Susan Gutfreund

Spring Fashion: Centuries of Style

Hindman’s annual Spring Fashion auction celebrates several private collections of important haute couture, high fashion and luxury accessories. Carefully curated and judiciously preserved by the women who purchased—and often wore them—this auction documents nearly three hundred years of fashion history.

These collections document not only the lives of the women who wore them, but also their style, their choices and their understanding of fashion history. They also, importantly, bring to light the close connections that these women had with the trailblazing designers and couturiers that created the remarkable fashions in this sale. By working closely with these women or their families, the compelling stories connected to many of these garments, their origins and meanings, have been revealed and offer tantalizing clues into the history and importance of these designs and their formation into coherent collections.

Beginning with items that date to the 18th and 19th centuries, these women documented almost three centuries of fashion, through their discerning eye. Historic fashion reveals these women’s ability to draw inspiration from the past to inform conscious choices in contemporary fashion. These women’s selections comprise some of the world’s most influential and inspiring fashion designers and couturiers, including fifty-five haute couture creations by Chanel, Givenchy, Philippe Venet, Madame Grès, Yves Saint Laurent, Emanuel Ungaro, Jean Paul Gaultier and Christian Dior, dating from 1969 to 1997. These collections also incorporate important custom-made and ready-to-wear designs by American and British designers, such as Halston, Ralph Rucci, Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, and John Galliano.

With such a unique collection of rare luxury items, Hindman looks forward to welcoming you to this auction celebrating centuries of style and elegance.

Susan Gutfreund

Lots 1-123

Every aspect of Susan Gutfreund’s life is curated carefully. As with her apartments on Fifth Avenue in New York or in the Seventh Arrondissement on the Left Bank in Paris, where the elegance of the Old World was celebrated with aesthetic inspiration, Mrs. Gutfreund’s clothing and textiles collection is highly researched and opulent, with the oldest item dating to the late 18th century. She collects significant antique and vintage clothing and textiles, which on occasion she also boldly mixes into her style. Her understanding and reach are so unique that she has lectured on fashion as wearable art and some of her sartorial choices have now become part of the world’s most-celebrated collections of clothing and textiles. In 2021, Mrs. Gutfreund donated a considerable portion of her collection to the Denver Art Museum, which has included many of her items in Suited: Empowered Feminine Fashion–an exhibition celebrating the evolution of the tailored suit for the female form. Susan Gutfreund’s passion for Europe, and France in particular, is evident in many of her choices. Through her great appreciation and knowledge of French culture and art, she became a dedicated patron of top couturiers of the past half-century, with Emanuel Ungaro, Hubert de Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, and Ralph Rucci among the most documented. Her strong relationship with Hubert de Givenchy allowed for the creation of a small and very rare collection of haute couture maternity wear, which Mrs. Gutfreund commissioned in the early 1980s. Of all the designers and couturiers Mrs. Gutfreund called friends over the years, it is her relationship with Karl Lagerfeld that is most easily witnessed in this collection, through the dozens of examples of Lagerfeld’s creative genius, with designs for his own label, Karl Lagerfeld, but also examples of his haute couture and ready-to-wear for Fendi, Chloé and Chanel.

Image of Susan Gutfreund at the Palace of Versailles, wearing a design by American Couturier, Ralph Rucci, at an American Friends of Versailles event.

Lot 1 Chanel haute couture silk bouclé suit with white satin detachable trim and faux pearls, Spring/Summer 1997 $2,000 - $4,000 Lot 2 Chanel haute couture silk crepe and lace suit, Spring/Summer 1988 $3,000 - $5,000

Lot 3 Chanel haute couture silk velvet jacket and lace skirt, Winter 1989 $3,000 - $5,000 Lot 4 Chanel haute couture silk bouclé skirt suit, c. 2005 $1,000 - $3,000

