THE VALUE OF VINTAGE

Since my college days, I've been fascinated with vintage clothing.

Yep, a tad quirky, but always interesting + artsy.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a lecture at the Salmagundi Club, given by Karen Augusta, famed expert in the field of vintage clothing and owner of Augusta Auctions. It's the only auction house exclusively specializing in historic couture clothing, fashion accessories, jewelry + antique textiles. The site is a database of over 100,000 items with price references. You also might have seen Karen on the PBS series, "Antique's Roadshow".  She is the foremost consultant to museums + appraiser to many celeb's.

Top Row: Lanvin 1955, Black Lace 1950, Nina Ricci 1950 Middle Row: Black Striped 1955, Balenciaga 1960, Christian Dior 1966 Bottom Row: Yves Saint Laurent 1970, Norell 1972,  Bob Mackie 1980

Bonnie Cashin 1950, Mia Farrow 1967 , Bonnie Cashin 1955

All Images Courtesy of Augusta Auctions

Once overlooked by museums, "vintage" now occupies an increasingly significant position in the world of highly valued objects.  Record crowds are attending costume exhibits + retrospective viewings of important designers. Karen walked us through a time line of designers + clothing trends by decade.

Here's the cheat sheet used to determine a garment's worth:

What's the Condition? Check the shoulders + underarms.

How old is it? Here, old is good.

How rare is it? Designed by an iconic designer or owned by a celebrity?

Who wants it? Museums or Hollywood movies for period dress?

It's said you should collect things you can afford + by the reasonable prices of these garments, this would be a fun hobby to pursue.  I once bought a blouse just for the design of the material.  Don't know what happened to it - might have discarded it during a rare  cleaning rage, but I remember the textile design in detail + I wished I still had the garment.

When doing your spring closet cleaning instead of pushing the fancies to the back, give them a fresh look. It might be good incentive to squeeze back into those pieces or have bits of them re-worked.

The next NYC Auction is on Wednesday March 30th at noon St. Paul's Church, 15 Columbus Ave Preview Days: March 29th 1-7 + March 30th 9am-noon

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Vintage Furnishings

The new kid on the block is actually a fabulous collection of the old.  Vintage is "of the moment" once again.

Last week, 1st Dibs opened their first brick + mortar store, on the entire 10th floor of the New York Design Center.

It's quite clear that vintage furniture has the upper hand on comfortable edgy design. I can't remember the last time I've seen so much wonderful design, mixes of materials + just plain timeless elegance in one place.  The shapes are fascinating, craftsmanship  superb + value is very collectible.  Kudos to my friend+ long time cheerleader, Louise Tanis,  for being asked to manage this most exciting venue.

"Everything old is new again"

Being my birthday week, I can't help but feeling just plain old.  Bring on the Spring, please!