Vintage Fashion

A pair of early 17th century gloves slipped into a top spot at the LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair last week.

Described in Time Out earlier this year as a place where “high art and innovation meet”, Hackney in east London, with Shoreditch and Hoxton round the corner, has dozens of independent shops, cafes and markets.

It is relatively rare to find items of 16th century costume on the market, especially pieces in good condition. It is therefore perhaps not surprising that this gentleman’s doublet from c.1580-1600 should end up going to a major museum when it went under the hammer in a Paris auction this month.

One of Dorotheum’s specialities is its staging of sales devoted to imperial court memorabilia and historical objects, which are notable for featuring souvenirs and personal memorabilia from the House of Hapsburg.

The travelling compendium reached its apogee in the late Victorian and Edwardian era. Two exceptional examples appeared on the market in quick succession in recent days.

Helen Larson was a keen collector of costume, especially pieces with historical associations. She spent half a century building up a collection that encompassed early costume, couture and pieces with historical or celebrity provenance, helped by her friend Doris Langley Moore who founded the Costume Museum in Bath.

Piasa is holding a second auction devoted to the colourful works of the Ukrainian-born artist Sonia Delaunay (1885-1975) on April 26.

Flash from the past at the Diss rooms of TW Gaze (18% buyer’s premium).

Gene Hoyle, of Lancashire-based family firm Hoyles Promotions, which has been running busy weekly Sunday fleamarkets and car boots across north-west England for 40 years, is adding a “suitcase rummage” to his fleamarkets at Clitheroe Auction Mart in the Lancashire town.

Milliner Victoria Grant is known for her high-society hats, worn by the likes of Kate Moss, Beyoncé and Carla Delevigne. But in an exhibition of her works at Old Master dealer Philip Mould’s gallery, society faces are on, not under, the hats.

The next three Frock Me vintage fashion fairs this year will be held at the Kensington Town Hall, instead of its usual venue, Chelsea Town Hall, which is being refurbished.

Which sector of the traditional antiques trade has been on an unbroken, record-busting rise since the early years of the century?

An extraordinary example of British avant-garde clothing made on the eve of the First World War sold for £29,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) at Mallams Oxford on December 8.