Lot 18 Unlabeled calfskin cape with printed geometric pattern Attributed to Fendi by Karl Lagerfeld, 1970 $600 - $800 Karl Lagerfeld (1933-2019) was a German artist, designer, couturier and creative director of numerous important fashion labels, including Jean Patou, Chloé, Fendi, Karl Lagerfeld, and Chanel. Throughout his career, Lagerfeld was involved with an impressive list of collaborations with artists, designers and other fashion labels, making him one of the most influential designers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Mrs. Gutfreund met Karl Lagerfeld when he was working at Chloé in the 1970s and the two became close friends. Mrs. Gutfreund was such a strong supporter of Lagerfeld’s work that she wore not only his ready-to-wear and haute couture designs, but she would also purchase Lagerfeld’s older designs when they came up at auction, such as this Karl Lagerfeld for Fendi cape that was made in 1970, years before the two had met.

Lot 27 Giorgio di' Sant'Angelo lace dress, 1970s $400 - $600

Lot 25 Halston silk chiffon halter pantsuit in a beaded ‘firework’ pattern, Fall/ Winter 1980 $1,000 - $3,000

Lot 29 Two haute couture skirt suits: Philippe Venet (left), Madame Grès (right), 1960-80s $400 - $600 Lot 41 Givenchy haute couture maternity jumpsuit, c. 1984 $500 - $700

Lot 43 Two Givenchy haute couture maternity dresses, c. 1984 $700 - $900

Lot 44 Givenchy haute couture floral appliqué coat with mink collar, 1960-80s $1,000 - $2,000 Lot 53 Givenchy haute couture broadtail and suede coat, 1970s $800 - $1000

Lot 57 Balenciaga haute couture wool and gold lamé jacket, 1960-80s $400 - $600 Lot 59 John Paul Gaultier Silk Crepe Pantsuit, 19902000s $1000 - $2000

Lot 60 Yves Saint Laurent haute couture leather coat trimmed with mink, Fall 1976 $3,000 - $5,000

Lot 61 Yves Saint Laurent haute couture four-piece ensemble, Fall 1983 $1,000 - $3,000 Lot 62 Yves Saint Laurent haute couture suede coat trimmed with fox, Fall 1983 $1,000 - $2,000

The three haute couture designs on this page are from Yves Saint Laurent’s Fall 1983 collection, which was presented in a fashion show on July 28, 1983 at the Hôtel Inter-Continental in Paris. Images from this event show that Mrs. Gutfreund was present and would later purchase these three designs from the show.

Lot 63 Yves Saint Laurent haute couture suede coat trimmed with racoon, Fall 1983 $800 - $1,000

Lot 1

Lot 3

Lot 7

Lot 40 Lot 56

Lot 57

Lot 59

Lot 61

Haute Couture

These labels are from haute couture designs in Mrs. Gutfreund’s collection, ranging from the 1970s to the early 21st century. The variety of labels provide many clues into the history of the items, including information on their construction and date of design. Lots 1 and 61 feature labels with a series of numbers, which the fashion house uses to document their designs. Other labels, such as Lots 3 and 56 feature the season and date, handwritten in ink. The label for lot 40 shows that this design was a prototype or runway model, which Mrs. Gutfreund purchased after the fashion show. Only the best clients are allowed to purchase prototypes. Lots 57 and 59 are the haute couture labels used by those brands and while Balenciaga’s label is made of the more common woven label, Gaultier’s label is made of lace, which bears the designer’s name.

Labels 3 and 7 feature the name ‘Paquito’, which refers to Paquito Sala, an expert tailor at Chanel. Sala worked under Pierre Balmain until the couturier’s death in 1982, and Lagerfeld brought him to Chanel the following year. The German couturier and the Spanish tailor first met in 1954, when he worked as Balmain’s assistant. Lagerfeld recognized his skill and brought him to Chanel as the head of the “atelier tailleur” nearly thirty years later. Lagerfeld would deliver sketches, and Sala oversaw the creation of countless haute couture creations during his tenure with the house.