Fashion Frenzy : Gonzo Shoppers Flock to San Francisco AIDS Benefit Sale
At 9 Saturday morning, 2,000 people formed a quarter-mile line outside the Fashion Center of San Francisco. All of them were on a mission to shop.
Pauline Berry, her 5-week-old son in a Snugli, had arrived at 7:30, along with her twin sister, Kate Walton, and two pals, Kathy Kastler and Julie Mozena.
“It’s all for a good cause,” said Kastler. “We’re here with big wallets and big hearts.” And plenty of plastic.
More than 13,000 people, mostly women in their 20s and 30s, shopped this weekend at 7th on Sale/San Francisco, the fashion industry’s mega-benefit for various local AIDS organizations including the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Project Open Hand and the Shanti Project. Organized by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and the Fashion Center of San Francisco, the event featured merchandise donated by 263 designers, priced at 10% below wholesale.
Ten thousand tickets, at $12 each, were sold in advance for five two-hour shopping sessions on Saturday and Sunday. Proceeds from the three-day event were expected to reach $2 million.
The weekend began with a black-tie dinner, silent auction and preview sale Friday night, when 1,300 of San Francisco’s social elite paid up to $1,000 a person to rub shoulders with Richard Gere, Cindy Crawford and Sharon Stone, along with big-name designers such as Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, and sale organizers Donna Karan, Jessica McClintock and Nicholas Graham. According to CFDA President Stan Herman, the dinner alone raised $1 million.
But if Friday’s gala was for the rich and swanky, Saturday and Sunday sessions were strictly for gonzo shoppers. Upon entering the ground-floor exhibition hall of the Fashion Center, which had been divided into islands of mini-boutiques, each shopper was handed a 150-gallon plastic shopping bag.
Within minutes, Jessica Graf’s was one-third full. “Why did I come?” she called over her shoulder, dashing toward the Polo Shop. “To fight AIDS and, hopefully, find bargains.”
Hotel owner Yvonne Detert had bagged two designer dresses by 9:20, and was in search of more. “This is great,” she said, holding up a black Kathryn Dianos with leopard-print skirt. “This dress was only $130, and it probably retailed for $500.”
At the Oscar de la Renta booth, Dara Kawalkowski tossed off her sequined baseball jacket, with “world class shopper” spelled out across the back, to try on a black velvet gown with gold fishnet sleeves. Pulling the top of the dress up, and the top of her catsuit down, she looked in the mirror.
“Should I get it?” she mused. “For $500, why not?”
All over the exhibition space, shoppers were leaving their own clothes in puddles on the floor to try on dresses, pants and jackets over bike shorts, unitards and in some cases, plain old undies. In the bridal boutique, a small crowd gathered to watch Tauni Brubaker of San Jose try on a beaded wedding gown by Alfred Angelo, originally priced between $700 and $800 and marked down to $219.
She decided to take it. The crowd cheered.
The original 7th on Sale, held in New York two years ago, raised $4.2 million for New York AIDS organizations. CFDA Executive Director Fern Mallis said it was organized in response to criticism from the media that the fashion industry had not done enough to fight a disease that was decimating its ranks. Exhilarated by the event’s success, CFDA then decided on a second show. Representatives of San Francisco’s Fashion Center jumped.
“We always had a plan that the event would have legs,” said Mallis. When San Francisco’s organizers pulled together the support of local apparel manufacturers Levi Strauss & Co., Esprit and Gap, the CFDA gave the nod.
More than 2,000 San Franciscans volunteered to staff booths, stock shelves, ticket merchandise and steam-press clothes. The Fashion Center donated display and office space and retail equipment. Several companies stepped in with goods or money. Corporate sponsors Gap and Revlon each donated $75,000, Taitinger provided champagne, and more than 20 restaurants donated food and supplies for Friday’s gala.
Once big-name designers got involved, others followed. “Not many manufacturers need write-offs this year,” laughed Body Glove’s Robin Piccone, who donated swimsuits and sportswear worth $20,000. “But this is a good cause. The industry has been hit hard.”
Some designers are rumored to have donated merchandise worth up to $200,000. Serious money, said Donna Karan, for a serious problem. “This event demonstrates how one person can make a difference.”
While grazing on high fashion may have been the event’s original draw, on Saturday the biggest attractions were not so pricey. San Francisco State student Francisco Hernandez estimated he had $300 worth of Gap and Levi jeans and sweat shirts in his bag.
“But,” he said, “I probably saved about $200.” The Gap boutique was so congested, shoppers couldn’t get near the racks of $7 jeans and $5 shirts. Frenzied volunteers were standing in the aisles, stacks of T-shirts in hand, calling out sizes.
Other hot tickets were DKNY, where, by 10 a.m. Saturday, only hangers were left on the racks, and Ralph Lauren’s Polo Shop, where shoppers were taking clothes off mannequins.
Just before 11 a.m., volunteers with megaphones directed shoppers to the bank of 48 check stands, and as the boutiques cleared, volunteers began restocking in preparation for the next round of shopping at 1 p.m.
Outside, hundreds of them were already in line.
