Fashion as Art: Would You Buy/Collect Pieces Just for Its Beauty?

[IsabelMarantBoy]

Reviving this thread, as I'd love to hear from other fashion collectors and see their collections! I started collecting 2000's era fashion pieces back at the beginning of quarantine, it started with a Chloe dress from Paulo Melim Anderssan's debut collection (Look 14, the gem encrusted dress shown under the black coat) that I found on TRR, and quickly snowballed from there My spare room in my apartment is now filled wall to wall with racks of clothing, I believe last I counted I'm sitting around 750-800 pieces? The majority of my pieces belong to Marc Jacobs, and Olivier Theyskens's work for Rochas and Nina Ricci Some of them are even the original samples from the runway or the showrooms!

I started collecting specifically because I'd always loved seeing these pieces in magazine and on style.com back in high school and college, but this year my husband and I are launching our own fashion magazine, completely featuring pieces from my own collection

Let me know who/what else you collect! I'd love to hear about it and talk with other collectors and lovers of fashion. Why do you collect? Who are your favorite designers? Which decades are your favorite?

 

[Deleted member 116957]

How do you store it all? That's what would stop me from storing clothing, it seems high maintenance!! So delicate!!!

 

[KoV]

I wouldn’t personally collect it as art because that’s not how I enjoy fashion (also… limited budget lol) but I do think it’s wonderful that some people do, and preserve beautiful pieces.

I do have some old (“archival” if ya nasty) pieces of womenswear that I think would be considered collectible. Picked up during the early days of the pandemic for what I considered a steal. And occasionally something more recent that to me represents the best of that’s currently out there catches my eye and I grab it just… to have it, no intention of wearing it. Again, womenswear. My hope is someday one or more of my nieces will grow into an adult with an interest in fashion and if so I’ll pass it along to them. I’m interested in more of that kind of collecting.

 

[susseinmcswanny]

That literally happened to me during the pandemic too I bought a bunch of womenswear that I've loved for good prices on eBay and now I just have them ... and still feel spiritually unfulfilled, altho I do still enjoy admiring and inspecting them. I'd be so down to give it to any of my friends bc I'd love having cool ppl wearing it instead of it being hoarded in my apt, but none of them are daring enough or seem to care. Some things I guess are collectible, but IMO, envisioning the future, I'd much rather come across a ran thru Margiela dress that has me wondering the life it's lived instead of a pristine thing in a box.

 

[Drusilla_]

my immediate instinct is to say no (because money, space, etc) but then I remembered I've been buying shoes from certain 00s collections with full awareness that they'd probably never get worn, just because I like to look at them so they're basically fancy little bits of interior decor for me and not actual shoes. And there definitely are vintage pieces I've bought for their beauty or because they're emblematic of an era or rare (samples that never went into production). So maybe it's more about opportunity than inclination? would still be happy to pass them to a friend or a niece or even a fan of the pieces if the day comes, though.

 

[alwaysademo]

I was reading your thoughts and this came to mind, a note from Tina Chow (an avid collector) for those who collects her jewelry: