PARIS – For all the big luxury brands based in Paris, the French capital has so far lacked a specialized fashion auction house.
Enter Pénélope Blanckaert, a vintage and contemporary fashion expert with 18 years of experience working with auctioneers such as Artcurial, Piasa and Millon.
Her eponymous platform, Penelope’s, ended its inaugural sale on Monday and has four more planned before the end of the year, including the first Prada and Miu Miu vintage auction.
“I realized that I wanted to do this job, but in a different way,” Blanckaert told WWD.
“Generalist auction houses are absolutely ill-equipped to deal with fashion, either in terms of storage space or shooting lots; packing them for shipment; marketing or websites, which lack proper search filters,” she noted. “The idea is for Penelope’s to become the fashion auction house.”
Her website, penelopesauction.com, allows users to search for items by size and color. Potential bidders are being directed to Drouot’s market, but she hopes to eventually control the buying end as well.
A graduate of the Institut Français de la Mode, Blanckaert brings a strong editorial point of view to the project. For the sale of 20th-century fashion magazines, which ran from September 26 to October 7, she called on French artist Kat Gallicere to create a series of collages.
She believes it’s important to give a modern twist to vintage clothes. Having strong images also helps sell lots to overseas buyers who aren’t interested in reading ramblings of description.
“Combining, say, Saint Laurent with Comme des Garçons, you completely change the perception of him,” noted Blanckaert. “I’ve always done that. It feels natural, but I’ve noticed that a lot of women love the idea of vintage, but don’t really know how to wear it.”
Penelope’s specializes in items that are at least 20 years old, with prices ranging from less than €100 to several thousand.
“I don’t want this auction house to be too elitist,” said Blanckaert, though he also helped private auction platform Fair Warning sell a Paco Rabanne dress for $100,000. “There’s nothing to say we can’t work with parts of that caliber.”
A collage by Kat Gallicere.
Courtesy of Penelope
It’s a competitive market, with the proliferation of second-hand platforms online and a lack of price transparency. Penelope’s receives a 20% commission on sales and items are competitively priced to encourage bidding.
Former art director for Hermès vintage and fashion at Artcurial, Blanckaert works with sellers who have at least 10 or 15 pieces to unload and also acts as an agent for other auction houses. Bags are authenticated both internally and by an external expert.
“The idea is to partner with auction houses that receive the odd fashion item but prefer to pass it on to a specialist auction house. It’s like customer service,” she explained.
Instead of throwing a variety of items into the mix, she wants to narrow the sales by theme, with just 150 to 200 lots, hoping to attract expert buyers.
“We will not only sell Chanel, Dior and Louis Vuitton. We want those items, of course, but we’re also planning a Dorothée Bis sale next year,” said Blanckaert, who was entrusted with the archives of Jacqueline Jacobson, co-founder of the cult French brand born in the 1960s.
In January, there will be Gianfranco Ferrè, another first on the auction scene. Blanckaert hopes to eventually expand from fashion to a variety of branded items.
“You can buy a dress for €80, but also a Kelly bag for €10,000,” she said. “We have something for everyone.”
A collage by Kat Gallicere.
Courtesy of Penelope
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