Kerry Taylor
Kerry Taylor joined Sotheby’s in Chester in 1979 and rapidly rose through the ranks, becoming the youngest auctioneer in the company’s history at just 21. In the early 1980s, she was made a director. In 1986, she re-established auctions of costume and textiles at the New Bond Street saleroom. She established KTA in the autumn of 2003, and at long last was able to focus on her passions – fashion and textiles. Over more than 40 years she has handled some of the most historically important collections and individual pieces. She has sold wardrobes and garments belonging to style icons such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Princess Diana, Audrey Hepburn, Diana Vreeland, Ava Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor, Daphne Guinness, Lesley Caron, Celia Birtwell, Jordan and Bjork. Many of her discoveries now sit in international museum collections and archives and she has forged close relationships with all the major fashion museums worldwide.
After four decades working in this field, it is Kerry’s unrivalled experience, expertise and passion for the subject that make her sales unique and so highly respected.
Kerry is a regular contributor to television programmes and is the go-to person for journalists worldwide on the subject of historic and vintage fashion. In 2007 the Guardian voted her one of their ‘Women of the Year’ and she has been profiled by publications such as British Vogue and the New York Times.
Kerry occasionally acts as a consultant to other leading international auction houses and regularly works with major museums: lecturing, providing valuations and assisting with funding applications, as well as sitting on the UK Government’s Export Review board. She is the author of ‘Vintage Fashion & Couture, from Poiret to McQueen’, published by Octopus in 2013 and ‘Galliano: Spectacular Fashion’, published by Bloomsbury in 2019 which can be purchased here.
Alex Baddeley
Alex began his career working in the contemporary Art Department at Sotheby's London and New York before working as a gallery consultant and freelance art advisor. He joined the family business at Kerry Taylor Auctions in 2023 and is now Director and Auctioneer. In this time Alex pioneered 'The Male Sale' which forms a regular dedicated auction space for menswear fashion, and has singlehandedly organised special single-owner collections such as Biba Girl! in 2024 and Martin Margiela, The Early Years in 2025.
Julia Westerman
Julia joined Kerry Taylor Auctions in 2024 as a cataloguer. She holds an undergraduate and Master’s degree in Art History with a focus on eighteenth and nineteenth-century fashion and early female couturiers. Prior to joining Kerry Taylor Auctions, she worked as a fine jewellery specialist and independent art researcher.
Mollie Beese
Mollie holds an undergraduate and Master's degree in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art, where she received a Distinction specialising in 'Documenting Fashion: Modernity, Films and Image, in America and Europe 1920-1960'. She joined Kerry Taylor Auctions in 2024 as Saleroom Manager, after previously working in the contemporary arts as a Gallery Manager. Mollie is especially interested in the research of costume in film, fashion theory, and the intersection between art and fashion imagery across media.