On Thursday, one of Dior couture’s most robust collections went under the gavel in a three-hour-long auction at Le Bristol Hotel in Paris. “Dior Masterpieces: The Mouna Ayoub Haute Couture Collection” put some 95 lots up for sale, belonging to the long-time couture client.
“It will probably be the sale of the 21st century,” said Salomé Pirson, co-founder of Maurice Auction, the auction house behind the event, together with Kerry Taylor Auctions. It totaled over €6.19 million, breaking the world record for a haute couture sale, as well as a world record for Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, and Raf Simons pieces. “Unfortunately, we didn’t break a record for Marc Bohan because the previous piece that was put up for auction was part of the Elizabeth Taylor collection, so there was the celebrity factor,” Pirson said. What about Maria Grazia Chiuri’s pieces? “There was only one dress by Maria Grazia in the auction because they are more recent, so I still fit into it,” Ayoub quipped.
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The Franco-Lebanese businesswoman and Dior collector didn’t sell off everything. “I kept a lot of Maria Grazia pieces and John Galliano from the last few years,” she said. On Thursday, she was wearing a T-shirt designed by Chiuri, an homage to Galliano’s original Fall/Winter 2000 newspaper print. (This week, she bought a black couture dress with embroideries from Jonathan Anderson’s debut couture show at Dior.)
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime sale,” said Marie-Laurence Tixier, the energetic auctioneer who co-founded Maurice Auction with Pirson and was on the auctioneer podium throughout the sale.
Galliano’s painted silk evening gown from the “Clochards” or “Homeless” collection for the Spring/Summer 2000 collection went for €510,000, minus fees. Another highlight was the black taffeta evening gown from the same collection, which went for €420,000, also minus fees. “Both are iconic,” Ayoub said. “The Clochards collection created a big uproar. Everybody hated it. I bought the whole collection; I just loved it. This black gown with an alcohol bottle hanging is the piece that everybody is talking about in Paris. I wore it at Elton John’s 70th birthday party and the closing ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival. It’s the only dress I ever wore twice,” Ayoub said.
“The Gallianos went crazy, but I’m not surprised,” said Jackariah Francis, a luxury vintage collector and seller who participated in the sale. He bought a suit, a necklace, and a full ensemble with embroidered trousers. “John Galliano is a true visionary and genius. He has got recognition, but he is finally getting the prices that he deserves as a designer. Even to this day, 20 or 30 years later, his pieces are still as relevant and current a design as they were back then.”
Francis went on: “There were a lot of serious collectors and lots of museums today. These pieces are all original from the runway; they are not altered or tweaked in any way, so when you’re buying, you’re getting it as Galliano envisioned it. Mouna Ayoub bought the exact pieces. She kept them in their exact form. That’s another reason why people want them.”
“We came out of curiosity,” said Mathilde Gaudier, a Paris-based collector and founder of Emerieu, a second-hand designer clothing platform. “I knew it was going to be a very important sale in the history of fashion. I didn’t expect prices to skyrocket so quickly and to such an extent. It surprised us — and at the same time, not that much in light of the recent auctions. We were wondering how much the newspaper-print couture dress would go for. The ready-to-wear version worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex And The City went for £68,200 in 2024. The haute couture one [also from the Homeless collection] went for €300,000.”
Meanwhile, Johnny Valencia, the owner of Los Angeles store Pechuga Vintage, bought elevated platforms from the SS03 “Hardcore Romance” collection by Galliano for €6,000.
Many were bidding on the phone lines, but in the room, I spotted American model and actress Stephanie Seymour and the Dior Heritage team. A lady in the room bought two exact same rings (the Dior Belles des Iles amethyst and diamond ring), which were lot 94 and lot 95. “You can wear one on each finger,” she noted.
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