This Season's Alexander Wang Sale Is Gigantic

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Grid View

Expand

• Bags ranged from $250 to $400.
• Editors line up around 8am. Photo via @amyodell/Twitter.
• The view from the entrance, just past the bag check
• The RTW price list. Isn't that "bright red" really more of a coral?
• Long silk dresses: $100. Long non-silk dresses: $60.
• Open-weave hooded sweaters for $100
• Boxes of T by Alexander Wang
• Menswear. That sweater up front is $100.
• The view from the back of the room
• Down in the basement was a dramatically lit shrine to structured bags.
• Shoes! These were all $250.
• Every pair of shoes at this table was $170.
• Such as these beauties, which have open backs.
• The scene around 10:30, aka the calm before the storm

Alexander Wang used to hold sample sales at 93 Mercer Street, but then Helmut Lang and Theory took over the space, compelling Wang to move down a few storefronts to 97 Greene. This turns out to be a win for shoppers: The new space is big and dramatic, with a first floor full of ready-to-wear and T and a basement dedicated to bags and shoes. Between the mood lighting, the soundtrack, and the sheer quantity of merchandise on the racks, Wang's staff must have put in a ton of work setting up the scene.

After you enter the sale and check your bag, the best move is to make straight for the lower level. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200, even if it's in the form of a really well-cut jacket. Just proceed directly to the shoes and bags, because they're going to disappear fast.

At this morning's editors preview, we found a table full of the Jade Trunk wristlets in white stingray and leather for $250 (down from $795). The Brenda bag was $300 down from $725. And a maroon variation on the Coco "It" bag was $350, although we only saw a few left. Shoes run $170 to $300, with the majority going for $250. There's a big range: High-heeled lace-up boots, pointy whipstitch booties, a surprisingly large stock of clunky turtle-green sandals, and two-tone fringed mules.

Once you're done in the basement, proceed back up the stairs to check out RTW and T. The clothes are all marked with circle stickers coded by price, with RTW going for $60 to $260 (and higher for certain items) and T going for $35 to $100. In RTW, long and lean sheaths in webby peach were $160, while a ribbed black column dress was $100. Open-weave tanks in black were $60, or you could get the dress version in white for $140. A textured white jacket was too gorgeous to be confined to the colored-dot system; it cost $296. But you could also get a cropped moto jacket with leather sleeves for just $60. We found pleated pants for $140, leather vests for $240, silky cowl tops for $100—the variety is endless, so give yourself time to dig.

The decisions in the T by Alexander Wang section are a little easier to make, since the prices are so very reasonable. We picked up a striped crop top for $35 and a simple grungy sweater for $100. (Urban Outfitters does have knockoffs for less, but they're knockoffs.) Shorts and miniskirts were $60, tank dresses were $35, and smart blazers came in several serious colors for $100. Don't forget to ransack the cardboard boxes, which have even more in the way of basic tees. You'll find men's T in the very front of the room, separated from the women's stuff. There, the prices run wider: $35 to $250. Sweaters are $100, while shorts with a leather tuxedo stripe down the leg were $180.

Useful final details: There is a fitting room, but it's really just a corner with some mirrors behind a rack that may or may not have clothes on it. Staffers will be restocking every day, but they wouldn't say whether prices will drop towards the end (although they always have in the past.) Officially, you need to spend over $200 to use a credit card, but we charged a purchase that rang up to less than that. The sale opens to the public at 3pm today, so you might want to get in line, oh, immediately.
· Helmut Lang and Theyskens's Theory Cozy Up on Mercer Street [Racked NY]
· Dealfeed: Alexander Wang [Racked NY]