The creator of the Bushwick Birkin is headed to London. And this relocation is just one of the ways Telfar is ripping up its playbook for the launch of its first real leather bag . The Carry will debut at Selfridges’s The Corner Shop, available in-store from 30 September to 2 November.
It’s a pebble leather carryall and is embossed with the Telfar T logo, just like the shopper . The Carry will only be available at the physical space, a sharp pivot from Telfar’s infamous online-only drop model. “The Carry is not optimised for Instagram.
It should not sell out in two minutes. You should not buy it from a picture,” the release reads. “Every aspect of this bag was designed for physical experience: you have to touch it and feel it and carry it to carry The Carry.
That’s why we are opening a store.” It’s a pushback against the luxury industry’s capitalisation on the merchandising and marketing model founder Telfar Clemens popularised with his sell-out drops. Clemens built the brand on a drop model where online 24-hour-only releases would sell out in far less (usually minutes).
Luxury soon caught on and began playing into the drop model at far higher price points — just look at Phoebe Philo, which launched with this very model (and far, far higher price points), raising questions about whether the model could work for blue-chip luxury. Telfar’s brand was built on a unique mix of accessibility (price point) and inaccessibility (scarcity). Luxury brands worked .
