6 ★ † FTWeekend 26 October/27 October 2019Style
E
soteric investments are, it
seems, all the rage. Wine,
classic cars, fine art, so-called
“passion investments” that,
at one point, were purchased
for love rather than money, are now
seen as viable (and, potentially, more
stable) alternatives to stocks and
shares. Writer Fran Lebowitz tells a gag
aboutaholetornbyawaywardcollector
in his $120m Picasso painting — a paint-
ing which no one seems to know the
name of, but everyone knows the price.
Which is, of course, one of the risks
when collecting not for passion but for
profit — your eye may be distracted by
thepotentialformoneymaking.
The next raft of passion investments
maywellbefashion—infact,itarguably
already is. Handbags have become a
hotly traded commodity of late. Chris-
tie’s sold its first handbag in 1978 — it
belonged to Coco Chanel, and ended up
in the Smithsonian. Decades later, in
2012, the auction house established a
department devoted entirely to hand-
bags and accessories, with a presence in
Hong Kong, New York, Paris, Shanghai
and Dubai. The next sale scheduled in
London is on November 19; the depart-
ment’s last auction, in June, totalled
£3,365,875, with sell-through rates of 97
per cent by value and 93 per cent by lot.
Individual accessories are fetching
astronomical amounts. In 2018, Chris-
tie’s set a European auction record with
an Hermès Birkin bag in a rare croco-
dile. Dubbed “Himalaya”, it was pains-
takingly dyed to recall the topography
of the mountain range and outfitted
with 18k white gold and diamond hard-
ware.Itfetched£267,500.
“The handbags auction market is
most similar to that of watches and jew-
ellery,” says Matthew Rubinger, deputy
chief marketing officer at Christie’s, and
the former international director of
20th- and 21st-century handbag sales.
“The handbags market is where the
watch collecting market was 30 years
ago — auctions have just begun to
emerge as the place where top buyers
can find the rarest pieces, rather than aoney forM
Investment Vintage designer pieces|
are racking up huge resale values in
he auction room, sayst Alexander Fury
marketplace for bargains.” Rachel
Koffsky, head of sales for handbags and
accessories in London, concurs. “Collec-
tors [buy] handbags to celebrate an
accomplishment or milestone — a pro-
motion or a new child. Frequently the
most valuable item in their wardrobe
and the piece they carry most often, it
representstheirstyleandpersonality.”
ermès is generally a sound invest-H
ment: a Lizard Mini Kelly 20 (named
after Grace Kelly) sold in 1989 for
$2,595. It was sold for $45,363 in 2015.
And a Lucite Chanel bag from barely
two years ago in the shape of a rocket-
ship, estimated to max out at £8,000,
achieved £21,250 in Christie’s sale back
in June. “Many factors determine
value,” says Koffsky. “Brand, material,
condition and rarity. These factors are
carefully weighed to receive an esti-
mate. At the end of the day, it is the bid-
ding which solidifies the true marketbuy pieces to examine construction — I
once saw the fashion designer Erdem
Moralioglu at Kerry Taylor, turning a
1950sBalenciagacoatinsideout.
And in clothing, there are still treas-
urestobefound.Whereeveryonerecog-
nises the value of an Hermès or Chanel
handbag (the two labels that consist-
ently garner the highest prices), some-
times unlabelled dresses can be show-
stoppers. Taylor remembers a client
bringing in a gown bought at a flea mar-
ketfor€100.Taylorrecogniseditwasby
Madeleine Vionnet, a leading interwar
couturier;sheauctioneditfor£50,000.
As with wine, the highest-grade fash-
ion investments are produced in finite
quantities, with impeccable prove-
nances. The smallest quantities are
found with haute couture pieces, where
production will reach no more than six.
Example: an Yves Saint Laurent “Iris”
jacket, from spring/summer 1988,
embroideredwithadesigninhomageto
Vincent van Gogh. Only two were ever
created, requiring more than 600 hours
of work. One is held in the archives of
the Musée Yves Saint Laurent; the other
came up for auction in January, when it
soldforahammerpriceof€175,500.
Slightly more accessible are ready-to-
wear pieces such as those created by
John Galliano and Alexander McQueen.
The provenance, Taylor says, is the cat-walk show — if you’re buying for invest-
ment, only buy pieces that were shown.
A pair of McQueen shoes from SS10,
named the “Armadillo” because of their
extreme shape, reached a staggering
£60,000 in June 2019; a year before, a
Gallianosuitfrom1995soldfor£15,000.
(It had been estimated at just £1,800.)
“I had a Saint Laurent Mondrian haute
couture dress, which I sold in 1998 [at
Sotheby’s] for £2,000,” recalls Taylor.
“Then I sold it again, in 2011, for
£27,000,thesamedress.”
Of course, fashion is fickle, so invest-
ments aren’t guaranteed. Smaller sizes
sell better because collectors and muse-
ums want them to fit standard manne-
quins. And for clothes bought to wear,
styles fall in and out of fashion, sending
prices wobbling. “Pucci for example —
one minute it’s hot, the next, it’s not,”
says Taylor. Right now, she identifies
Galliano as of key collecting interest; so
much so, she’s about to publish a book
on the subject (Galliano, Spectacular
Fashion, £50, is released on October 31).
