Woman Thrifts Carrie Bradshaw's Vera Wang Wedding Gown for $19, Sells It for $2,750

Poshmark reseller Ashley Cano was not expecting to find the holy grail of bridal when she walked into Goodwill last February. What she pulled off the rack was the strapless, voluminous Vera Wang "Eleanor" haute couture gown that Sarah Jessica Parker wore as Carrie Bradshaw in the first Sex and the City movie, specifically for the film's Vogue-themed bridal photo shoot about being a bride over 40. The price tag: $18.99.

"Vera freaking Wang," Cano said in the TikTok video she posted on February 26, which quickly went viral. "I cannot believe that I found this dress at Goodwill for $18.99. It is Vera Wang. It is the Carrie Bradshaw dress. I'm shook." She followed that up in the caption: "I'm not sure how this slipped through the cracks, but I am thanking the thrift gods."

After listing the "Eleanor" gown on Poshmark, Cano had a buyer reach out almost immediately. Sophia Corin Merlino, a 28-year-old who runs in the same Chicago circles as Cano and had collaborated with her at a work event five years earlier, spotted the listing and recognized the seller. "My first thought was, 'I need this dress.' My second thought was, 'I know this girl!'" Merlino said. She contacted Cano to buy it even though she was not yet engaged at the time.

Merlino paid $2,750 for the gown, and it delivered. She married Bobby Ernsting at Vizcaya in Miami on February 13. Ernsting cried when he saw her during their first look. Merlino felt "whimsical" and "as if I were in a fairy tale," and guests reportedly couldn't stop touching the tulle skirt. "I walked down the aisle to a violinist playing Lana Del Rey's 'Once Upon a Dream,' and that encapsulates it," Merlino said. "On my wedding day, I felt like a princess, and this dress felt like the only one worthy to wear to marry my prince." She added: "It felt iconic to be in Carrie's Vogue shoot dress at a historic venue like Vizcaya."

For Cano, the timing of the sale carried its own weight. She is currently going through a divorce, and said the proceeds were headed straight toward her legal bills. "Lowkey [have] been stressing over my lawyer bills. I needed a blessing. Didn't think it would come in the way of a wedding dress, but I'm not complaining."

Merlino put it simply: "I believe it was a blessing for both of us."

The gown's original retail price was reported at $7,500. A Goodwill rack brought that number to $18.99. The resale market brought it to $2,750, and one bride in Miami got her Carrie Bradshaw moment at Vizcaya, complete with a live violinist and a tulle skirt that nobody could keep their hands off.