BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF.- Julien’s Auctions announced “A World of Fashion: Property from the Archives of Doris Raymond,” an exclusive auction presentation featuring over 400 lots from the world renowned The Way We Wore® vintage boutique that includes over a century of European, Japanese, and American garments and accessories amassed by fashion retailer and historian Doris Raymond. Raymond’s legendary career of collecting, archiving and inspiring fashion, as well as providing important vintage pieces to museums, films, stylists and celebrities around the world will be well represented in this event launching Julien’s new auction category specializing in luxury fashion taking place Wednesday, November 16th, 2022 live in Beverly Hills and online at julienslive.com.
A New York native, who early on worked as a disc jockey in San Juan, Puerto Rico and later as a door-to-door encyclopedia salesperson throughout the west, Raymond began her career in vintage fashion in the 1970s treasure hunting at flea markets and antique shops for cool clothes and selling her finds at the Marin City Flea Market before opening The Way We Wore boutique on Union Street in 1981. After relocating to Fillmore Street in 1986, her collection and research of vintage fashion and accessories grew and began to attract fashion aficionados and costume and clothing designers from far and wide.
She eventually moved her business and vast collection to a warehouse which then expanded to include film and television clients. The legendary Vintage Fashion Expo trade show (of which she was a partner) came next and lasted for many years. In 2004, she moved to Los Angeles and relocated The Way We Wore to its now famed address of 334 S. La Brea Avenue in the heart of Hollywood. The store was an instant success. The fashion industry’s top echelon of creative directors, design teams, wardrobe stylists, and fashion editors all made their way to the boutique for Raymond’s famous fashion eye and immense knowledge of fashion history. With her highly curated collection containing items dating as far back as the 18th century, she estimates the archives to hold over half a million pieces of inspirational material. Raymond’s archive of textiles, trims, and embroideries supply the world’s renowned ateliers and emerging designers with the conceptual foundations for their collections. Some of the fashion icons and brands she has inspired and worked with include: Saint Laurent, Tom Ford, Gucci, Michael Kors, Maison Martin Margiela, Valentino, Armani, Chloe, Bottega Veneta, Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, Versace, Balmain as well as acclaimed Hollywood costume designers Arianne Phillips, Sandy Powell, Colleen Atwood, Mark Bridges and more. Raymond enjoyed two seasons starring in The Smithsonian Channel’s L.A. Frock Stars - a docu-series highlighting her life in vintage fashion, which garnered her an even more far-reaching global audience and fans, whom to this day, flock to the store daily to meet and pick up pearls of fashion wisdom and take selfies with the star. Raymond now has plans to deaccession her collection and find fitting homes for her lovingly selected and restored pieces and embark on the next phase of her life and career.
“I remember especially a hat from Sonia Delaunay with its original sketch and a stunning evening jacket from Charles James, looking like a cloud of black taffetas! Among many other marvels...,” said Martin Margiela speaking about his consultations and longtime friendship with Raymond. “During the subsequent years, at every of my visits, I would discover amazing pieces and enjoy the stories and history facts that Doris is always keen and generous to share. I remain astonished by her uniqueness, the depth of her knowledge and - above all - her touching persona.”
“Destination all things Doris, is one of my most precious occupations. I learn so much with each visit. This magical place with hidden treasures an endless source of inspiration, oxygène to all creatives, passionate and obsessed, music that fuels my all-consuming passions,” said John Galliano. “Apart from the honor of travelling historically and geographically with her beautiful acquisitions, sharing stories of their provenance, swatches from the 1800’s, gossamer fine cobweb beading from the twenties, pure lace work from the 1900‘s, a brash 60’s shift with way too much attitude or the unknown!!! Hats, jewelry, gloves and shoes lovingly amassed do not escape her laser sharp eyes. This is my favorite bit of all.”
From Michael Kors: “Doris has a remarkable eye for design and quality and has gathered the most focused collection of the very best of vintage fashion. The pieces at The Way We Wore have served as great design inspiration for me, my team and so many designers around the world.”
“Whenever I am designing a film and need something vintage, special, beautiful and unique, it’s a sure thing that I will call Doris Raymond at The Way We Wore,” said Mark Bridges, two-time Academy Award-Winning costume designer. “Whether I’m designing the early 1970’s NY music scene for Martin Scorsese’s Vinyl, the world of 1950’s British couture for Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, or telling the story of a young filmmaker for Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, I have to check (with fingers crossed) if she has some treasures for me somewhere in her fabulous collection. And fortunately, she usually does.”
“Doris Raymond is the spark that has ignited the imagination and designs of many runway collections, costume designs and major fashion labels across the universe,” said Martin Nolan, Executive Director of Julien’s Auctions. “Her four-decade career in collecting, researching and archiving fashion has made an undeniable impact on the way vintage has been valued and preserved in haute couture, the arts and culture.
