Vintage Fashion & Textiles

Extensive contents of Cumbrian castle take three days to sell in North Yorkshire auction

Vintage clothes, accessories, furniture and more sell well at specialist fair in Saltaire

When north German pastor Johannes Jacobsen founded a school of weaving in the then German-Danish border town of Scherrebek in 1896, his intention was driven by nationalism.

American decorators and buyers were in abundance on the first day of the winter edition of The Decorative Fair in Battersea Park this week.

As ruler of an empire on which the sun never set, Queen Victoria adopted the Indian practice of giving Kashmiri shawls as gifts to visiting dignitaries and coming-of-age and wedding presents to her friends at court.

When a pinstripe suit came up for auction at West Midlands firm Fieldings (26% buyer’s premium inc VAT) it had an interesting consequence.

The Autumn Welsh Sale (Part II) held by Rogers Jones (24% buyer’s premium) on December 2 included an item of clothing once owned by a Welsh icon: Richard Burton (1925-84).

Gray MCA has a couple of busy months in store. From January, the fashion illustration, design and textiles gallery stages Drawing on Style: Original Fashion Illustration at Edinburgh’s Dovecot Studios.

Influenced by the English drape suits favoured by the Duke of Windsor, the zoot suit was all the rage among disfavoured youths in Second World War-era USA.

Launched in 2009, the annual 'London Antique & Vintage Textile Fair' run by the Textile Society will welcome 60-plus dealers to Chelsea Old Town Hall on Sunday, October 12, where the room will be crammed with textiles from the sedate 18th century to the swinging 1960s.

What was thought to be the largest private collection of Vivienne Westwood (1941-2022) garments to be sold outside London went under the hammer at Tennants (24% buyer’s premium) in North Yorkshire on August 15.

Biannual sale at Gloucestershire firm once again provides eclectic range of lots from across the globe

A fine Indian Kashmir shawl of intricate traditional design offered in Colchester included a sewn label 'Horatia E Erskine, June 26th 1861 (Indian) from H.M. Queen Victoria'.

Even though the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was abolished in 1918, there is still no shortage of nostalgic buyers for memorabilia and relics from the House of Habsburg.

Textiles from the nomadic Tekke tribe of Turkestan were highly sought after at Rippon Boswell’s (25% buyer’s premium) May 31 auction in Wiesbaden.

When the situation demanded it, German consular officials in the tropics were required to wear a ceremonial helmet.

Pierre-Jean Chalençon is well known as an enthusiast for Napoleonic memorabilia and this summer Sotheby’s Paris (27/22/15% buyer’s premium) offered just over 100 lots from his collection.