Funky street fashion from the 1950s to the present can be worth hundreds of pounds, with a forthcoming London auction offering lots estimated to fetch from £100 to £600 sterling (€167-€1,000).
According to Ms Suzette Shields, costume and textile specialist at Christie's in London, "designer pieces or even high street pieces in very good condition" can be valuable. Even items produced in large numbers can fetch good prices but "obviously the rarer the piece, the more interesting it is" for collectors. Items do need to have a label and be in good condition. "Something of its time is going to be more interesting. So psychedelic, flared - something that's obviously 1960s, 1970s" - can sell well, she said. A "street style" auction at Christie's on September 5th next includes items from Vivienne Westwood. One of the highlights is a pair of 1970s tartan bondage trousers with the none-too-cryptic label: "For soldiers, prostitutes, dykes and punks."
Ms Shields said: "Some of the T-shirts are quite shocking. They're punk things so some of the images are, well, they can be quite disturbing. Some of them we wouldn't sell because they're probably a little bit too offensive. "There's quite a strong following of Vivienne Westwood collectors. They're quite academic in their approach. They like to have complete collections. And people are prepared to pay just a little bit more for them." T-shirts can range from £25 to as high as £300, she said. "You could be looking at £200 for a Tshirt, depending on which one it is.
"Some would seem to be slightly more common than others. And Vivienne Westwood collectors tend to be quite sharp - they know exactly when something was printed, whether or not that's a reprint or how many were done."
A reasonably rare item in the auction is a parachute top with an upside-down print of Karl Marx. The same lot of seven items contains T-shirts, handkerchiefs, armbands and a slip of paper printed with all the different Westwood T-shirt designs (estimate: £300£500). A pair of early 1970s Levi's jeans in the auction with "enormous flares" and which have been embroidered is expected to fetch about £200.
"They would have been the normal price for a bog standard pair of jeans and then somebody's embroidered them and stuck badges all over," she said.
So an old pair of jeans can be worth money? "It's very dangerous to say that because lots of people think that early Levi's will make an awful lot of money." But jeans are a very specialised market and there are dedicated jeans collectors and dealers, she said.
Ossie Clark dresses from the 1970s can have value. Samples in the forthcoming auction include crepe dresses - romantic, flowing and colourful - some of which are expected to go for about £300. For instance, a smart black crepe dress with bands of bright yellow and red is estimated at £250 to £350. "But these are exceptionally strong pieces," Ms Shields said.
As a rule, evening wear is going to fetch a little bit more than day wear, she added. Single pieces by Jean Muir tend to fetch under £100, although some of the suede pieces can be a little bit more, she said. Items of interest to collectors include suede dresses, a herringbone trouser suit and a 1970s clutch bag. Bikinis and dresses by Emilio Pucci, who created a lot of beachwear in the 1960s in abstract, psychedelic prints in watery and citrus colours, can do well, with a lot of 10 bikinis in the auction estimated at £250-£350.
jmarms@irish-times.ie
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