Top designers make up collection auction (From Oxford Mail)

Top designers make up collection auction

10:00am Tuesday 4th December 2012 in News

More than 2,000 items from one woman’s designer fashion collection will go under the hammer today.

It is thought to be the biggest single-vendor auction at Bonhams auction house in Shipton-on-Cherwell, near Kidlington.

The collection includes more than 1,000 garments, 230 handbags, 400 pairs of shoes and some costume jewellery.

Most of it is new and has a pre-sale estimate in excess of £150,000.

It all comes from a woman who lived in north London.

She was 61 when she died last year but has not been named by the auction house.

Bonhams valuer Frances Robinson said: “It is amazing. This was obviously quite an obsession.

“She obviously had a massive shopping addiction.”

Most of the collection is new, bought in the last five years.

Among the treasures are the finest ball gowns by top designers Ralph Lauren, Dior, Chanel and Louis Vuitton.

There are 60 Chanel tweed suits, as well as dozens of coats, jackets, dresses, sunglasses and Hermès silk scarves.

The most expensive single item is expected to be a Louis Vuitton rolling suitcase, with an estimate of £4,000 to £5,000, and a Ralph Lauren ball gown for the same value.

The auction house will charge a 25 per cent buyer’s premium, and the rest of the proceeds will be distributed by the executor of her estate.

The sale at Bonhams starts at 11am.