Vintage Fashion

An Oscar de la Renta orange flower vintage necklace offered for £385 is one of the highlights of an exhibition celebrating five decades of costume jewellery held at The Design Gallery.

Correct in detail, material and quality of construction, down to brass hardware, stencilled cloth and monogrammed leather trim’, a miniature Louis Vuitton trunk sold for $7500 (£5900) at Thomaston Place Auction Galleries (20% buyer’s premium).

A sale titled Vintage for Valentines at Augusta Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in Bellows Falls, Vermont, was topped by an extraordinary printed chiffon outfit by the Parisian fashion house Worth.

Auction staged at Drouot offered a varied selection topped by Louis XVI-era suit

Legend has it that Charles Arpels (of Van Cleef & Arpels fame) saw a lady friend stashing her lipstick and other cosmetics in an ordinary cigarette tin for a trip out on the town.

An Arctic fox fur owned and worn by a 1930s movie star dubbed Britain’s answer to Ginger Rogers turned heads at a Derby saleroom.

When it comes to period costume antique footwear can often command some of the strongest prices.

Among the vintage red-carpet moments at the recent Golden Globes film awards ceremony in Los Angeles, two actresses stood out. Elle Fanning wore a 1960s white silk gown by Pierre Balmain while Carey Mulligan looked to the archives for her exact replica vintage Schiaparelli dress from 1949.

Fashion specialist Kerry Taylor was astonished to receive an email containing images of actress Elizabeth Taylor’s Oscar dress from 1961.

Vintage Louis Vuitton luggage doesn’t get much better than the 1920s Malle Chaussures: a ‘made to order’ trunk with compartments for multiple pairs of shoes and ancillary drawers for shoehorns and a cleaning kit.