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Sunday, August 23, 2015

Jacqueline de Ribes Cocktail Dress: How to Sell?

From my downscale shopping in Paris in June . . .
to upscale shopping my closet

HELP WANTED

 Many years ago, I acquired a Jacqueline de Ribes dress at one of my usual venues. I knew the name--probably from reading Vogue in the 1980s. (My memory was a veritable storehouse of miscellaneous info. Alas, not so much for recent things).  The dress had lingered for many months unsold. So I finally bought it. 

There's no size in it, but it fits Miss Em. She doesn't want it, not having a J de R lifestyle.

I first tried to sell it a few years ago. I had read that Didier Ludot, the famous Parisian vintage couture shop, was having a LBD show. I emailed a pic  and asked--in French that was corrected by Mr FS--if they would be interested. As usual--no reply.

Yesterday, I picked up an Architectural Digest from the FREE BOX at the library. Newest issue. I discovered that The Metropolitan Museum of Art is having a J d R show, featuring both her own designs and the chic stuff she wore (People with that caliber wardrobe don't follow the Kondo decluttering program--or I guess they love everything). 

So here's my question: how do I sell it? And for how much? It's the twin of this one, offered for $950 on 1st Dibs.

Thanks for any advice. 


5 comments:

The Vivenne Files said...

You could put it up on Ebay with a reserve price. Take a mountain of pictures, and two mountains of measurements, and see if anyone bites. Despite the fact that they drive us all crazy from time to time, Ebay still has more traffic than every other resale site combined!

But there are also places like The RealReal and Poshmark...

Or contact Leslie Hindman Auctions, here in Chicago. She has auctions twice a year of vintage clothing and accessories...

hugs,
Janice

SewingLibrarian said...

I can vouch for Leslie Hindman. They sold a Jane Peterson painting from my parents' estate for us. They got a fair price for it, and they were easy to work with.

Atlantic said...

How about donating it to the Met's Costume Department? then there can be a lovely little sign sign that says "Gift of Dr Frugal Scholar" and you get a tax deduction.

Since they are doing a show it should be easy to get a fair valuation and might be quite delightful to have contributed.

Atlantic said...

a bit tangentially, in response to comments a post or two ago about loving decluttering books, this is one of my favourite essays about stuff

http://www.paulgraham.com/stuff.html

I hope you enjoy it!

Frugal Scholar said...

@Thanks to all for the ideas. I'm going to let my starving artist daughter decide what to do when she returns from Serbia. She can keep the proceeds, if any.