What Is "Market Market," DSM's Ultra-Rare Archive Sale?
Dover Street Market's seasonal sales are a bi-annual feeding frenzy for fashion-obsessed shoppers. However, those expansive events pale in comparison to DSM's legendary, rare Market Market sales.
We say legendary because Market Market is a scarce occurrence untethered from seasonal calendars. It only happens on occasion, entirely unpredictably, with no guaranteed stock, prices, or location.
Typically, Dover Street Market's Market Market sample sale functions like a glorified warehouse liquidation. It offers a vast assortment of old-season clothes, shoes, and accessories from Dover Street Market staples like Raf Simons, Maison Margiela, Jil Sander, OAMC, Vetements, Brain Dead, and the entire COMME des GARÇONS brand family, all marked way down — 70% off of retail for CDG clothes, 80% off for every other brand.
And after years of silence, DSM's Market Market sample sale is back and we've got all the details you need to know.
First thing of note: DSM Market Market is already here and touring the world.
On May 16, Dover Street Market London kicked off Market Market 2023 with an archive sale so explosive that the event had be temporarily shut down due to overcrowding.
Next, New York's DSM outpost launched its own Market Market sale, "Market Market Monolithic Magic," from June 8-11 at 866 United Nations Plaza.
You can get more information on DSM's website before queueing up: doors open at 10am EST.
In Dover Street Market's nearly 20-year history, there have only ever been a handful of Market Market sample sales at the retailer's global outposts.
Again, Market Market is distinct from Dover Street Market's seasonal sales, which are held twice yearly in June and December and run for several months.
While the biannual DSM sales typically take 30% off the retail costs before increasing up to 60% or so as time goes on, Market Market immediately offers archival new-old stock at discounted prices that range from 70% to 80% off of MSRP.
As mentioned earlier, Market Market is exceptionally uncommon: the last one held by Dover Street Market New York, for instance, was 2016's Super-Market-Market, a particularly unique joint effort between DSM NY and the local COMME des GARÇONS store.
It's too bad that Market Market doesn't happen more frequently. It's as popular as you'd imagine an extremely deep, consistently refreshed sale of designer clothes would be, and its scarcity means that every Market Market sale brings in a brouhaha of deal-crazed DSM shoppers.
Dover Street Market London's Market Works sale (as this iteration is known), held in the recently shuttered Printworks London venue, had to be temporarily halted due to what DSM called "unprecedented demand."
The crowds cleared out at least a little bit by May 21, when DSM London's 2023 Market Market sale ended, partially thanks to a ticketing system that only allowed a limited number of guests in at a time.
Expect June's DSM NY Market Market sale to be no less chaotic. And expect plenty of deals
This article was published on May 16, 2023 and updated on June 7
