Tailor-Made: Fashion Photographs from the Collection of Peter Fetterman – Phillips Online Auction

Tailor-Made: Fashion Photographs from the Collection of Peter Fetterman
Phillips online auction
June 18 – 25, 2020

SARAH MOON

Fashion 10 (N.Y. Times), 1998

Estimate: $20,000 – 30,000

Photo © Sarah Moon, Courtesy of Phillips

Phillips announces Tailor-Made: Fashion Photographs from the Collection of Peter Fetterman, an exclusive online auction that celebrates a century of fashion photography, tracing the history of women’s fashion through 64 quintessential images spanning from the 1920s to today. Drawn from the collection of esteemed gallerist and collector Peter Fetterman, Tailor-Made includes work by legendary fashion photographers Lillian Bassman, Sarah Moon, Sheila Metzner, Gordon Parks, Ormond Gigli, William Klein, and Horst P. Horst, among many others. The sale will be live to bidders worldwide June 18 - 25 on Phillips.com. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Equal Justice Initiative to help further their mission to end mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the US, and to challenge racial and economic injustice, and to protect basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.

GORDON PARKS

James Galanos Fashion, Hollywood, California, 1961

Estimate: $5,000 – 7,000

Photo © Gordon Parks, Courtesy of Phillips

For more than 30 years, Peter Fetterman has collected and championed the work of the photographers represented in this sale, with many of them becoming close personal friends. “While the essence of fashion is beauty and dreams,” states Peter Fetterman, “these photographers taught me so much about the context in which their images were made. The photographers represented here shaped my eye and my taste, for which I owe them all a great debt. Further, in the context of rampant injustice now being foregrounded in this country, I’m pleased to support the Equal Justice Initiative whose work I deeply admire.”

Sarah Krueger, Head of the Photographs Department in New York, states: “It is a pleasure to partner once again with Peter Fetterman on a sale of such exciting material. While fashion photography is a regular presence in our auctions, it is a new and entirely thrilling experience to work with a collection like this, assembled over the years with such singular focus and flare.”

Fashion photography has long been a driver of innovation in the medium, both technically and aesthetically, and this depth and breadth of creativity is demonstrated throughout Tailor-Made.

Highlighting the sale are works by Sarah Moon, whose bold, impressionistic use of color and deft manipulation of light and movement result in images that defy expectations. Sheila Metzner is another of fashion photography’s iconoclasts, and her Campidoglio plays with scale and movement within a setting that is simultaneously classical and surreal. Lillian Bassman rounds out this trio of women photographers for whom mood, atmosphere, and gesture embody elegance and style.

SARAH MOON

Fashion 4, Yohji Yamamoto, 1996

Estimate: $40,000 – 60,000

Photo © Sarah Moon, Courtesy of Phillips

SHEILA METZNER

Campidoglio, 1986

Estimate: $12,000 – 18,000

Photo © Sheila Metzner, Courtesy of Phillips

LILLIAN BASSMAN

More Fashion Mileage Per Dress, Barbara Vaughn, 

Harper's Bazaar, New York, 1954

Estimate: $12,000 – 18,000

Photo © Lillian Bassman, Courtesy of Phillips

Driven to create ever-new imagery to keep pace with the evolving styles, photographers continually created new modes and innovative ways to showcase fashion. Melvin Sokolsky placed his models in bubbles on location in New York and Paris, creating iconic images of mid-century technology and culture, while Ormond Gigli surmounted the many logistical and technical challenges in making his instantly recognizable Models in the Windows, New York City.

ORMOND GIGLI

Girls in the Windows, New York City, 1960

Estimate $30,000 – 50,000

Photo © Ormond Gigli, Courtesy of Phillips

William Klein abandoned the controlled confines of the studio to make images that have more in common with his street work than conventional fashion photography. Jerry Schatzberg and Gordon Parks, who both worked in cinema, bring a sense of movement and narrative to their imagery. While Georges Dambier, Norman Parkinson, Brian Duffy, and William Helburn create impossibly elegant images of modern women moving through the metropolis.

The photographs in Tailor-Made: Fashion Photographs from the Peter Fetterman Collection demonstrate their makers’ expansive understanding of what makes a great, compelling, and enduring fashion photograph, and the auction offers collectors a unique opportunity to acquire works from this remarkable collection. 

*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium; prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer’s premium.

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