For its first ever celebrity benefit auction, Re-See has pulled out some big fashion-world guns. The re-commerce site asked a series of seriously fashionable women to reach deep into their expansive closets, and donate items to benefit breast cancer research. Diane Von Furstenberg has generously contributed one of her iconic wrap dresses from her personal archive; artist Cindy Sherman has donated a slice of Dries van Noten eleganza. Charlotte Gainsbourg has put up a piece from her close friend Nicholas Ghesquière’s early days at Balenciaga — a 2003 dress from the designer’s super sought after Aquatic collection (“When you find a silhouette that’s so close to your own…I felt like myself, and at the same time, I was taken somewhere else. Just looking at his clothes, you want to project yourself into them,” the actress says of the design maverick she’s long inspired).
But perhaps the most major item on the auction block isn’t any of these dresses, or a dress at all. It’s a lemon yellow, cropped-cut tweed jacket dotted with black and gold, monogrammed Chanel buttons — the very jacket German supermodel Claudia Schiffer wore while fronting the French house’s 1995 spring/summer campaign.
Of all the supers Chanel’s creative director Karl Lagerfeld worked with in the 90s, German countrywoman Schiffer was his go-to gal. The Kaiser handpicked her to be Chanel’s face in the early half of the decade, casting her to open his runway shows (even couture and ready-to-wear in the same year, 1993) and front Chanel’s campaigns. “This is the original jacket shot in the Chanel 1995 campaign photographed by Karl Lagerfeld in Paris. The shoot went until 3am in the morning. Karl only stopped because the team got tired.” Schiffer told Resee.
But Schiffer’s landmark contribution isn’t the only Chanel piece up for grabs. Chanel Ambassadress (one of the house’s most hallowed titles) and authority on all things Parisian Caroline de Maigret has also promised a piece of her own double C-covered closet. Maigret’s “Oh My Boy” bag — a limited edition spray-painted bag debuted at the house’s spring/summer 2014 show — is also available for purchase. Check out all the contributed items here.
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Text Emily Manning