From Met to Thrift Shop Sale: Nan Kempner’s Haute Couture

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The New York Sun

For the collector of vintage couture, there are few opportunities as choice as a sale featuring clothing that once belonged to philanthropist and fashion maven Nan Kempner.

The celebrated clotheshorse is said to have been the muse for Yves Saint Laurent. Before her death in 2005 at 74, Kempner famously filled several rooms of her Park Avenue home with a collection of haute couture. So impressive was the collection that it was the subject of an exhibit at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art last year.

While some 200 pieces became part of the museum’s permanent collection, hundreds of other clothing items and accessories loaned to the museum by Kempner’s family were dispersed among museums, charities, and the auction house Christie’s, which is planning a sale featuring Kempner’s clothing.

Some 25 cartons of clothing also made their way to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Thrift Shop on the Upper East Side, where hundreds of items from Kempner’s wardrobe will go on sale tomorrow. Prices range between $25 and $350 for an array of scarves, bags, dresses, and suits from designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Chanel, and Emilio Pucci.

In preparation for the sale, the store’s manager, Anita Askienazy, sifted through bins of clothing earlier this week, pulling out items including a fur-lined sweater by the designer Bill Blass; a floor-length silk evening gown by Givenchy, and a bright red, ribbed satin clutch with a bejeweled clasp by Valentino.

“There are a lot of ooh and aah moments,” she said of the months-long process of unpacking, processing, and labeling Kempner’s clothing.

Most of the items arrived at the store directly from the Met and were still marked with museum archival tags. “It’s everything she wore, especially her suits,” Ms. Askienazy said. “She went to all the fashion shows, was always in the front row.”

Kempner helped raise $75 million for Memorial Sloan-Kettering over the years, hospital officials estimated. She was active in the hospital’s volunteer organization, the Society of MSKCC, and was chairwoman of its International Fine Arts and Antique Dealers Show. She received the society’s award for Excellence in Philanthropy in 1997, along with Pat Buckley.

“She was tireless in raising money for the hospital,” the society’s executive director, Leslie Jones, said. “She was part of Memorial up until the day she died.”

Recently, longtime store employees recalled the socialite visiting the shop, located on Third Avenue between 81st and 82nd streets, on several occasions when she dropped off donations.

Speculating on who might patronize the sale, they said they expect a collectors, designers, and fashion editors. In recent weeks, potential buyers from around the country have called to inquire about the merchandise and the possibility of advance shopping, which the store declined.

“There will be a line around the corner,” Ms. Askienazy said, foreseeing a “stampede” of shoppers arriving two hours before the store opens at 10 a.m. She declined to estimate how much the sale could yield, but indicated it would boost the store’s average annual sales of $1.5 million.

Among thrift shop devotees and vintage collectors, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering shop is well known for its selectivity and its high-quality merchandise. In addition to six full-time employees, about 25 volunteers regularly staff the store. On a recent afternoon, the wife of Judge Thomas Charles of state Supreme Court was volunteering in a room filled exclusively with designer gowns and suits. “I really don’t have to work, I feel like I want to help,” Liliane Thomas said.

Mrs. Thomas, born in France and bestowed with a self-described flair for fashion, said she would volunteer on the day of the Kempner sale. “Couture is elegant,” she said in accented English. “You can wear it year after year if it’s cut for your body.”

A former store manager, Courtney Arnot, indicated that women of all ages would patronize the sale. “If I were younger and as skinny as Nan Kempner, I’d get over there the first day and get some vintage piece of clothing, something you can’t get in a store now,” Mrs. Arnot, who is a vice chairwoman of the society, said.

She also indicated that some women may come seeking a piece of history and hoping to emulate Kempner.

“People like her or Pat Buckley, some of the younger people would aspire to be that well respected and that well thought of by a charity,” she said.


The New York Sun

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