Whether they knew it or not before Tuesday, National Consignment Month is upon us, and the New York fashionistas came out to honor as they do best: with a party.
In honor of the launch of its initiative “Consign Commitment,” The RealReal hosted a dinner Tuesday evening at Holiday Bar. Several VIP guests were dressed in their favorite consignment finds, including Jenna Lyons and stylist Sarah Clay, who twinned in a set of Saint Laurent red deep-V gowns, black shades and red lips. Lyons’ rumored fiancé, photographer Cass Bird, was also in attendance, and the trio chatted it up with Helena Christensen, who also wore red for the night.
Other guests included Rebecca Hall, Pat Cleveland, AnnaSophia Robb, Cathy Ang, Jihae Kim, Minnie Mills, Rainey Qualley, Huma Abedin, Angelica Hicks, Isabella Massenet, Susan Korn, Alana Zimmer, Bruna Tenório and more.
The RealReal was also marking its celebrity-led closet sale, which features the items of VIPs from Kate Moss to Julianne Moore.
Guests sipped white wine and dirty martinis during cocktail hour to a soundtrack of Trisha Yearwood and Carly Rae Jepsen, before sitting down to a family-style meal.
Sebastian Troëng, PhD, vice president of Conservation Partnerships at Conservation International, greeted the room with a reminder of fashion’s environmental footprint.
“We want to engage with a sector that can actually have a significant and global impact and influence on the world, and when you think about the fashion sector, the way that we produce and consume fashion today is having a significant impact on the planet,” he said. “The fashion sector actually has a bigger climate footprint than all shipping and all air travel put together. Fashion is the second biggest consumer of fresh water in the world. We’re excited to partner with The RealReal because that’s what we need to do to change this equation.”
“Fashion has always been such an important part of me and an escape growing up, and it was always a very thoughtful thing in my family,” said Rati Sahi Levesque, the president and COO of The RealReal. “I remember my mom sewing socks as a kid and making sure things didn’t get thrown away. There are 2,000 items thrown away every single second, and with that we really wanted to start changing people’s behavior.”
With that, she encouraged everyone to take the pledge of consigning one in five items for consignment month, with the proceeds from the sale going to Conservation International.