The biggest fashion event of the year just happened. No, I don’t mean the 2023 Met Gala — that snooze fest literally feels like a fever dream (or, if you’re talking about Jared Leto’s cat costume, a nightmare).
No — on the Lord’s Day, Sunday, May 14, 2023, Chloe Sevigny held the Sale of the Century. Literally.
@hanselkai Another reason i love living in #nyc #chloesevigny #closetsale
Organized by former Vogue fashion writer Liana Satenstein, the #SaleOfTheCentury was Chloe Sevigny’s storage sale in New York City. Drawing a line that wrapped around multiple city blocks, New York fashion lovers celebrated Mother’s Day by celebrating THEE Mother herself: Chloe Sevigny.
Liana wrote on Instagram: “We’ve gotten into the depths of @chloessevigny’s perpetual cool girl closet to unearth her sauciest step-and-repeat, club-ready classics. GEAR UP. #STORAGEWARS where are you? Cast our girl.”
New Yorkers are no strangers to sample sales. Nor are we immune to the occasional closet cleanout of a social media It Girl. But an archive sale like this is unprecedented.
Featuring pieces that Sevigny herself has been pictured wearing to events or by paparazzi, this is like if your coolest friend’s coolest friend lets you pick through her storage locker. And if that person was one of the original It Girls.
The phrase “It Girl” may be thrown around now, but Sevigny is its prototype. And though she made her breakthrough as a teen actress in the film Kids, Sevigny has become known for her iconic street style. Always ahead of trends — and in fact, dictating them — Sevigny is one of the most enduring New York City icons.
So it’s no surprise that the fashion girlies (gender-neutral term, at this point) showed out in droves to pick through her closet rejects.
The line wasn’t just long, it was full of the best-dressed people in New York. As a haven to the style-obsessed and anyone who has ever referred to themselves as a “Carrie” (you know who you are), NYC is not wanting for events where people dress up to the nines. But rarely does a literal queue draw so many innovative outfits and Big Fits.
Every red carpet for the rest of the year will have to compete with the looks we saw at the closet sale — Dune press tour, your move.
People filmed GRWM-style videos just to wait in line for hours — and it paid off. The outfits I saw on TikTok will be inspiring my summer style. Filled with eclectic combinations of high and low pieces, it showed that Cool Girls are alive and well in New York City. And Chloe Sevigny is the mother to them all.
Though there will likely never be an event like this again, for one brief moment, all the fashion lovers of New York came together to bask in the glory of good style. A Mother’s day miracle.