This auction is a once-in-a-lifetime fashion spree that will delight vintage fashion enthusiasts to high-end fashion collectors as each show stopping piece Doris has curated here will be offered at every price point level.”
Highlights announced today include (with estimates):
A rare 1923 Gabrielle Chanel Kitmer embroidered light brown wool coat ($20,000-$30,000) likely from Chanel’s Autumn/Winter 1922 Russian collection (photo right). Styles a la Russe were fashionable in the early 1920s, and Russian aristocratic emigres found their fine needlework skills in high demand. Research by the Metropolitan Museum of Art revealed that in the name of efficiency, Kitmir embroidery was created by machines that Chanel bought for the Grand Duchess and her employees.
A very rare and important cloche and scarf by French artist, Sonia Delaunay authenticated by Jean-Louis Delaunay ($20,000-$30,000). Sonia Delaunay was a fashion, design, art and costume pioneer who was the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre in 1964 and in 1975 was named an officer of the French Legion of Honor. The Ukrainian-born artist spent her working life in Paris and with her husband, the painter Robert Delaunay, along with others, co-founded the Orphism art movement. Delaunay began working in textiles and designing clothing for her friends based on Orphism. Her 1911 patchwork quilt for their son’s crib is in the collection of the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris. Very few pieces of clothing by Sonia Delaunay have survived and no pieces are known to have sold publicly.
A rare and important 1926 Fall/Winter Jeanne Lanvin embroidered black silk taffeta couture robe de style evening dress embellished with faux pearls, rhinestones and beads in an overlapping petal design, which continues to the v-back, from the personal collection of American film costume designer Patricia Norris ($8,000-10,000). Founded in 1889, Jeanne Lanvin was one of the most important designers during the couture heyday of the 1920-30s and is the oldest French couture house still in existence today. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds an identical and labeled example in their collection.
A late 1940s-early 1950s Christian Dior “New Look” couture brown Herringbone wool tweed suit ($5,000-$7,000). Christian Dior’s New Look debuted in 1947 with the Bar suit, and it was immediately widely copied. Dior created this new post-WWII silhouetteto honor the natural beauty of women saying, “I have designed flower women.” It was such a success for the House of Dior that he would constantly rework and update it in his collections until his death in 1957. A New Look suit is an important part of any museum’s collection in order to tell the story of 20th century fashion.
A rare Claire McCardell ($2,000-$3,000) 1940s tartan one-piece bubble playsuit from the collection of Gernreich’s first model, Jimmy Mitchell. Known for creating the American Look, Claire McCardell championed modern designs available at mass- produced prices and earned the deep respect of high fashion designers for her unique and creative solutions within restricted price points. McCardell is credited with the creation of American sportswear such as her famous Popover dress and flattering playsuits. The self-fabric tie that could be wrapped around to cinch the waist as the wearer desired is a classic design aspect she used in many of her dresses. McCardell playsuits are part of the permanent collections of numerous museums.
An Yves Saint Laurent for Dior couture 1959 black taffeta cocktail dress ($6,000-$8,000) worn by Kerry Washington on the cover of the 2005 Vanity Fair special Hollywood issue. At the age of just twenty- three years, Yves Saint Laurent had already been the Head Designer of Dior for two years when he presented his Autumn-Winter 1959 collection containing this dress. He was looking ahead to the new decade and in the show notes he argues the need for a “new fashion,” a “new woman,” a “new attitude”, “new basics” and “new trends” realizing what could be called: 1960 style.
Campbell’s souper dress boldly printed with Andy Warhol’s iconic 1962 image of Campbell soup labels ($800-$1,200). The dress was offered for sale by the Campbell’s Soup Company during the late 1960s, capitalizing on a fashion trend for paper dresses and the acclaim of Andy Warhol’s famous pop-art paintings. The Campbell’s Souper Dress is included in the permanent collections of many museums and most recently included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2019 exhibition “Camp: Notes on Fashion.”
A 1968 Paco Rabanne metal link mini dress ($15,000-$20,000). The dress formed from bronze and silver-toned oval aluminum disks are hand linked together in alternating color bands to create horizontal stripes. The back is open with keyhole peekaboo. Paco Rabanne publicly burst onto the fashion scene in 1966 when he presented a haute couture collection he called “Manifesto: 12 Unwearable Dresses in Contemporary Materials.” Claiming that “sewing is slavery,” his dresses were made of plastic and also metal disks like the one offered here, which were hand-connected by metal jump rings. These designs by Rabanne are among the most iconic dresses of the era and are included in the permanent collections of major museums around the world.
