days until I heard whether I was ‘admitted’ or
not. A few days later, I was a true member and coincidentally saw that they
were running sales on American Apparel and Original Penguin Shirts. The strange
part about Kembrel is that it doesn’t have a store that’s stocked every day of
the week; instead, they run sales every few weeks or so and clothing sells out
quickly. I took a couple of screenshots of the sales that were offered.

The selection of clothing was very small (only 5 items) and
the pictures and specific clothing articles left a little to be desired. (How
could they run an American Apparel sale without any of AA’s fabulous dresses?)
But the prices were great. It’s hard to argue with almost 60% off American
Apparel’s price. I actually felt like the men’s sale of Original Penguin
clothing was a better deal. The men’s sale had a greater selection, better
pictures and awesome prices.

Overall, I think Kembrel is worth joining. The mediocre
pictures and small selection are somewhat disappointing, but the prices can’t
be beat, and it only takes a minute to sign up. I contacted them and asked if
people could join without an .edu email address and they said they would make
those decisions on a case-by-case basis, so shoot them an email here if you have any questions. There have been some rumors of referring people and getting Kembrel "cash," so I'll keep you updated if that turns out to be true! And
even if you don’t feel like joining, their blog is very well done and is worth
taking a look at. Coming up in May, they’re going to have sales on Juicy
Couture, True Religion, and Marc by Marc Jacobs clothing. At nearly wholesale
prices, their sales are definitely worth a second look!

Update: Their "invite" feature recently went live! From their website: "For every student friend you invite below and who signs up, you get $1
to spend on Kembrel.com. Once they make their first purchase, you get an
extra $10 per friend. Spread the love!"

Full Disclosure: After this post ran on on DFOF, Kembrel contacted me and asked if I would write some blog posts for them. They also asked me to join their campus rep program.