In January of this year Kerry Taylor, of Kerry Taylor Auctions—the London sales house which specializes in rare fashion from across the decades and centuries—took herself off to Edinburgh for the day. She wasn’t planning a sightseeing trip—well, not a conventional one, at least: She visited Nina Grant, of the local boutique Corniche who, in her many years of business, had amassed a considerable (and startlingly good) archive of pieces in her store, things she kept if they didn’t sell: from rare Alexander McQueen and Comme des Garcons to the (sadly) barely remembered young London designer John Flett, a contemporary of John Galliano’s and equally as talented.
“I went through everything with Nina—did the evaluation, had fish and chips around the corner—and then flew back,” said Taylor, laughing, before switching into assessing what Grant had with the finely honed (AKA razor-sharp) instincts which have earned her her reputation. “What’s so great about Nina is that she always had an eye for the future, for the most cutting edge fashion—she still does—and what she has is in perfect condition, because it was never worn. To have the likes of a McQueen Joan of Arc ensemble, a Lichtenstein-print Moschino suit, eight pieces from Flett—it’s wonderful.”
All of these will be sold at Taylor’s biannual Passion for Fashion auction, which happens December 10th. And those are just for starters, as Taylor reels off a list of other lots which left me—never mind her—breathless: a Yorkshire family’s 18th century robe a la Francaise heirloom dress; Dior and Galliano from the Paris luxury dealer Jackariaeh Francis; yet more Galliano, including—be still my beating heart—a look from his 1985 collection, The Ludic Game; two Paul Poirets from legendary collector Sandy Schrier and, from another source, Monsieur Poiret’s own rather fabulous black and silver Syrian robe, as well as pieces worn by his wife Denise.
The list goes on: exquisite Jeanne Lanvin dresses (hello, Peter Copping!); a Valentino haute couture gown owned by Audrey Hepburn (hello, Alessandro Michele!); Karl Lagerfeld-era 1970s Chloé (and hello, Chemena Kamali—hope you’re all bidding!); more heart palpitations, for me at least, in the shape of lots from Vivienne Westwood which span her Pirates, Buffalo, and Savages collections; and—just because we have to wrap this up at some point—a rarer-than-rare inky blue embroidered satin coat by Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel dating from 1917. “It was made during the first World War, so the color had to be somber,” Taylor said, “yet the embroideries are quite Edwardian. It’s an extraordinary piece, and I don’t think there’s been an earlier piece at auction—ever.”
All of this is, of course, the stuff quite literally of legend. Yet the subtext here is not just that Taylor has created a showstopper of a sale—it’s that it tops off a 2024 which, it’s fair to say, has been the Year of the Fashion Auction. It feels like we’re reaching peak collectability right now for vintage clothing—and that interest and awareness has never been greater, nor the prices higher. It’s perhaps down to the facts that we’re seeing more and more people in the spotlight wearing it, the proliferation of clothing exhibitions (Taylor and I both enthused about the terrific Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London show currently on at the Fashion and Textile Museum in the British capital), and that the sustainability inclined impulse to invest in the rarity of the old rather than splurging on the readily available new has really taken hold. Of course, of course: Not many of us are waving our paddles in a bid for a priceless (well, pricey, at any rate) piece of history. Yet it all points to a major cultural shift.
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“It has taken a long time to get here,” said Taylor of the current interest in fashion’s material history, “but people are finally waking up to the fact that some of these are artistic masterpieces—not only in the craftsmanship, the likes of which we may never see again, but in the imagination and beauty. I remember when something made £10,000, I would think that was huge; now we get excited if something makes over £100,000. Things just didn’t make that kind of money ten years ago, unless it was celebrity related.” Earlier this year, Taylor watched with some amazement as a John Galliano for Dior newspaper-print long bias-cut dress climbed to £65,000—something made all the more remarkable because it wasn’t haute couture, but the much more accessible pret-a-porter. (She has a short version in this sale, with an estimate set at £25,000.)
That we’ve arrived at this point is in no small part down to Taylor herself. With her auction house—which she founded some twenty-plus years after being made redundant from Sotheby’s—she has become the world’s pre-eminent fashion auctioneer. This year alone, she has handled Mouna Ayoub’s Gaultier haute couture collection, along with the second sale of vintage dealer Steven Philip’s archive; she’s also overseen sales dedicated to, among other things, cutting-edge menswear and Biba. Next year, she’s looking to spread her wings beyond London, but more on that to come. In the meantime, she has become a trusted consigliere for the small but powerful group who buy from her—be it the gazillionaires who are buying to wear or the museums and institutions looking to acquire for their collections.
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But what, you may ask, of what’s going to be collectible next? For someone so well-versed in fashion’s past, Taylor is as equally informed about its present—and its future. After some gossiping about who might get Chanel, we turned our attention to the next wave of names who will be interesting to collect, with Taylor citing Daniel Roseberry’s Schiaparelli as being a prime example. She’s also cognizant, though, that a changing industry means that going forward, things will be pretty different.
“It’s harder now to predict what will happen, because it would be very difficult for a McQueen or a Galliano to come out of Central Saint Martins and do a show and become a star—for me, the last one to do that was Christopher Kane,” she said. “I think what we will see is all the big brands continuing to swap their creative directors, and there will be fans for each of those people. Fashion has become such a big business. Stars will become stars because they’ve been adopted by brands.”
Register to bid at https://www.kerrytaylorauctions.com/ .