A Jean-Charles de Castelbajac 1983-84 “Jackie Kennedy” Tribute tunic ($4,000-$5,000). From the Autumn/Winter 1983-1984 collection entitled “Tribute to Portraits,” this full-length sheath of black silk gazar with a grisaille portrait of Jackie Kennedy was hand-painted by Israeli artist Eliakim, with black silk muslin over-poncho having the effect of a mourning veil designed by Moroccan/French fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac (JCDC), who has collaborated with artists such as, Andy Warhol, Jean Michel Basquiat, Malcolm McLaren, Robert Mapplethorpe and Lady Gaga, among others. In 1983, he introduced the first in his series of “tribute” dresses, collaborating with Israeli artist Eliakim who hand-painted larger-than-life images of larger-than-life-figures such as Coco Chanel and Napoleon Bonaparte. The monochromatic floating portraits came down the runway, in JCDC’s words, like “ghost dresses.” “The most moving finale was perhaps when the robes of Jackie and John Kennedy appeared on stage. I saw the American journalists hide their tears behind their large black glasses,” said Jean-Charles de Castelbajac.
Azzedine Alaia 1986 black leather “zipper” dress ($2,000-$3,000). Azzedine Alaia, “The King of Cling,” designed form fitting dresses that celebrated the female form. Worn by super models and the top celebrities of the day, such as Madonna and Grace Jones, Alaia pieces from this period are the epitome of the body con and power dressing aesthetic of the 1980s. The “zipper” dress has been included in numerous exhibitions around the world, including the London Design Museum’s 2018 “Azzedine Alaia: The Couturier,” the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The FIT Museum, among others. The iconic silhouette was reintroduced by the Alaia label in the Spring-Summer 2023 ready-to-wear collection.
Christian Francis Roth’s 1990-1991 “Crayola” dress ($800-$1,200). A long-sleeved purple wool jersey mini dress with the word “Yellow” inset along the sleeve looking like a crayon. Roth’s witty and playful designs were inspired by pop artists like Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Roth’s designs are in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and examples of his work have been included in eight MET exhibitions from 1993-2021. A version of the Crayon dress was included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” under the exhibition heading “Humor.”
An Atelier Versace catsuit with a whimsical Marc Chagall inspired motif with generously beaded Swarovski crystals and multicolor seed beading on black tulle from the wardrobe of Whitney Houston ($6,000-$8,000). The catsuit’s design featuring circus figures, animals, and musicians densely hand worked in multicolored beads and sequins, was originally acquired at Whitney Houston’s court- ordered debt A.J. Willner auction on January 9th, 2007, in Irvington, New Jersey.
A 1930s Chanel black souffle silk evening dress with side draping and flowing sash ($3,000-$5,000). Chanel’s little black dress was offered throughout the 1930s in elegant full-length sweeps of silk for the owner’s dramatic entrance into a Depression-era private soiree. Her use of lace inserts or appliques often gave the gowns the sense of being luxurious lingerie. Here she uses floral lace appliques as a strategic design element to add subtle texture and feminine ornamentation to a sleek silhouette and adds decorative radiant pin tucks in the midsection as a visual slimming device, and incorporates a long sheer scarf diagonally draped across the upper arm and one shoulder.
A silk Mariano Fortuny stenciled velvet coat ($3,000-$5,000). Surrounded by his father’s collection of antique fabrics, Mariano Fortuny directed his own artistic energies into textile design drawing inspiration from a wide range of cultures and periods of history; from the large-scale patterns of Ottoman and Italian Renaissance velvets to Islamic and Safavid Persian motifs. His iconic coat and jackets are rooted in shapes like the loose-fitting Coptic tunic, Arabic abaia and Japanese kimono. In 1907, Fortuny began creating his own designs on expensive silks and velvets by hand stamping pigments mixed with metallic powder, which, in his proprietary
method, gave the effect of metallic brocade. Fortuny’s techniques remain a guarded secret today and his coats and jackets are part of the permanent collections of museums around the world.
Maison Martin Margiela 1999 reissue “Stockman” mannequin jacket ($1,000-$2,000). Considered one of the most influential designers of the late 20th century exploring upcycling, deconstruction, and oversized silhouettes, this jacket – an early Martin Margiela piece – is made of raw linen canvas, stencil painted with reference to the haute couture atelier and the dressmaker’s “Stockman” dummy. In true Margiela form with this Look #10 from his Spring/Summer 1999 “retrospective” runway collection, he offered a new interpretation the second time around, and in a trompe-l’oeil twist, a photograph of his original Stockman jacket was printed onto the reissued one. In 2019 the Palais Galliera in Paris acquired an example of this 1999 design for their permanent collection.
