Most of the retail headlines we’ve seen have focused on two types of shopping: brick-and-mortar and e-commerce. But that myopic view leaves out the various other ways people engage with fashion, like trunk shows and home shopping events. Consider Sarah Easley’s two-year-old endeavor, Maison Marché, which essentially creates a pop-up shop in your living room—and introduces you and your friends to a few dozen independent or emerging designers in the process. Most of her events, or “fêtes,” as she calls them, take place in New York and throughout the tri-state area, but she’s brought her “fashion circus” as far as Aspen and Mexico City. Wherever she goes, the takeaway is the same: “There’s an authenticity to it, and it’s completely based in reality,” Easley says. “It’s wonderful designers in pretty spaces, surrounded by your friends.”
That sounds particularly nice right about now, since most of us haven’t seen our friends in months (let alone gone shopping with them). But Maison Marché has been affected by the coronavirus just like any “store”; Easley’s last event took place in early March, and she swiftly canceled everything she’d booked for April, May, and June. “I hit a full pause,” she says. “But slowly and surely, brands started reaching out to me, and my clients were reaching out, too.” Designers who had just received their spring collections had nowhere to sell them and hoped Easley might be able to help, while clients were coming to her for a mood-boosting pair of earrings or a fun blouse to wear on Zoom calls. So she began experimenting with a virtual fête through Instagram, sharing one independent designer a week and taking orders directly from her followers. “It’s a very engaged group of women,” she says. “I’ve sold about 25 units a week, which is typically what we sell before lunch at an event. But I’m so happy to support these designers in a small way, and my clients are super happy.”
Easley also has a team of freelance stylists who are staying in touch with clients and facilitating sales when necessary. That personal connectivity is no doubt a huge part of Maison Marché’s success. But Easley’s edit of brands is key, too: She’s passionate about supporting small-batch, artisanal, and sustainable designers, and is careful to avoid “mood overlap” between brands. There might be a casual, utilitarian label like Nili Lotan next to a more bohemian one, like Warm or Isla & White; the goal is to avoid redundancies and the frustration caused by the choice overload of e-comm sites with their daily new arrivals. With most of her customers at home, Easley is promoting items with relaxed silhouettes, joyful prints, easy care—i.e., no dry cleaning—and friendly price points, mostly in the $300 range. “My team and I are posting on Instagram, sending photos [via text], and trying to tell the brand’s story digitally,” she says. “It’s been working really well for us.”