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Couture, Fashion & Accessory Categories
General Clothing
Couture, Fashion & Accessory Categories
Clothes are as old as mankind. Early humans of the Stone Age draped themselves in
animal hides before Paleolithic people began weaving plant fibers into cloth. Textiles
ultimately gained significant cultural and economic importance, shaping the direction of
fashion and commerce for centuries to come.
It may have all started in the ancient world, when anthropologists say the string skirts
mentioned by the Greek poet Homer and depicted in Bronze-Age artifacts could have
been worn at the equivalent of debutante balls to celebrate budding womanhood. But it
was the 20th century that transformed clothing in the West. Liberty of London loosened
corset laces, Coco Chanel invented the little black dress, Yves Saint Laurent spawned
couture's rise, and Mary Quant shrunk hemlines to unseen levels. For their part,
menswear designers like Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani provided men with relaxed
elegance, Savile Row gave the world British bespoke, and Italian tailors like Brioni took
dressing to new handcrafted heights.
As a result, auction enthusiasts can today indulge in recent catwalk looks from Calvin
Klein and Givenchy as well as vintage clothing including flapper era trappings, early
Levi's jeans, and more.
Quick Facts
In a 2015 Richard Edmonds auction in England, a pair of Queen Victoria's
cotton bloomers sold for £10,500
Grunge rock cult figure Kurt Cobain's cardigan sweater worn at his 1993
performance on MTV's "Unplugged" fetched an incredible $140,800 at a Julien's auction
in 2015
In 2011, Marilyn Monroe's famed subway scene dress from "The Seven-Year Itch"
sold at a Profiles in History auction in Beverly Hills for a staggering $5.6
million