The Telfar Rainbow Bag Drop Was Beautiful Chaos

“Not for you—for everyone,” is Telfar’s tagline. It alludes to the efforts made by the Black-owned New York brand to create and sustain an “It bag” without any of the pesky exclusivity. And on Sunday afternoon, Telfar leaned into this lofty but democratic catchphrase, which was shouted into a loudspeaker to thousands of ecstatic shoppers clamoring outside a Rainbow Shop.

The CFDA winner took over the downtown Brooklyn outpost of the apparel chain, where one can typically snag rayon-blend jeans for $20, and launched its first brick-and-mortar pop-up. Customers had received a heads-up on Instagram only two days before the event. Over 3,500 units of the “Bushwick Birkin,” which range from $150–$257, depending on the size, were on hand. And even more people stood in the rain in a line that snaked around three city blocks.

The scene at around 3 p.m. felt like a mix between an on-location film shoot, a game show, and a Black Friday department store sale. Multiple NYPD cops hung around outside, keeping a close eye on things. A director operated a sky-high camera crane, capturing all the action for TelfarTV, the brand’s 24-hour broadcast channel, and IG Live. Masked dancers vogued and death-dropped while wearing pastel-hued bags, hats, and soon-to-come boots. TelfarTV hosts emceed the event with bombastic sass and gusto akin to Billy Porter on the ballroom drama Pose (“We are low on the medium chocolate and black bags,” one shouted out later that afternoon. “Don’t say I didn’t tell you!”) Then, the doors opened, an hour earlier than planned due to the swelling crowd. Beautiful chaos ensued.

Near the front of the line, Zoey, a recent college grad and aspiring fashion designer, stood with her mother. “I personally don’t own a Telfar, and a lot of my friends have for the last couple of years,” she said, speaking over the music and buzzing crowd. “And I just struggled with getting it online. I was like, okay, this is the perfect opportunity. I didn’t have work today. So, I just pushed all my responsibilities out of the way.” She had been waiting for four hours and planned to purchase a medium painter’s blue bag for herself and a medium azalea bag for her neighbor.

Then, Zoey’s mother unlocked her iPhone and pulled up a saved clip of Telfar. “I was just showing her,” she said, referencing her daughter, “because I saw the advertisement on Fox 5.” She wondered if a special-edition version of the bag, featured on the news segment, would be inside the store. Otherwise, “I want a white one.”

Near the end of the line, Mae Coyiuto stood with friends. She was visiting from the Philippines and figured she should check out the drop, announced on Instagram only two days prior, since the timing aligned. The 28-year-old novelist recently learned of Telfar thanks to pop star Beyoncé—who sings “This Telfar bag imported/Birkins, them shits in storage,” on her latest album, Renaissance. Still, Coyiuto is not sure how much caché a “Bushwick Birkin” will have in Manila. “People that can afford designer bags there tend to hold on to older established brands like Gucci and Chanel,” she said. “Even a brand like Balenciaga hasn’t clicked [there]!”