PARIS — “It’s an encounter with someone who always walked an avant-garde path personally and professionally, and expressed those choices in her wardrobe,” said expert and curator Pénélope Blankaert ahead of the “2e Bureau and Sylvie Grumbach, From Avant-garde to Today” online auction by the Paris-based Millon auction house that runs until September.
The PR maven decided it was time to let part of her archive go when she needed to turn an attic chockablock with old account books — and no shortage of fashion items — into a library dedicated to fashion at the Domaine des Oseraies, a foundation dedicated to creative industries held by her family.
Some 233 lots are going under the hammer, drawing from the early days of the 40-year-old press office. “I opened 2e Bureau with Vivienne Westwood, [photographer] Jean-Paul Goude and Swatch, and it was a time where designers, like some artists, did not take back their clothing or sometimes paid by telling you to keep the collection,” recalled Grumbach.
At the time, “press officers were not just promoting a product. They had many jobs at the same time, from sitting on fittings ahead of a collection’s presentation, working on casting and production of the shows. They were steeped in the collections and the designer’s aesthetic,” recalled Grumbach.
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