None of the attendees I spoke with at the private sale described themselves as sample sale shoppers. “This is probably the only sample sale that I’ll be attending, ever,” a young woman named Grace says. Many of the attendees tell me that they wouldn’t wait more than an hour and a half or two hours to get inside, even if they ended up breaking that boundary. Grace and her companion, Julian, had been standing in line for an hour and a half, still a decent ways away from the entrance. When I ask how long they would wait, Julian says, “No more than that.” Though he does maintain, “It’s worth the wait.” (The two continued to hold their spot in the line.)
Perhaps so many people were at the sale because they had heard about it on TikTok. Creators, such as @itssaheedat, posted the address and time of the sale online, racking up over 80,000 views, exposing it to more people, and defying exclusivity. Though, per TikTok influencers who got early access, the hotly anticipated shopping event was picked over by noon (with particular disappointment in the bag department).
The next day I returned to face the masses. The people at the front of the line told me that they’ve been waiting since 2 a.m. Toward the end of the block, a group of four young women—Clem, Sophie, Rina, and Anna—sat in a circle on folding chairs. They had been waiting since 5 a.m. “I was really stubborn and didn’t want to get a chair. Then I saw the setup and how long it was going to take, so I ran to Home Depot,” Clem (who is gunning for a pair of the $690 mesh ballet flats and a $1590 oversized pouch bag), said.
On the first day of the public sale, the line spanned three blocks, wrapping around Sixth Avenue and down most of West 19th Street. Clem and her friends were in it for the long haul. “We were saying that if for some reason we didn’t get in by the first day we would go all out and grab a tent,” Clem said. Because of how much time they have spent in line, they didn’t want to walk away empty-handed. “If there were a dream coat, then I would go for it because it’s such a steal, especially given the time that we invested in it,” Rina said.