At auction, his pieces consistently
exceed expectations. She sold a suit
from Galliano’s debut collection in 2000
“for about £800. The same thing today
would be £15,000 to £20,000 because
they’rerareandthere’shugeinterest.”
Chanel, too, is currently popular fol-
lowing the death of Karl Lagerfeld ear-
lier this year — he had led the fashion
house since 1983. The death of Alexan-
der McQueen also caused a morbid
spikeininterest—andinprices—forhis
pieces. Major exhibitions and even cat-
walk revivals can elicit excitement — in
2017, when Donatella Versace showed
her “Tribute” collection of reworked
vintage pieces originally designed by
her brother Gianni, it generated a
revivedinterestintherealdeal.
“Buy what you love,” is Taylor’s
advice.“Thenyoucan’tgowrong—even
if the market doesn’t moveyour way,
you still have something you love.” But,
if you have the right eye, that could still
generateimpressivereturns.Clockwise from main:
Kate Moss wearing John
Galliano SS95; Yves Saint
Laurent’s ‘Sunflower’ and
‘Iris’ jackets for SS88; the
Duchess of Windsor
wearing Schiaparelli;
Alexander McQueen
Armadillo shoes for SS10
Matrix; Bertrand Rindoff/Getty;
Cecil Beaton for Condé NastC
ancel those contact
lenses. Chanel artistic
director Virginie Viard
hasconfirmedwhatsome
of us have known since,
well,ever:specsarechic.
And not only that, they are worthy
ofthecatwalk.“Littleglassesgiveher
the look of a young woman eager for
culture, poetry, novels,” wrote Viard
of the woman she imagined wearing
thedaintymetalglassesthataccesso-
rised most of the looks in her debut
autumn/winter2019coutureshow.
Tosetthescene,Viardstageditina
mock libraryinside Paris’s Grand
Palais,completewithrowsofleather-
bound books by Stendhal and Flau-
bert.Visionary.
Baya SimonsG L A S S E S
S H O P P I N G
Ace & Tate
BAiming for a noughties librarian look? Lose the rims
— as with these Elliot Titanium frames from Ace & Tate.
The look works best on those with low prescriptions.
Elliot Titanium frames, £148,aceandtate.comLe Specs
B ot into the tiny oval-frames trend? Go bug-eye withN
these rounded glasses in brushed gold fromLe Specs —
a favourite of Beyoncé. Wear with tailoring, à la Chanel,
to offsetcuteness. Grande Entrance, £95,lespecs.comRay-Ban
BRay-Ban’s oval opticals indulge those Harry Potter
childhood fantasies with their small black frames — but
are also great for a ’90s librarian look (see Rupert Giles,
Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Oval glasses, £124,ray-ban.comOliver Peoples
B Thegentle cat-eye slant on theseOliver Peoples specs
keeps them current. “The aesthetic is ultra-feminine
but sophisticated,” says creative director Giampiero
Tagliaferri. Jozette glasses £331,oliverpeoples.comKaleos
B aleos’s glasses have a nerdy double bridge thatK
exudes a 1970s look. “These styles are now more and
more transversal and hipster,” says creative director
Claudia Brotons. Hennessy, £175,kaleoscollection.comvalue.” Those figures, however, some-
what undermine the idea of bagging a
bargainatauction.
A crocodile bag obviously costs a lot,
regardless of age — as long as it doesn’t
have a hole in it, that is. But what about
the market value of, well, old clothes?
Vintage fashion could be the next pas-
sion investment set to explode. Kerry
Taylor, owner of an eponymous Lon-
don-based auction house specialising in
fashion and textiles, began her business
in 2003 after 23 years at Sotheby’s,
where she re-established auctions of
costume and textiles in the saleroom in- “Fashion was always regarded as a
poor relation. I don’t think that it was
particularly well understood,” she says.
“It’sonlyrelativelyrecentlythatauction
houses have become interested. And
again,ittendstobelinkedwithcelebrity
or handbags.” Why handbags? “They’re
small, they don’t take up much space,
Dior
BThese Dior frames are reminiscent of Goldie Hawn’s
horn-rims inthe 1978filmFoul Play, playinglibrarian
-turned-detective Gloria Mundy.Pair withtrenchcoat
for investigatorvibes. Square glasses,£270, Dior.comthey’reeasythingstopostortoship.”
Fashion, by contrast, is a different
beast, with sizing and the wear and tear
of everyday life to contend with. But
Taylor has carved an enviable niche in
the world market. She sells everything
fromAzzedineAlaïato ElsaSchiaparelli
dressesaswornbytheDuchessofWind-
sor, to international collectors and
major museums. She won’t tell who she
sells to, of course, but matching her
online lots with catalogues of acquisi-
tions reveals that the Met paid £35,000
in June 2016 for a coat from John Galli-
ano’s graduation collection. A similar
coat from that same collection, sold this
year,made£65,000.
Other buyers include luxury labels
willing to pay large amounts to secure
pieces for their own archives. “It
increases the value of their own brands
and their own archives are used as
resources,” says Taylor. Designers alsoHandbags have become a
hotly traded commodity...
Christie’s sold a HermèsBirkin for £267,500 in 2018
robesold
OCTOBER 26 2019 Section:Weekend Time: 24/10/2019- 18:43 User:gerry.white Page Name:WKD6, Part,Page,Edition:WKD, 6, 1