Antique, vintage fashion and textiles are big business and becoming very collectable.
Auction Houses do sell these type of goods although there are not many as it is very specialist. They are mostly in London.
The main one, associated with Sothebys, has handled the collections of the Honorable Daphne Guinness, supermodel Jerry Hall, and the Leslie Caron collection of Haute Couture. The Daphne Guinness auction included the sale of a Christian Dior knitted hat for £3,600, which is believed to be a world record price for a woolly hat!
These type of auctions include rare antique garments right through to street style by designers such as Emillio Pucci, Ossie Clark, Andre Courreges, Pierre Cardin and Vivienne Westwood to sublime Couture confections by Dior, Chanel and Vionnet.
Accessories sold include shoes, gloves, hats, fans, handbags and costume jewellery.
The textiles included are wide ranging including lace, linens, quilts, embroidered pictures from the 17th to the 19th century centuries, embroidered samplers, Paisley, Kashmir and Norwich shawls, Oriental and European textiles and fabric swatch books.
Sometimes included are antique fashion plates, photographs and literature.
