FASHION : Shopping for a Good Cause : Everybody wins at 7th on Sale. Buyers get designer bargains and AIDS groups get millions of dollars.
With spring blossoms overhead and bargain-priced designer clothes beckoning behind tall veils of white muslin, the New York fashion community--including designers Christian Lacroix, Karl Lagerfeld, Gianni Versace, Helmut Lang, Dolce & Gabbana and John Galliano--dined in anticipation Wednesday night.
The scene was the gala opening of 7th on Sale, the industry’s five-day shop-a-thon to benefit AIDS organizations that runs through Sunday. And everyone was eager to buy.
The sale--which boasts $5.3 million worth of donated designer clothes and accessories--has become something of a cause celebre since its inception in 1990. Prices below wholesale draw famous designers, shoppers from around the country, celebrities and New York’s very social set.
Socialite Nan Kempner made the gossip columns by engaging in a tug of war over a hat one year. “She was pulling,” a sale volunteer recalled. “It was like the old days of Loehmann’s or Filene’s Basement.”
Even Wednesday night’s gala meal, tickets for which were $1,200, was kept to a single course to maximize shopping time.
“We’ve made it so people can shop as much as possible,” said Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue magazine, which sponsors the sale in conjunction with the Council of Fashion Designers of America and the CFDA fund. “I love to shop. I wouldn’t be in this job if I didn’t.”
So, apparently, do the 13,000 people who have purchased tickets to 7th on Sale--$20 per two-hour shopping block.
“The people who go to this thing know their stuff. They are fashion aficionados,” said Marian McEvoy, editor in chief of Elle Decor. “The competition is fierce.”
Shoppers will do battle here at the 26th Street Armory, where 75,000 square feet is filled with merchandise from Adrienne Vittadini, Andrea Jovine, Anna Sui, Anne Klein, Betsey Johnson, Isaac Mizrahi, Joe Boxer, Todd Oldham, Oscar de la Renta and Jeffrey Banks, as well as that of event co-chairs Donna Karan, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. Merchandise will be restocked every two hours.
“It’s like opening a department store for five days with 1,900 volunteers,” Wintour said.
The event raised $4.2 million when it was launched in New York in 1990, and $2.6 million in San Francisco in 1992. A target figure of $6 million has been set for this so-called “Return to New York” sale.
“We expect to do in five days what a department store does in a Christmas season almost,” said Fern Mallis, executive director of the CFDA.
An estimated $1 million could come from a tele-shopping tie-in that will let the rest of the country shop for a good cause. On June 6, MTV and VH1 will broadcast the documentary “The Goods Presents: Think Positive,” about people who have been helped by New York City AIDS groups. Model Claudia Schiffer will pitch Tommy Hilfiger merchandise.
“It will be like a PBS pledge with edge,” says MTV executive and former Mademoiselle editor Gabbe Doppelt, who developed the electronic promo.
Making final preparations for the sale, Karan left nothing to chance: She personally merchandises the goods for every shopping session, including one-of-a kind samples from her stock and design library, and framed photos from her ad campaigns.
“The atmosphere right now is electric,” she said. Like other designers, she’ll be on hand through much of the sale. “It’s about people in an industry coming together and being able to make a difference in the world,” Karan said. “That’s the greatest thing.”
