This is Connecting the Dots, a series in which writer José Criales-Unzueta looks at how fashion, pop culture, the internet and society are all interconnected.
Anyone who likes fashion loves a sale — except, perhaps, designers. This has been a particularly sales-heavy year, with sample sales, archive sales and open studios alike. Independent designers, particularly in New York, have been hosting them one after the other, and sometimes, all at once. Over Memorial Day weekend, there were three: Diotima’s Rachel Scott hosted an open studio, Connor McKnight held an archive sale, while Vaquera threw a “super sale”. In the past month or so, there were more, including Christopher John Rogers, Collina Strada, Zankov, Eckhaus Latta, Rachel Comey, Mansur Gavriel and 3.1 Phillip Lim (online).
The reasoning feels straightforward enough. With some retailers like Matches going under and others at woes, and with designers reporting slower payments from wholesalers and smaller orders, it makes sense to offload as much inventory as they have available, particularly as we enter the sluggish summer months. It’s worth remembering that many of these smaller brands don’t work on pre-collections, so whatever they produce for spring has to offer enough mileage to get them to autumn deliveries.
But the story is not as simple as it seems. Just last week, I was on the phone with the designer of a popular independent label, who mentioned that their brand is currently performing satisfactorily and growing, yet is still facing some cash flow problems. Two things can be true, was their way of putting it. The same thing happens with these sales, at least according to the designers I’ve spoken to while perusing through their racks. Yes, cash flow is nice, and sure, they can use the money at this time, though these sales are about a little more than that.
What’s in a name
While the concept of a sample has been around for what feels like aeons, the framing of an ‘archive’ sale is relatively new. Much of it has to do with Gen Z and millennials and our collective fascination with all things old, or simply older. A sample sale is fun, yet an archive sale offers a treasure trove of unearthed gems from seasons past, however old.
It’s also a chicer concept from the brand side: a ‘sample sale’ sounds like a designer has excess inventory left lying around, but an ‘archive sale’ sounds somewhat more elegant (and less incriminating). It’s also worth noting that they tend to offer the exact same thing, particularly for designers who haven’t been around long enough to amass decades-old archives.
Diotima designer Scott’s open studio “wasn’t even meant to be a sale, just an open studio, which I think is a nice model when you don’t have the capacity to have a retail space”, she says. Scott, as runner-up of the 2023 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, used the prize money from her win to lease a space with the main purpose of using it for open studios (she used to rent to host these activations, which she says was cost prohibitive). Scott had a rack of pieces from older seasons, which was marked off, and another, more robust rail with in-season picks. “I think everyone assumed it was a sale because everybody was having one,” she laughs, “but in the end, the people who buy from wholesalers came to see the full expression of the collection and shopped both full price and archive.”
There is a sort of stigma around the idea of luxury brand sales. “I’m not a big fan of the sale in some aspects, but it’s a really good way to be more accessible for people who want a lower price point,” adds Scott. “That part is useful, but it also helped me meet people who have been shopping online or who were fans of the brand on Instagram but had never seen it in real life. So much about what I do, you need to see in person.”
Better in person
“Wholesale is also nice because you get feedback from the team, but it’s still far removed from the customer,” says Scott. “This allows me to have a connection with them and lets them connect with the brand more intimately.”
That sense of intimacy has become key for designers like Scott, who are starting to build direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses to maximise the relationships they’ve developed online by being editorial or industry darlings. What’s perhaps less discussed is that one of the reasons why it feels novel for independent designers to be sitting on enough stock or ‘archive’ pieces to sell is because, unlike, say, 10 years ago, now they also buy into their own inventory for their DTC channels just as wholesalers do.
“In order to have a healthy business today, you have to build DTC,” says Scott, who is currently working on building out this portion of her business.
Meet me halfway
Supporting an independent or small business is developing a relationship with both the brand and the founder. “I’ve been around for a few years now, and you can tell that people are starting to resonate with the brand,” says McKnight, whose Memorial weekend archive sale was hosted at his apartment. “People stop by to check it out or chat and buy something. It’s people who had been following the brand or heard about it but hadn’t seen the collection in person.”
Much of the stock that McKnight had available, he had accumulated over time. “I had things from my Gucci Vault collection (the Alessandro Michele-era collaborations vehicle), or the Throwing Fits x Mr Porter collaboration (a capsule curated by James Harris and Lawrence Schlossman of the popular menswear podcast ‘Throwing Fits’), so it was cool to bring those back,” he adds. “We have this kind of exclusivity mindset in the luxury market, so whoever can afford it gets to experience the brand, but we make clothes for a living — it’s cool when people have your clothes. You want people to access them.”
Still, the impetus behind McKnight’s sale was not just meeting his customers halfway and connecting with them ahead of the summer. “I do two collections a year, so it’s nice to have another thing coming in here and there,” he says. McKnight will also be travelling to Paris later this month for menswear market appointments, for which he wanted to raise some funds to help cover. “Having the extra help with that is better because there is less pressure at each appointment,” he says. “It just makes the overall experience a little nicer. You sold some clothes right before getting there, so you kind of ride the wave a little bit.”
Supporting an independent brand is also getting to experience its growth up close. “I used to be apprehensive about not letting people come until it was fully set up or shop until things felt ‘ready’, but I’ve become less precious about that. It’s part of growing a business, and it’s good to let people see that, too,” says Scott.
“I had pulled out some stuff for this sale that I was like, I don’t know if I want anybody to buy this because it’s from a time that I was not quite there yet, but it’s encouraging that people not only want it because of that but to also see it all together and realise you’ve come a long way,” McKnight adds. “It’s good that things aren’t falling apart anymore,” he laughs.
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
As the indie designer dominos fall, who’s going to step in to help fashion brands?
Have sample sales turned ‘vicious’?
Sample sales are trending on TikTok. Is it a brand opportunity?
.jpg)
