Campbell's McQueen Armadillo leads US$3.2m couture sellout
Naomi Campbell's old Alexander McQueen Armadillo ensemble sold for US$1.3 million and led a white-glove sale in New York.
Fair Warning, the members-only app-based auction house, said all 23 lots in “The Impossible Couture Collection” sold for a combined US$3.2 million, Artnet reported on 18 September. Every lot sold. No buy-ins.
The McQueen was the night’s top lot. The ensemble, from Spring/Summer 2010, pairs a printed dress with the designer’s towering Armadillo boots. It came from Campbell’s personal collection and carried a presale estimate of US$600,000 to US$1 million. The final price was well above that range.
That 2010 season was the last collection McQueen made himself before his death. For general readers, that backstory matters. Collectors often pay more for work the designer finished by hand, with a clear chain of ownership, or provenance, behind it.
Two museum-friendly pieces followed. A 1965–66 Yves Saint Laurent Piet Mondrian cocktail dress sold for US$600,000, beating its US$500,000 high estimate. The simple shift, with its blocks of primary colour divided by black lines, references the Dutch painter’s grid paintings.
Star power helped the rest. An Azzedine Alaïa midnight-coloured evening gown worn by Rihanna sold for US$140,000. A 1995 John Galliano dress worn by Madonna in her 1994 “Take a Bow” video sold for US$110,000.
The sale was Fair Warning’s first vintage couture auction. Haute couture, meaning hand-finished clothes made to order in Paris workshops, rarely appears in dedicated evening sales in the United States. It was curated by Loïc Gouzer and Peter Brant Jr.
Before the 17 September sale, the group was shown on a runway during New York Fashion Week. The venue was a Gilded Age carriage house on the Upper East Side, Surface reported. The 23-piece line-up spanned the 1960s to the 2000s and included work by Elsa Schiaparelli, according to the house.
What makes this stand out for fans is the mix. One lot traces back to a supermodel’s wardrobe. Another traces back to a pop video. A third traces back to 1960s Paris. All three found buyers on the same night, on a phone app built for fast bidding.
