Police Shut Down the Versace Sample Sale

It’s a big week for Italian luxury-fashion brands starting with the letter V. Valentino got a new creative director, and Versace accidentally caused a public disturbance that had to be shut down by the NYPD. All press is good press, I guess?

On Wednesday, a crowd converged on the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea in anticipation of the Versace sample sale. According to reporter Katie Smith, some people had camped out since 2 a.m. in hopes of snagging a coveted designer item for up to 80 percent off. The pavilion is no stranger to the chaos of sample sales: Hordes of bargain shoppers and fashion fanatics have queued in hourslong lines there for high-end brands like The Row and Jimmy Choo. But just hours after the Versace sale started, police told Gothamist that security working the event called the NYPD to help them manage the crowd.

Videos from the event show throngs of people in the street and patrons pushing and shoving at the entrance and inside the sale before the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group arrived on the scene. Police told the New York Post they were called after a fight broke out, but no arrests were made.

By Wednesday afternoon, a sign announcing that the sale was closed had been placed over the board that had previously beckoned customers in with discounts seemingly too good to pass up. The Cut has reached out to Versace for comment and will update this post when we hear back.