Yesterday evening, the boutique art auction house Fair Warning hosted its first fashion sale, tucked away in an Upper East Side mansion. Titled the “Impossible Couture Collection,” this 23-lot sale fetched a whopping $3,931,000, setting world records for the sales amounts of McQueen, Saint Laurent, and Alaïa.
A full look from Alexander McQueen’s “Plato’s Atlantis” collection from Spring 2010 yielded the top sale of the evening. Initially estimated to bring in $600,000 to $1,000,000, the ensemble went for $1,586,000, the highest amount a McQueen piece has ever fetched at auction. The look consisted of a minidress rendered in a mixed reptile print with arced balloon sleeves and a voluminous skirt, along with the matching Armadillo heels McQueen became so known for. It was a recreation of the runway look made for (and worn by) Naomi Campbell in her 2010 Fashion for Relief Charity Auction show. Plato’s Atlantis was the last collection the late designer created for his eponymous house, only adding to the allure of the piece.
Yves Saint Laurent ‘Mondrian’ dress from Fall 1965
Yves Saint Laurent’s famous 1965 “Mondrian” dress, a shift silhouette featuring a print from Piet Mondrian’s famous colorblocked works, was the next highest sale at $750,000—another unprecedented sum. A third world record came via a purple sleeveless Azzedine Alaïa gown with crossover sheer paneling, which sold for $175,000. Additional highlights included a Christian Dior by John Galliano Egyptian scarab showpiece necklace that sold for $237,500, an Alaïa hooded zipper dress that went for $150,000, and a John Galliano bias-cut evening gown worn by Kristen McMenamy and then Madonna in her “Take a Bow” music video, which fetched $137,000. Many of these pieces came from the personal archive of Jørgen Simonsen, the designer who worked directly alongside John Galliano.
A Paco Rabanne ‘Armor’ dress from 1966
Just a few days ago, in the middle of New York Fashion Week, the auction’s curator Peter Brant Jr. (son of billionaire businessman Peter M. Brant and supermodel Stephanie Seymour) hosted an intimate runway presentation showcasing 13 of the items at his Gilded Age carriage house uptown. The pieces were then made available for viewing by appointment ahead of yesterday’s white-glove auction, which was conducted by the art dealer Jussi Pylkkanen in front of a selected audience.
Founded by former Christie’s cochairman Loïc Gouzer in 2020, Fair Warning is an intentionally exclusive, members-only auction house that focuses mostly on art. This auction, only its 75th, is the first to deal in fashion. “Six months ago I didn’t know anything about fashion. I went down the rabbit hole, and thanks to Peter Brant Jr. and the whole team, I got a crash course in fashion and probably put on one of the greatest couture auctions of all time,” Gouzer said in an official statement. “I think this is the beginning of a golden era for the field.”
John Galliano “Dolores del Rio” Fall 1995 sculpted ensemble
These sorts of high-provenance archival fashion sales have been gaining traction in recent years as specialty pieces begin to prove their value in a manner competitive with categories like art or antiques. Earlier this year, a Christian Dior gown from the controversial “Clochards” (or “Homeless”) Spring 2000 couture collection designed by John Galliano went for 663,000 euros. The fact that a niche house like Fair Warning is capitalizing on this area of the market, and that these items are earning such incredible sums, are just two more indicators of archival fashion’s validity in the high-value auction space.
