specialty fashion & textile sales

Specialty clothing and textile auctions returned to New York City with our inaugural sale  at our historic midtown Manhattan location. We offered an amazing selection of historic clothing, fashion accessories and antique textile treasures from many great museum collections. Many of the items had been locked away in museums’ storage for decades.

Augusta Auctions’ premier sale at the Historic 1883 St. Paul Auditorium feature exceptional deaccessions from the textile collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art (Ohio), the first selections from the entire costume and fashion collection of the 1914 Beaux-Arts Montclair Art Museum (New Jersey), items from the Arts & Crafts Hillside Club (California), dresses from Pauline Trigere’s niece, a rock & roll insiders private tour clothing from the 1970’s & 1980’s and unique fashion items selected from other individual, institutional and estate collections.

The April 29th one-day sale presented new-to-market premier pieces to the international fashion and collector market. Nearly five hundred selected lots, all relating to clothing, fashion and textiles were sold that day.

The New York City auction offered an eclectic selection of couture, historic, ethnic and vintage fashions. Also sold were extraordinary textiles, heirloom lace and linens, costume and fine jewelry including a sterling & opal Art Nouveau festoon necklace and Victorian hair jewelry, beaded bag collection, designer hats, 1820’s silk bonnet, 1770’s silk pumps, lace & painted fans, hair combs, 18th C. gold snuff boxes and many other valuable objects.

Highlighted at this fashion event were two spectacular 1920’s evening coats attributed to Parisian designers Jean Lanvin and Paul Poiret, a 1937 Lucien LeLong lame evening gown, two 18th C brocade gowns, early 19th C cotton dresses, 18th-19th C gents garments, a 1920’s French knit 5-piece day ensemble, extraordinary 19th C beaded jackets, Civil War and bustle dresses, Victorian through Belle Epoch tea and ball gowns, collection of stunning beaded 1920’s dresses, many printed silk 1930s gowns, Irish crochet and other lace dresses and jackets, 19th C children’s garments, 20th C designer cocktail and evening dresses, mod and paper dresses, rare rock & roll garments, 19th C bisque dolls and a large and wonderful collection of antique doll clothing.

Textile treasures included: 17th C. embroidered panel, embroideries and weavings from many cultures, a collection of chasubles – some as early as 1585, Chinese export shawls, Turkish and Ottoman pieces, Kashmiri hand-woven wool paisleys, handmade lace table linens, silk brocade obis, printed kalimkaris, Buddhist textiles…

Designers represented in our April sale included Lucien Lelong, Liberty of London, Paul Poiret, Mariano Fortuny, Jeanne Lanvin, Bonnie Cashin, Christian Dior, Pauline Trigere, Thea Porter, Rudy Gernreich, Courreges, Chanel, Geoffrey Beene, Galanos, Claire McCardell, Ceil Chapman, Irene, Zandra Rhodes, Pucci, Steven Sprouse, Sant Angelo, Halston, Yves St. Laurent, Oleg Cassini, Bill Blass, Arnold Scaasi, Nolan Miller, Oscar De La Renta, Balenciaga, Jean Paul Gaultier, Judith Lieber, Victor Costa, Moschino, Claude Montana, Bob Mackie, Bill Blass, Louis Vuitton, St. John, Gucci, Molly Parnis, and others