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\u201cTalk to your friends about what they want,\u201d joked Chloe Malle to a room of guests gathered in SoHo for a first look at the Vogue Vintage Market<\/a>, the night before it opened. \u201cIt\u2019s going to get some sort of heated rivalry tonight.\u201d She added with a laugh.<\/p>\n As it turned out, Malle and the night\u2019s honoree, Doja Cat\u2014who was there to celebrate both her April cover<\/a> and her role as host of the sale<\/a>\u2014both had their sights set on a particularly covetable piece: Khaite\u2019s interlocking hands belt from the spring 2024 collection.<\/p>\n And just like that, the tone was set. At the party, which was co-hosted by Malle, Alex Consani, and Paloma Elsesser, Guests may have found themselves mid-conversation with someone whose eyes had already drifted elsewhere\u2014past a shoulder, across the room, toward something better. Only here, the distraction wasn\u2019t another guest, but a rail of pristine Chanel couture at eyebrow-raising prices.<\/p>\n Set across three floors of vintage and archival fashion, the evening unfolded among the racks and brought together the full Vogue<\/em> ecosystem: contributors to the sale like Paloma Elsesser and Emma Chamberlain; April issue stars including Doja Cat and members of the cast of Broadway\u2019s new The Rocky Horror Show<\/a> production\u2014Harvey Guill\u00e9n, Stephanie Hsu, Sam Pinkleton, and Michaela Ja\u00e9 Rodriguez\u2014who graced the pages of Vogue<\/em> in a Norman Jean Roy-photographed feature; plus designers, editors, and the usual well-dressed regulars. And most came to shop!<\/p>\n Doja Cat, for her part, was more than ready. \u201cI personally love vintage. I was up at like 5:00 a.m. last night\u2026 looking at sunglasses\u2014Christian Dior, particularly,\u201d she said. Of shooting her first Vogue<\/em> cover, she added, \u201cit\u2019s a really big deal to me,\u201d noting that wearing her own hair\u2014rather than one of her many wigs\u2014felt \u201cvery, very liberating and I\u2019m very, very, very satisfied.\u201d She arrived in a ruched dress, fastened with a brooch that lent an Old Hollywood feeling, paired with towering leopard-print platforms, and carried a pair of vintage Fendi glasses like a trophy. At one point, she paused over a pair of Alexander McQueen platform boots with an armadillo-esque heel\u2014dramatic, sculptural, and entirely her\u2014before discovering they were a size 39. (She\u2019s a 37. Alas.)<\/p>\n Nearby, Elsesser embodied the spirit of the night in more ways than one. \u201cI have such a passion for vintage and circular fashion,\u201d she said. \u201ceBay has long been my favorite resource to spend time finding things that I love.\u201d She wore an iconic black crinkled Prada dress and bolero from spring 2009 and stood beside her rack\u2014pieces pulled directly from her own closet\u2014which quickly became one of the most trafficked corners of the room.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t take long for it to draw a crowd. Alex Consani, in a sculptural Sacai look with a skirt that jutted outward, zeroed in on a ponyhair, beaded Marni cropped jacket and proceeded to swan through the party in it as though it were already hers.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, designer Jonathan Cohen made a swift and decisive choice, leaving with a houndstooth Herm\u00e8s tie in hand. Chamberlain, meanwhile\u2014fresh off a red-eye from Los Angeles\u2014was already scanning for her next addition, lingering over a handful of floaty skirts and easy spring pieces. \u201cI\u2019m trying to build out my skirt collection,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t have a lot of skirts.\u201d<\/p>\n By the end of the night, Malle\u2019s prediction had proven accurate. The rivalry wasn\u2019t hypothetical\u2014it was already underway. And it was only just a preview of what would unfold when the sale officially opened its doors the next morning.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n