Glamorous designer gowns amassed by a passionate fashionista are set for auction – and offer an opportunity to buy high-society style for a snip.
Th 12 designer gowns belonged to the late Lady Katrina Holden, and they’re set to sweep down the saleroom catwalk on July 6 at Hansons Auctioneers.
The special occasion wear, still with their original clothes tags, boast ‘exquisite quality’, according to Hansons’ clothing expert Notty Hornblower, owner of Hope House Costume Museum in Derbyshire.
The unworn gowns include an ice blue chiffon ballgown entitled Gigalette by Ian Stuart 2003-5, above. It comes with matching bolero and choker. The dress has a boned bodice embellished with paste and beadwork in an intricate lace design and a dramatic skirt in lined chiffon featuring a woven silver thread design, £250-£400, lot 29.
Crazy Daisy is the name of another Ian Stuart design heading for the auction catwalk. The eye-catching black and red evening dress features a fitted, lace-up, boned bodice decorated with rouille ribbon and sequins. The skirt is embellished with black ribbon, beads and sequins and the look is completed by a matching choker and stole, estimate £200-£300.
Fashionistas can also bid on an Ian Stuart designer ballgown worthy of a Hollywood goddess. The figure-hugging frock swathed in black tulle and tiny beads features a fish-tail design and comes complete with matching stole, £200-£250.
None of the dresses have been worn outside the house and are as new. They have only been tried on occasionally and come complete with their original clothing tags. All are size 16 but they are easily customizable to fit a 12/18. They are also flexible in terms of potential use as they can be worn as evening gowns but are also ideal for a bride who wants something different in both design and colour.
Lady Katrina Holden, who was born in Redruth, Cornwall, in 1966, developed a distinctive dress style in the 1980s, according to her family. Key elements included bright colours and current fashionable designs, all on a tiny budget.
She became skilled at making and adapting clothes to meet her style. She was supported by her mother’s legendary knitting abilities and professional sewing skills passed down the family from her seamstress grandmother.
She continued to maintain her passion for fashion and advised friends on how to dress well on a budget. She once arrived at an important social function dressed in an outfit identical in style and colour to the host’s wife. Pure theatre at the time, reminiscent of an incident created by Cecil Beaton for the Ascot Gavotte scene in film My Fair Lady.
She worked as a veterinary nursing and, as her career progressed, she moved to London, working for Goddard’s one of the country’s largest veterinary practices. Her flat was dominated by 10 metre-wide wardrobes crammed with clothes, each outfit housed on individual hangers, spaced 20 mm apart, each item being refreshed monthly to ensure perfect storage conditions were maintained.
Around 2000 Katrina moved to East Anglia to join her future husband, management consultant Peter Cheese. As well as restyling their family home, a converted school on the border of Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, she established a successful e-commerce fashion business selling corsets.
Her 2004 wedding to Peter, held at Coombe Abbey in Warwickshire, was a fairlytale experience.
He said: “Like every important event in her life, it was carefully conceived and planned in the minutest detail to reflect her unique, sometimes eclectic and always iconoclastic style. Her spectacular Ian Stuart designer wedding gown set the tone of the day, complimenting the ancient Abbey buildings and surroundings.”
Sadly, Lady Katrina Holden passed away in 2018, aged only 51, due to a life-limiting illness.
‘Exceptional evening dresses’
Notty Hornblower said: “These evening dresses are exceptional. They are exquisite examples of fine design and quality and demonstrate Lady Katrina Holden’s excellent style and taste. If you want to capture some high society glamour this is a wonderful opportunity to buy dazzling designer gowns at a fraction of their retail price.”
The dresses are being offered in Hansons Auctioneers’ July 6 Antiques, Collectors and Textiles Auction. Catalogues/bidding: www.hansonslive.co.uk and www.the-saleroom.com.
