For some shoppers and auction bidders, two words are all they need to hear to spring for a new purchase: Audrey Hepburn.
Soon Sotheby’s will be serving up a Givenchy gown and bodice that were once worn by the Oscar-winning actress in next month’s sale “The Art of Glamour: The Alixandra Fitzwilliam-Tate Baker Collection, Baroness of Gray.” An anchor piece is the pink ensemble that previously belonged to Hepburn and is similar to what she wore for a 1966 Vogue photo shoot with William Klein. The pre-sale estimate for the Givenchy haute couture pink silk-crêpe sheath from fall 1966 is between $40,000 and $60,000 and the presale estimate for the coordinating ivory silk faille bodice is between $1,400 and $3,000.
There are 100-plus garments that will go under the gavel. There are pieces from the 1950s, 1960s and 1980s by Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Cristobal Balenciaga, Madame Gres and Chanel as well as from Hubert de Givenchy. The auction house also will be putting designs by Oscar de la Renta, James Galanos and Renato Balestra up for sale. The trove belongs to the Baroness Alixandra Fitzwilliam-Tate Baker and it marks the first single-owner fashion sale at Sotheby’s New York. Bidding will start on June 2 and will run through June 16. Browsers can also get a closer look at the public exhibition that will bow in Sotheby’s New York galleries on June 6.
In a statement, the Baroness said that a relative had taught her about haute couture, when she was a young girl. “When I learned how each piece was a unique work of art completely made by hand and crafted in the most beautiful fabrics, I was mesmerized and smitten. Then came Audrey Hepburn and Givenchy, and for me, the hunt for haute couture was on,’” she said.
Born the Baroness of Gray, she is of Scottish, English, Welsh and French heritage and is a descendant of the Royal Houses of western Europe through her mother’s lineage. With a master’s in art and a bachelor’s in art history, she doesn’t just know about haute couture, she is more than adept at beading and embroidering, having trained at Ecole Lesage in Paris. An Yves Saint Laurent haute couture Lesage embroidered moiré ballgown from fall 1974 is another highlight from the sale with an estimate ranging from $9,000 to $15,000.
Movie and Goop fans might be interested in the Tom Ford off-white crêpe evening gown with a matching cape from the designer’s fall 2012 collection that is similar to what Gwyneth Paltrow wore to the 2012 Oscars. That ensemble has a presale estimate of $10,000 to $15,000.
Another key item in the sale is a Christian Dior by Yves Saint Laurent haute couture chine taffeta evening gown from fall 1959 that is expected to fetch between $24,000 and $32,000. That find was previously part of the American journalist Rosamond Bernier’s collection. Before she became Vogue’s first European features editor, she offered evening lectures about art and fashion history at the Metropolitan Museum of Art — without notes and always dressed in eveningwear.
The upcoming sale will also feature a rhinestone-covered gold lace gown that had belonged to the musician Maria Ellington Cole. That design is expected to fetch in the range of $600 to $1,200.
Sotheby’s isn’t alone in playing up an Audrey Hepburn connection. This month’s sale at Kerry Taylor Auctions USA for the Peggy Moffitt Collections includes a fall 1960 Givenchy satin cocktail dress that Moffitt had always referred to as her “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” dress. (It comes from the same collection of the one Hepburn wore in the 1961 film.)
As a sign of the pixie-ish actress intergenerational appeal, Abrams ComicArts released the graphic novel Audrey Hepburn: An Illustrated Biography”by Eileen Hofer with illustrations by Christopher Longé last week. And in March, Thomas Santopietro’s “Audrey Hepburn: A life of Beautiful Uncertainty” was published with fashion commentary from the designer Jeffrey Banks
