Don't worry, this isn't meant to be a lecture on the merits of a particular piece of clothing. It is instead about some of the high society types that collect extremely rare pieces of fashion history because what the fuck else are high society types supposed to do with their time? Alexander Fury has a piece in The Independent about an upcoming auction consisting of seminal runway collections, most notably from Alexander McQueen. These auctions happen a couple of times a year and are made up of very rare, one-of-a-kind items from the annals of fashion history. Fury's questions are simple—Why do people buy these pieces? What actually makes for a great piece of fashion?—but have complicated answers.
Some of the McQueen items up for auction are versions from his last collection before his suicide in 2010 that would have been stocked in stores. Those are not worth very much. But something from, say, his seminal 1995 "Highland Rape" collection or a pair of grey trousers made by McQueen himself on an old sewing machine, even though they're poorly constructed, will fetch a tidy sum. Fury compares these high-fashion collectors to their wine counterparts who purchase a really expensive bottle: You could open it and risk it tasting like shit, or you could save it just to say you have it. But there's the other side of the coin as well, as some people attend these auctions to pay top dollar for collectible items that they actually will wear.
"The most valuable things are a combination of the best designer for that period, at their height; the best condition; the best example, with a label. And preferably owned by someone famous," says Kenny Taylor of the auction house, though some designers, like McQueen, remain consistently popular. However, items like those grey trousers can't have an exhibit based around them because they're too nondescript, even though they're rare. The vintage fashion market is an interesting one for sure and the way items are appraised remains a bit of a mystery. Either way, it's definitely out of your price range.
