The Neverworns x Magasin Sale Is Very Alive

How to join the Neverworns x Magasin in-person sale on Sunday, the virtual Neverworns Live! Shopping, and listen to our audio interview.

I’m hosting an in-person sale with

laura reilly

of Magasin this Sunday, February 2 from 2pm - 7pm EST. It’s invite-only and in-person for paid subscribers on a first-come, first-served basis. NOTE: If you cannot be there, I’m holding a NEVERWORNS Live! Shopping sale on the simple auction platform Whatnot…you can sign up here to bid on some of Laura’s pieces. The time of the Neverworns Live! Shopping x Magasin show is from 3:00pm - 3:30pm EST on Whatnot. There are some major gems.

I have 10 open spots on my end for paying subscribers for the in-person shopping component. Contact me via DM directly to reserve.

Graphic by David Vo

If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you have probably figured out by now that there is a Neverworns x Magasin sale happening this week. I’ve received dozens and dozens of messages from people guessing that the person whose face and voice I’ve obscured is indeed the founder of the mammoth shopping newsletter Magasin. Her biggest identifier is her shoes: Le Monde Béryl Shearling Slippers that go for $595 on Moda Operandi. They are like sleek, lobbed-off UGGs in a deep chocolate brown suede with a sturdy black rubber sole. According to the MO description, they are handcrafted by Florentine artists and “take inspiration from traditional Venetian gondolier slippers.” Ok, so maybe not quite the humble UGG!

liana_ava

A post shared by @liana_ava

How does a mere shoe become the compass pointing to Laura? Well, she has influence. Her fans, all 37,000 of them, are rabidly obsessed with her clean silhouettes with thoughtful touches! Looking back at our video footage, I see that our styles are opposites. I’m bursting from a sheer Jean Paul Gaultier mesh top, and Laura wears a prim cornflower blue button-down and pleated white trousers…something I’d imagine Tonne Goodman to wear. There’s a tailored, no-nonsense polish to how Laura dresses—and it’s certainly tempting to shirk the sheer and dive into those sharp pleats, nipped waists, and menswear-derived pieces.

While her look is clean, there are some naughty little delightful pieces in Laura’s closet. Could I ever have imagined the woman who can namecheck Lemaire product names by heart is also a kinky Margiela Tabi boots fan? That downtown-beloved label Maryam Nassir Zadeh was the jumping-off inspiration for Laura to launch her rabidly followed Substack? I’ve always said: Going through someone’s closet is a learning experience. It’s sartorial Narnia.

liana_ava

A post shared by @liana_ava

Yes, Laura’s style is beloved, but she has also built a massive business from it. A user in my DMs referred to her newsletter as “the Magasin empire!” The woman has circumvented traditional media practices, like paywalls, by developing her Substack through affiliate links, a tool she picked up as a fashion-beauty commerce writer at Instyle. Now, affiliate links are a dime a dozen—and I can’t escape the shopmy.us hyperlinks. But Laura’s influence radiates beyond affiliate links. She gave a specific voice to shopping in the 2020s. How does something feel? Why exactly does it resonate with her? How does the fabric fall? Is it worth it?

Graphic by David Vo

Here is a quote from Laura that stood out to me: “I’ve kind of always known what I wanted to do, which is what I'm doing now, which is really amazing, but didn’t know how I was going to get there, and I feel like I butted up against the industry a lot and wasn't received well.”

Below, I’ve released a portion of our audio interview. The first portion, which explores Laura’s background, is transcribed, and the second is rougly 15 minutes of audio, which is a fascinating dive into Laura’s development of Magasin.