In the middle of the carnage that is New York Fashion Week – where models wearing garments costing thousands of dollars have been making their way down runways across the city for five days straight, and the people making up the frow are in another realm entirely – Telfar yet again reminded everyone of its official, undisputed position as the label of the people.
Taking over the ground floor of a St Marks Place building (which, FYI, was deemed New York’s coolest street back in 2015), Telfar Clemens and Babak Radboy staged a pop-up sample sale on Saturday afternoon. Prices of old-season styles were slashed by 70 per cent, meaning that fans of the label, for one day only, were getting a whole lot more of the black-owned, genderless clothing company’s wares for their buck (and yes, there were plenty of its now-iconic mini bags up for grabs).
But that’s not all. Telfar made sure its sample sale shoppers didn’t go hungry while seeking out a bargain by enlisting fast food giants White Castle to hand out burgers and fries to all attendees. Of course, it’s not the first time the two have teamed up: Telfar threw a fashion week party at a Times Square branch of White Castle back in 2015, before designing a genderless uniform for its 10,000 staff and releasing a collab just a few years later.
The event came just a day after Telfar presented what it called ‘a trailer’ for its SS20 runway show. Starring Ashton Sanders, Ian Isiah, Kelsey Lu, Oyinda, and Jeremy O. Harris (with music by Formeza, Total Freedom, and Arca, and choreography by Xavier Cha), the short film precedes the label’s debut at Paris Fashion Week later this month.
Before that happens later this month, though, we advise you take a look through a series of portraits photographer Andrew Tess captured at Saturday’s sample sale. Scroll up to see the kids queuing up for a slice of the Telfar action – and make sure to mark September 23 in your diaries.