On a Sunday in January, shoppers got to experience a fly girl’s closet. Well, the closets of many fly girls across the city, to be exact, during the Fly Girl Fête closet sale.
At The Parlor on St. Joseph Street downtown on that winter day, the atmosphere inside was warm, and the clothing racks popped with color.
Fifteen local women filled their racks with gently used pieces like a straw hat with multicolored pom poms, bold hanging earrings, a bedazzled denim dress and a zigzag-patterned skirt that spanned the rainbow in hues. They brought all manner of crossbody bags, blazers and jackets. The clothes came in all sizes and styles, and were as diverse as the shoppers themselves. Nearly 100 attendees bustled about, vibing with the fashion and each other.
Grace Fiorenza
In the days following the pop-up, comments on Instagram photos from the event were full of heart-eyes emojis and compliments galore. “Had so much fun today,” one read. “I came outta there with so many steals,” wrote another shopper. And of the Reduce Reuse Recycle Rihanna cookies by Sugar Kettle Cookie Co., “They were beautiful AND tasty.”
This kind of feedback is exactly what the leaders of the Fly Girl Pop Ups wanted in creating the event. It’s the brainchild of local creatives Tyronecia Moore, Meghan Daniel and Gabby Murphy.
Back in 2019, Daniel showed up to a closet sale Murphy held at her home with a few friends and plenty of mimosas. The two decided to team up to expand the closet sale to a venue in 2019.
Around the same time, Moore was separately contemplating the very same idea. She set up an Instagram group chat, which Daniel and Murphy joined. The three women wanted the same thing: a big community sale showcasing the area’s most stylish closets. After realizing FW Gallery was available as a venue for the first event, they set it up. Their debut sale, Fly Girl Fall, was born last October. It was marketed as a more sustainable shopping experience. That event was followed by January’s Fly Girl Fête.
“It definitely evolved pretty quickly,” Daniel says.
“All of this happened through social media; we reached out through Instagram,” Moore says, recalling how they found vendors for the pop-up. Daniel says they’ll continue to get vendors that way and through word-of-mouth.
The pop-ups are about so much more than adding fast-fashion items to your cart, the founders say. They allow fashion-conscious south Louisiana women to find new homes for their old pieces, instead of discarding them.
“I’ve been thrifting since high school,” Moore says. “My grandmother was the one who got me involved in it. Naturally, I just gravitated toward making sure that I’m buying pieces that are going to be in my wardrobe for a long time, things that other people respond to. It’s still a great way to save money.”
There is a learning element, too. Daniel says Moore does a good job showcasing ways to restyle pieces at the events and through the group’s social media. The pop-ups encourage recycling clothing—both by connecting with pieces at the event and discovering pieces in your own closet.
Closet sales help to quell that feeling you get when you scroll through beautifully curated social media feeds: the feeling that you have to follow trends, Moore says. You buy something trendy, and then you realize it wasn’t made to last. In her experience, vintage or more high-quality clothes were made to be worn time and time again. They’re the pieces you’ll pass down to your grandchildren.
“I think with Instagram and social media, there is a lot of waste—a lot of people wear an outfit once,” Daniel adds. “Shopping secondhand is just a way to be more yourself.”
So, the clothes at Fly Girl Pop Ups are made to last. And its three leaders are setting out to make sure their events are, too.
SHOP THE SALE
The next Fly Girl Pop Up event is April 5, with a location yet to be determined. Follow @flygirlpopups on Instagram for updates.
This article was originally published in the March 2020 issue of 225 Magazine.
