Haute Couture

If you have recently attended a major fashion exhibition, it is likely that you will have unknowingly marvelled at treasures sourced internationally and sold by us. For many museums and collectors, our biannual Passion for Fashion auctions, featuring carefully curated selections of the crème de la crème of vintage fashion, are a must. Highlights over the years have included an important Elsa Schiaparelli couture embroidered Zodiac jacket, Astrology Collection, A-W 1938-39, which achieved £110,000 (2013), and a sculptural Balenciaga couture silk gazar bridal gown and veil, S-S 1968, which achieved £60,000 (2015).

Not all haute couture is expensive or desirable to museums and prices for examples by the fashion “masters” can start in the low hundreds. This makes them not only affordable but good value, especially when compared to modern ready to wear prices. We regularly include wearable, accessible pieces by couturiers such as Dior, Givenchy, Balmain, Balenciaga, Valentino and Madame Grès, to name just a few.

Haute couture from the Golden Age is becoming harder to find, but it is still out there. One client rescued an embroidered Balenciaga gown from a shredding machine at a recycling centre; another purchased a rare Chanel couture printed lace dress, bundled up in a carrier bag at a London vintage fair for £50, which we identified, researched and later sold for £20,000! In 2019 an American client discovered an embroidered early Chanel coat at a flea market, which we sold for £90,000 - so keep looking!