Haute couture collector Daphne Guinness has one of the most enviable wardrobes in the world and now we can take a peak at her sartorial treasures.
Daphne will be exhibition 80-100 pieces from her extensive collection at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Comme des Garçons, Dolce & Gabbana and Azzedine Alaïa.
F.I.T’s chief museum curator Valerie Steele will work with Daphne to highlight her signature styles through the garments, so expect plenty of neck ruffs, hats, jewel encrusted ribbons, pristine white shirts and House of Harlot patent leather Mary Jane platforms.
For those of us who can’t just hop on a plane to NYC, an accompanying coffee table book will be published by Yale University Press.
Daphne oftens describes herself as “a work in progress”, from her ‘Cruella De Vil’ striped hair to her various fashion and art projects. She certainly has a compulsive attitude towards fashion, making it her life’s work to create the perfect white shirt or find just the right height and shape for her trademark platform heels.
I adore Daphne Guiness mostly for her fearless embracing of the future. She’s had the kind of charmed, bohemian past that most people could only dream of – growing up in artist colony Cadaqués with the likes of Dali, Duchamp and Man Ray, hanging out with Andy Warhol in New York and sailing around the Med with millionaire ex-husband, Spyros Niarchos.
However, she started to make a name for herself assisting friend Isabella Blow on fashion shoots, becoming a muse to her designer friends and creating her first scent, Daphne, with Comme des Garçons.
The exhibition promises to include the most impressive selection from Daphne’s wardrobe, especially as she weeded out the ‘chaff’ two years ago, auctioning off over 260 lots in aid of Womankind, a charity to help women in developing countries.
The exhibition runs from September 2011 to January 2012 at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York.