Monday, June 3, 2013

Suzy Menkes Opens Her Wardrobe

Suzy Menkes is giving the public a chance to buy pieces from her personal wardrobe with an online auction. From July 11 until July 22, christies.com will host a sale featuring over 80 items from the veteran fashion journalist's vast collection, including clothes, bags and accessories by names such as Emilio Pucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Lacroix and Chanel.

"I have never thrown anything out of my wardrobe since 1964," Menkes said. "If I had a large open space in my home, I would dedicate it, like an art gallery, to my collection. But there is something sad about clothes laid in a tomb of trunks. They need to live again, and this auction provides the opportunity for them to walk out in the sunshine, to dance the night away and to give someone else the joy that they gave to me."


Highlights from the collection include a quilted Chanel clutch bag bearing the name "Suzy" in gold caps, Saint Laurent tuxedo trouser suits and vintage Ossie Clark dresses from the Seventies. Prices start at £200. Menkes - who was last week named international fashion editor of the soon-to-launch International New York Times - follows in the footsteps of Daphne Guinness and Anna Piaggi whose wardrobes have both gone under the hammer.

"There are some people who seem to see further than others and Suzy Menkes is one of those," said Christie's fashion department director Pat Frost. "Whenever you speak to her - on the occasion of the Anna Piaggi and Daphne Guinness sales, for example - you always get something beyond the ordinary run of conversation. You can always rely on her to put a collection into context and see beyond the hype. I was therefore delighted when she told us she had decided to entrust Christie's with the sale of her wardrobe, as I knew that this was not going to be a wardrobe full of fashionable black uniforms. As she says, clothes are like friends - in this case good friends who conjure up good times."

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