Paco Rabanne Aluminum Tunic Dress
On October30th, Christie’s sold off some of the finest fashion fetishes in history at their Resurrection: Avant Garde Fashion auction in Kensington. The highest bid went to this extraordinary Paco Rabanne Aluminum Tunic Dress at 25 grand. Most of the avant gardists represented were old garde: Pierre Cardin, Gaultier, Alaia, Cristobal Balenciaga, Norma Kamali, et al., with nary a word from the 21st century. Okay, there was one, a World’s End mini-crini wired skirt, a black hoop mini with yellow stars, but who cares when there’s this amazingly red circular vinyl cape. Viva la vinyl, indeed.
Pierre Cardin Satellite Cape
Here we have a truly electrifying objet. Not just some dress the man made before he sold his name to all those luggage companies, but a Pierre Cardin masterpiece circa 1965. Holy space age deliciousness.
And for the real tried and true fetishists, there’s nothing less than a gilt leather hood made by Sex for Malcolm McLaren of the New York Dolls. You might recognize its alter ego from the famous ‘Cambridge Rapist’ print.
Gilt Leather Hood by Sex
'Cambridge Rapist'
Other delicious take-home delights included an amazing black gauze shroud in two pieces by Rei Kawakubo (which fetched a mere 10k), a Mr. Freedom F baseball ensemble, and an ‘important neck tie’ by Pierre Cardin. Not to mention the hundreds of other bizarre bits of sartorial mastery that left me weak with desire.
