Cost of sipping from US. Any ways around high costs?

[FANTINE1]

I have a bit of an addiction to reading fashion/life style blogs by US women. I have to say that it appears that there is a greater choice of clothing for the 45/50 + woman than there is here in the UK. Many of the clothing lines are not to frumpy etc.
I recently ordered some items from a company called Covered Perfectly. There was a 3 for 2 offer going on, and this off set the shipping fee. However, somewhat naively, I did not calculate the customs charge which was also payable in addition to the shipping cost. Hence i ended up paying an extra £24. I didn't realise that there would be a customs charge.
The clothing is lovely, but it all ended up being quite expensive.
Does anybody know how I could reduce the costs in future? Is there a minimum limit on clothing, or does the charge apply to everything?

You may need to look it up on the customs and excise website, but I understand that Americans can buy clothing from the UK and not pay customs if the value is below $200 dollars. I have a friend there who buys from asos and is careful to make separate orders if it goes above $200. So I'd assume there's a theeshold, if you can find it.

Will have a look, thank you. Never thought about making separate orders.

I don't think you pay if the value is less than £15. Customs charges are in place of the VAT you haven't paid buying the item here, so technically you'd be fiddling HMRC by trying to avoid it, assuming you get caught.

I know JCrew and other US companies use Borderfree to ship from the US, so the customer doesn't pay customs, but I assume the company pick up the cost. Worth contacting the companies you like to see if they could use them too? Or of these blogs are professionally run, then the bloggers will have an affiliate relationship with the retailers the promote, contact them and see if they will help?