Antique And Vintage Fashion Auction

Kerry Taulor Auctions in Chichester will be holding an auction of antique and vintage fashion on Tuesday 10 March  it sounds like a must if you love fashion. In the basement of the West Sussex W.I. headquarters in Chichester, there was an Aladdin's cave of antique and vintage fashion from Georgian times to the present day. The vintage dress sizes tended to be quite small by modern standards and the ladies desirous of hiring them often found them to be a tad too tight or just too fragile to wear with ease. Whilst the W.I. continues to raise funds from its costume hire department, they are sticking to the more robust items and larger sizes, and the sale proceeds of the auction will be spent on repairs to the leaking roof of the listed building where the rest of the collection is housed.
 
In a similar way the Settlement Players of Letchworth Hertfordshire (a thriving amateur dramatics group) also decided that it was time to part with beautiful vintage dresses that had been donated over the years for them supposedly to wear on stage. They have remained in moth balls for decades and the Players were anxious to create more storage space.
 
There's also dresses from the collection of the late Valerie Mansfield, a renowned costume historian (Lots 1246-1268) includes a wonderful brown leather driving or flying helmet complete with goggles and face protector (Lot 1264). Every decade of the 20th century is as usual well represented with lots of affordable, wearable pieces as well as museum quality items. From the 50s we have Hardy Amies, Elizabeth Arden, Cristobal Balenciaga; from the 60s we have Biba, Pucci; from the 70s, Ossie Clarke, Yves Saint Laurent, Bill Gibb; from the 80s, Mugler, Sybilla, Comme des Garcons, Galliano; from the 90s, Herve Leger, Jean Paul Gaultier, Moschino and early Tom Ford. In addition there is a plethora of accessories including shawls, shoes, costume jewellery and bags including superb crocodile Kelly's in pristine condition.