Roberta Valentini to Auction Archival Martin Margiela, Comme des Garcons, Vivienne Westwood

MILAN — Roberta Valentini never shies away from a challenge.

The red-haired, ebullient buyer who’s behind the Penelope stores in Italy’s city of Brescia is known for having brought to the country names like Yohji Yamamoto and Comme des Garçons before they turned out to become mainstays of the fashion industry.

Since establishing Penelope in the ‘70s, many pieces filled the racks and shelves of her stores. At the same time, many others similarly started to crowd Valentini’s personal archive.

Now, she is to auction part of the latter, as she joined forces with Kerry Taylor Auctions and Maurice Auction to stage the “Archivio Penelope” sale of more than 230 fashion items on Nov. 6 in Paris’ 84 Rue De Turenne. 

“The number of pieces collected during my work and life has grown over time… and I’m not eternal,“ deadpanned Valentini. “So I had this idea of challenge myself, see what would have happened by sharing part of what I had and test the value [of these pieces],” she continued, hinting also to the example set earlier this year by sisters Angela and Elena Picozzi, founders of Italian fashion prototyping and manufacturing company Castor Fashion. As reported, the Picozzis auctioned roughly 270 pieces of Martin Margiela’s early work, from 1988 to 1994, again with the support of Kerry Taylor Auctions and Maurice Auction.

Valentini praised the team behind the auction houses and highlighted their involvement in the process of selecting the lots. “It was the result of spontaneous choices,” recalled Valentini. “And seeing how they assessed and evaluated the pieces was like a confirmation of all the work I’ve done so far.”

“There are many pieces I’m attached to. So much so that I can’t think about the fact they will go on sale,” joked Valentini.

Case in point: a Maison Martin Margiela Artisanal papier-mâché vest from the spring 1990 collection. Estimated to fetch between 15,000 euros and 25,000 euros, it represents an iconic item for being crafted with ad posters, exemplifying the designer’s fascination with everyday objects, as well as his deep interest in reuse and transformation.

It will add to another piece by the designer, a spring 1994 top made out of a plastic bag and estimated between 4,000 euros and 6,000 euros. Other highlights will include a Yohji Yamamoto gray-and-silver striped silk taffeta ensemble from spring 1999 and expected to fetch between 3,000 euros and 5,000 euros; a rare headpiece from the Japanese designer made from black felted wool and wood, tracing back to fall 1991 and estimated around 1,500 euros, and a Vivienne Westwood fall 1996 skirt suit in wool, velvet and faux fur, estimated between 700 euros and 1,000 euros.

Valentini started her career in fashion in 1969, first working at her family’s footwear company. After the passing of her father, she opened a small store with her sister, already showing her intuition and experimental approach. The ‘80s marked a turning point in her journey: as the Japanese designers took over the Paris fashion scene, the Penelope store also gained prominence as Valentini showcased designers such as Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo, in addition to the likes of Westwood. 

“I saw them for what they were: so forward-looking, with their eyes set on Europe. I started buying Comme des Garçons, Yohji Yamamoto, then Martin Margiela and Azzedine Alaïa,” said Valentini, who has plenty of anecdotes from the time. These span from attending Margiela’s first show and fearing for her safety given all the candles and paper sheets covering the walls of the location to having the designer visiting her store — incognito, of course — or the time her first meeting with Alaïa was almost compromised by her accidentally stepping on the paw of the designer’s beloved dog while going up to the stairs.

Still, Valentini managed to rise as a fashion authority for her talent in grasping gaps in the market and putting new names on the radar of Italian customers. She currently owns three stores in Brescia, including Penelope; the Penelope Sposa one dedicated to bridal, and Boysloft, Penelope’s more contemporary spinoff introduced in 1998.

“Everything started and is still rooted in my passion for research,” said Valentini. Her buying process has always been spontaneous, as she compared her scouting approach to a form “of falling in love, a kind of infatuation, a feeling of happiness taking over when I see and find something new… There’s no criteria, just passion for my work.”

When asked for the names that most impressed her in the recent past, she mentioned Simon Porte Jacquemus and, currently, Niccolò Pasqualetti. “The research is always there, is part of my nature, but today everything is much more commercial, for sure. You have to really take the market into consideration,” she said.

Valentini’s auction will precede another highly anticipated one held by Maurice Auction. As reported, model-turned-director Farida Khelfa, muse to designers including Alaïa and Jean Paul Gaultier, will also auction off 200 items of clothing, accessories and shoes from her archive. The online sale will run from Nov. 20 to Dec. 11, with half the proceeds going to French nonprofit RIACE, which helps refugees, including unaccompanied minors.

Paris-based auction house Maurice Auction first joined forces with London-based Kerry Taylor Auctions in 2022. The two parties hold sales of fashion and couture twice a year. Several world records have been broken so far on these occasions: a “Coromandel” coat by Chanel Haute Couture was sold for 312,000 euros; a “Victoire/Victory” plastron and skirt by Thierry Mugler fetched 58,500 euros, while a “L’Écume des jours” feathery dress by Gaultier went for 377,000 euros.