A piece of sheer fashion history is headed for the auction block. London-based Kerry Taylor Auctions announced today that the public will be able to bid on an iteration of Kate Moss’s infamous see-through outfit she famously wore back in the early ’90s.
The look in question is a diaphanous spaghetti strap dress that Moss slipped into for a 1993 Elite Model Agency party in London. She styled the dress, from the American designer Liza Bruce’s spring 1994 collection, with nothing but a teensy black thong, a bare face, and a tousled updo. Oh, and a half-smoked cigarette. The resulting images of the super would prove to be one of her more memorable off-duty looks (of which there are many) and a reference point for fashion’s current obsession with sheer fabric.
The Auction House explained that the dress up for sale isn’t the exact one Moss wore (we’d assume that’s been passed down to her daughter Lila, who is equally comfortable in barely-there clothes) but an identical version from the collection of a former Liza Bruce employee. Reportedly, Bruce only designed a handful of these metallic slip dresses, one of which is included in the collection of London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. The London auction house expects to receive between £200 to £300 for the slip when it goes up for auction on April 14th. A steal, if you ask us.
Of course, if you were a Hollywood starlet (or a Hollywood starlet’s stylist) who wanted to make headlines with a red carpet moment that is both scandalously sheer and a homage to a piece of celebrity style history, this opportunity is practically priceless.
In addition to Moss’s Liza Bruce grail, fashion fans will also have a chance to bid on a variety of vintage gems—from Tom Ford-era Saint Laurent to vintage Gianni Versace—as well as the exact Judy Blume-designed t-shirt the supermodel wore on the cover of i-D Magazine in 1991.
During an interview with British Vogue last year, Moss discussed the infamous dress and pointed out that she wasn’t expecting just how sheer the piece would come across in photographs. “I did not know that this dress was see-through until the pictures came out the next day in the newspaper,” she said, adding, “It was the flash that made it look naked. When I went out I didn’t think it was that see-through. But, obviously, it was. Had I known we would be talking about it 30 years later. Good night, good dress.”