There is a particular kind of discovery that only happens when you are walking somewhere you have never been before, in a neighborhood you thought you knew, and you glance through a window and stop cold. The rack inside is immaculate. The chandelier catches the light. Something registers — this is not what you expected to find here — and you push open the door.
That is how people tend to find Trunk Show Designer Consignment, tucked into a wide brownstone storefront at 275 West 113th Street in Central Harlem. From the outside it looks like it might be a gallery, or an upscale boutique of some kind. From the inside, it is immediately, unmistakably a destination: white clothing racks packed with Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga, and Alexander Wang; marble floors; a black chandelier overhead; and the quiet, concentrated atmosphere of a shop that knows exactly what it is.
Harlem’s First Designer Reseller
Trunk Show opened in July 2012 — which means it has now been in this spot for over a decade, doing something that had never been done in Harlem before: bringing designer consignment to a neighborhood where fashion has always had its own distinct identity, but where the infrastructure of luxury resale simply did not exist.
The shop was founded to fill what its owner recognized as a void. Harlem has always had extraordinary style — the neighborhood’s influence on American fashion, from the Harlem Renaissance through hip-hop, is incalculable. What it did not have was a place where residents could sell their quality pieces and buy excellent designer goods at reasonable prices without traveling downtown. Trunk Show changed that.
The consignment model is straightforward: sellers bring in designer items in good condition and receive fifty percent of the sale price when items move. The inventory turns constantly. What you see on a Tuesday will be different from what you find on a Saturday, and what was on the rack two weeks ago is gone. This is not a shop where pieces sit. The regulars know this, and they come back often.
Inside the Shop
The space runs long and narrow, the way good boutiques in brownstone conversions tend to do. The black-and-white interior is deliberately neutral, designed to let the clothes be the show. White racks are organized with the precision of a personal stylist’s closet — pieces are spaced, not crammed; accessories are displayed with care; shoes are arranged by style rather than size. It feels like shopping someone’s very well-edited wardrobe rather than sorting through a pile.
On any given visit, you might find a perfect-condition Chanel blazer in a size that fits you perfectly, a Louis Vuitton bag that you would have paid three times as much for at a downtown resale shop, a silk slip dress from a label you have been watching for years finally within reach. The price points are serious — this is not a thrift store, and it does not pretend to be — but against what these items sell for elsewhere, the math makes a compelling argument.
Contemporary pieces appear alongside true vintage. The range tends toward women’s wear, but accessories and handbags pull in shoppers of every kind. The staff know the inventory well and will pull things for you if you tell them what you are looking for.
Why Harlem, and Why This Matters
There is a version of the NYC vintage and consignment world that is almost entirely concentrated below 96th Street — in Williamsburg, in the East Village, in NoLita, in Chelsea. Trunk Show is a deliberate counterpoint to that geography. It says, without making a speech about it, that Harlem is also where this happens. That the person who lives on 113th Street deserves a shop that takes their taste seriously.
More than a decade in, the shop has earned its place as a neighborhood institution. Its regulars range from longtime Harlem residents to fashion students who make the subway trip specifically for the inventory, to people who simply stumbled in one day and have been coming back ever since. The discovery ratio is high here — the kind of shop where you arrive looking for nothing in particular and leave having found exactly the thing.
How to Visit
Address: 275–277 West 113th Street, Central Harlem, Manhattan, NY 10026
Nearest Subway: Cathedral Pkwy–110th St (B, C lines) — 4-minute walk north along Frederick Douglass Blvd; 116th St (B, C lines) — 4-minute walk south
Hours: Tuesday through Sunday, opening around 1pm. Closed Mondays. Call ahead to confirm current hours: (212) 662-0009
Website: trunkshowconsignment.com
Consignments: Accepted by appointment, Tuesday through Saturday. The split is 50/50. Seasonal items only — call ahead to discuss what they are currently accepting.
Insider Tip: The best inventory arrives at the start of each new season, when Harlem’s most stylish residents bring in the previous season’s pieces. Early autumn and early spring are the golden moments — the racks turn over significantly, and the first shoppers in see the freshest selection. If you are a regular, introduce yourself to the staff. They will text you when something in your size comes in that they think you should see.
Trunk Show has been here for over a decade. The city is only just beginning to catch up with it.
