Why auction houses are embracing luxury — and celebrity — fashion

(CNN) — There’s a lot of talk about luxury’s rising prices, but it’s at auction that fashion is selling for the most eye-popping of sums.

In 2022, a pair of Celine sunglasses owned by Joan Didion sold for $27,000; in 2023 Levi’s once worn by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain fetched $412,750. Last month, Elton John’s diamond encrusted, leopard-print Rolex sold for $176,400. Those sums, however, are paltry when compared to the sale of Princess Diana’s black sheep sweater, which went for $1.14 million last year.

Fashion items from the sets of TV, film and even commercials can also garner high prices. This year alone, the so-called “ludicrously capacious” Burberry bag from “Succession” sold for $18,750; the suit Nicole Kidman wore in her viral AMC Theatres ad went for $9,525. An auction of costumes and props from “The Crown” brought in a collective $2.1 million.

Over the past decade, fashion has become more of a priority for top auction houses such as Sotheby’s, Bonhams and Christie’s, playing a key role in their strategy to attract a new generation of customers who can place their bids online.

“Now as long as you have the money — and you have to have the money — anyone can participate,” said Lucy Bishop, Sotheby’s handbags and fashion specialist.

While selling prices are widely publicized, auction houses maintain something akin to attorney-client privilege when it comes to the identities of their bidders.

Those buyers typically fall into a few buckets: museums and institutions, private collectors, vintage dealers and super fans. Some make their purchases with the hope of a significant return on their investment, for others, that possibility is just a bonus. Most trace their desire to own a piece to some long-held passion — the rare item is only part of the allure.

The more significant the item, the more the pool of potential buyers shrinks. “This world is a very exclusive club where those in the know really know,” said Bishop.

The most historically important pieces — whether because of their tie to a particular designer, era in fashion history or because they were worn by the likes of figures such as Audrey Hepburn or Princess Diana — are usually scooped up by institutions like London’s Victoria & Albert Museum or New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Even if they’re bought by private collectors, they still may end up in a museum display — on loan.

Celebrities themselves often do the buying: Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian have bought Michael Jackson’s clothing, for example. They help publicize their purchases, too: actress Laverne Cox is known to sport her own Mugler collection on the red carpet. In fact, much of the archival fashion seen on stars today has passed through auction.

“Fashion auctions have been Hollywood stylists’ best kept secret for a few decades but that secret is now definitely out,” said Bishop.

People who pursue iconic items — celebrity-owned or not — do it out of passion.

“All it takes is a certain attachment to a specific designer,” said Shannon Hoey, a vintage fashion dealer whose expansive archive was largely acquired through auctions. Hoey works with designers on references for their collections and stylists to place pieces on the red carpet, in editorials and on the big screen.

For others, it’s a connection to a notable public figure or cultural asset. Because those items often sell at mark-up — a 2019 Lady Dior handbag carried by Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana in “The Crown” went for upwards of $12,000 rather than the typical $4,000 retail price — it’s fans, not fashion purists, who usually do the purchasing, said Meg Randell, head of fashion and handbags at Bonhams.

Leigh Anne Clark — a Dallas-based Valentino, Saint Laurent and Chanel shopper — snagged long-time “Vogue” editor Andre Leon Talley’s Birkin at Christie’s last year.

“It probably sat next to Anna Wintour on a plane going somewhere cool for a shoot I probably looked at in the magazine,” said Clark. “It feels like I understood a part of (Talley), or if he had known me he would’ve understood part of me.”

She plans to display it in a closet, rather than use it regularly.

California-based teacher Renae Plant, meanwhile, has acquired 89 Princess Diana pieces — including the Versace dress that featured on the November 1997 cover of “Harper’s Bazaar” as the magazine paid tribute to Diana after her death in Paris, which she acquired in 2015 for $200,000. Her love for the late royal began in childhood, when she shook Diana’s hand during the royal’s 1983 visit to Australia.

Plant currently operates a website showcasing her collection, but has her sights set on staging a major exhibit. For now, the clothes are locked away in a climate controlled storage facility in California.

“Her life has such meaning, I wanted to tell her story,” said Plant. “It’s about her kindness and her ability to make you feel like you’ve known her for years even though you just touched her hand.”

The potential for big returns attracted a new sort of fashion buyer to auctions — those who look at the category as an investment. Those buyers are particularly interested in celebrity-linked pieces, which attract press attention, a wide range of buyers and often higher valuations. When an item is attached to a hit film, it usually makes it easier to sell. Hoey, for example, placed the taxidermy bird Carrie Bradshaw wore to her would-be wedding in the “Sex and the City” movie, and then sold it at Sotheby’s for $25,400 in 2023.

Meanwhile, the next round of big ticket items are always being minted — on stages and behind the scenes. Whispers about who will get their hands on the fashions from the “Barbie” film are already swirling, said Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien’s Auctions, which focuses on celebrity-owned items and memorabilia.

The next big sale might even be an item that’s already fetched a hefty sum, as new circumstances or just the passage of time could add value. After Kim Kardashian wore the dress Marilyn Monroe wore in 1962 to sing happy birthday to President John F. Kennedy to the 2022 Met Gala, some said she jeopardized the dress’s integrity, while others argued she added new weight to the garment, which has already seen its value more than triple from selling for $1.27 million in 1999 to $4.8 million in 2016.

“That dress would now sell for $10 million because of that double whammy connection of a celebrity,” said Nolan.

Read more stories from The Business of Fashion here.

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