Crowns and Gowns: Bonhams Auctions Costumes From ‘The Crown’
LONDON — It takes a village to dress a member of the British royal family, but it takes a global community to recreate their lives down to every minute detail.
Crowns, tiaras, gowns, beds and other royal memorabilia from Netflix drama “The Crown” are up for grabs at the London auction house Bonhams ahead of a live sale that will take place on Feb. 7, and an online one that runs from Jan. 11 to Feb. 8.
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More than 450 items from the series are on display until Feb. 7 across three floors at Bonhams flagship London saleroom on New Bond Street.
“There’s something for everyone, and there are really expensive pieces like the coronation gown, which starts at a 20,000 pounds estimate. The amount of work that went in to that costume cost the costume department more to recreate than our estimate [price here at Bonhams],” said Meg Randell, the auction house’s head of designer handbags and fashion who curated the auction.
At the reception, two suits stand next to each other with Launer handbags sitting on the floor. The queen wore the gray one while Margaret Thatcher wore the blue one.
“What I think is so fun about Thatcher and the queen is that they’re such different women, but they both carried Launer handbags. The symbolism of the handbag is just so crucial with these two characters and Thatcher’s is bigger than the queen’s,” said Randell.
Another instantly recognizable outfit on display is Princess Diana’s Harvard sweatshirt with Nike cycling shorts and white Reebok trainers.
The sweatshirt style is no longer in production, but a replica was specially made for the show by Harvard University after the costume department from “The Crown” reached out.
“It’s not couture-like the same way the pieces in the auction are, but that silhouette is exactly what everyone has been dressing like over the past few years,” said Randell.
On the ground floor, Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation chair, regalia, and gold state coach, estimated at 30,000 pounds, are on display.
There is also a large podium with mannequins wearing some of the intricately made gowns, some of which were featured for less than 30 seconds on screen.
They include Wallis Simpson’s champagne-hued gown from Season One; Princess Diana’s ruffled baby blue style modeled after a Bruce Oldfield design; and a full-length, teal ball gown featured in the promotional posters with Claire Foy, who played the queen as a young woman.
“In the first two seasons, the queen re-wears quite a lot of her outfits because it’s postwar and it wasn’t seen as a good thing to be too flashy. Princess Margaret never rewore anything, everything was new,” said Randell.
When the costume department was creating Princess Margaret’s dresses, they would sometimes give her pockets because it suited her character to waltz into a room with her hands in her pockets.
One of the most complicated dresses to replicate in Season Two was the Norman Hartnell gown that Princess Margaret wore for her official portrait by Cecil Beaton on her 19th birthday. The dress was all hand-embroidered.
Three pieces worn by Jodi Balfour, who plays Jackie Kennedy in Season Two, are featured in the auction, including the American first lady’s famous pink Chanel double-breasted suit.
Items that weren’t featured in the series but were used for marketing purposes are also included in the auction. They include a replica of the Versace gown that Princess Diana wore for her Vanity Fair cover shoot in 1997.
Top lots include Diana’s black Christina Stamboulian dress, dubbed “the revenge dress,” with estimates starting at 8,000 pounds. Her sapphire and diamond engagement ring is expected to fetch up to 3,000 pounds, while the royal blue crepe skirt suit and printed pussybow blouse could sell for 2,000 pounds.
Even though most of the items are replicas, there are some secret designer pieces hiding in the sale. They include a Lady Dior handbag; a vintage men’s Dior sweatshirt; Barbour jackets; and the Launer handbags.
Proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Left Bank Pictures — The Crown Scholarship program at the National Film and Television School.
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