Hundreds of items from the estate of late fashion icon André Leon Talley, including paintings, personal photographs and some of his signature capes, have sold at auction for a combined $3.55 million.
A trove of the veteran editor's possessions went under the hammer at Christie's in New York on Wednesday, fetching almost $1.4 million, before a further 350 lots were sold online by the auction house.
Talley, who was Vogue magazine's longtime creative director, died last year aged 73. He owned a vast fashion collection, with garments on sale ranging from Tom Ford kimonos to a selection of Prada crocodile coats. Among the top sellers were a Christian Dior greatcoat and a silk satin Climate Revolution cloak by the late Vivienne Westwood, which fetched $40,320 and for $32,760, respectively.
The items in the collection also spoke to his deep network of relationships with some of the fashion world's biggest names. Over a dozen sketches and photos by the late Karl Lagerfed, as well as a signed watercolor portrait that Gianni Versace once made of Talley. The latter item sold for $37,500.
Talley was known not only for his love of fashion, but for his interest in art and culture. Two different Andy Warhol artworks (along with a Louis Vuitton luggage set) shared the title of the auction's top seller, each fetching $94,500. Also among the big-ticket items was a Bradley Theodore portrait of former Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland that sold for just over $40,000. Several other photos of Vreeland appeared in the sale, as did an Annie Leibovitz photo of Vogue's top gun Anna Wintour.
A red coat by designer Norma Kamali sold for $25,200, well over its initial estimate of $500 to $800. The iconic piece received renewed attention earlier in the week when Rihanna stepped out in a notably similar puffer jacket, by Alaïa, for her Super Bowl performance — leading many onlookers to speculate that it might have been a tribute to Talley.
Elsewhere, a veritable miscellany of items went on sale to buyers from 47 countries, including travel clocks, amethyst geodes and a Vera Wang-designed silver cutlery set.
The auction house said that proceeds from the sale will go toward two churches that were close to Mr. Talley's heart: the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York and the Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina.
In a press statement, Christie's head of private collections, Elizabeth Seigel, said the sale confirmed Talley's rarefied status within the fashion world and beyond. The collection was, she added, a testament to his impeccable taste.