I’m Revealing My Secret Hack for Finding the Most Expensive-Looking Things at Zara

I’ll admit it: I have a love-hate relationship with shopping on Zara‘s website. Sometimes the way they shoot the clothes can make it hard to see how they will really look and fit IRL, making it more of a guessing game than I’d like. After years of being a loyal Zara shopper, though, I can basically find my way around the website with my eyes closed, which means I have come to know how and what to shop on the site and have a near-zero return rate to show for it. In fact, I’ve low-key become an expert in finding the most expensive-looking things at Zara. My credentials are that whenever I wear something from Zara (like this lush suede jacket I bought this spring), people are always shocked to find out its origins.

I thought this one hack was well-known, but after chatting with a few friends and colleagues, I figured I’d share my insider intel, after all. My secret? Shopping the ZW Collection. Each season, the Spanish retailer crafts a collection that’s a notch above the rest of its offering. The ZW Collection is where you’ll find more directional and trend-forward pieces and, in my experience, where the quality and design elements also far exceed my expectations (and tend to hold up over time). I know you might be wondering, but is it way more expensive? While yes, the prices are a tad higher than non–ZW Collection, they’re only marginally so—a $120 dress versus a $70 one, for example, which in my eyes is well worth the extra spend to get something you’re more likely to wear on repeat and keep in your closet. To see what I mean, I’ve put together an edit of the best ZW Collection pieces for spring 2025 here. Shop now; thank me later.