NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s announced Couture Fashion Jewellery – The Personal Archive of Shaun Leane as a highlight of their inaugural A Life of Luxury* auction series this December in New York. Created by London-based designer Shaun Leane over the course of more than 20 years, the Evening Sale will feature over 45 bespoke pieces he produced for beacons of the fashion industry, including legendary houses Alexander McQueen and Givenchy, as well as style icons the Honourable Daphne Guinness, Isabella Blow, Kate Moss and Sarah Jessica Parker. From the immaculate Contra Mundum Evening Glove, a special commission for Ms. Guinness that was inspired by her fascination with armor, to the iconic Crown of Thorns, from McQueen’s Autumn/Winter 1996 ‘Dante’ collection that appeared in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum’s blockbuster retrospective in 2011 and 2015, respectively, the hauntingly beautiful selection on offer this winter encapsulates the exceptional dynamism and remarkable diversity of Leane’s creative vision.

The entrancing collection will be on public view in Sotheby’s New York galleries beginning 30 November. Offering both jewelry collectors and enthusiasts a unique chance to acquire covetable treasures of fashion history, the sale offers works ranging from $2,000 to $400,000.

Shaun Leane, Creative Director of the House of Shaun Leane commented: “I’m thrilled to be partnering with Sotheby’s and Kerry Taylor on this truly special sale. I believe that the collection represents a level of creative freedom that has no parallel today and a time when jewellery, performance art and fashion fused as one – it has prompted questions in my own mind as to the important role the collection still has to play in conversations surrounding the relationship between these vital creative industries. I see the auction as answering the questions these objects put forward when I began creating them: Is it art? Is it fashion? Is it jewellery? Its destiny now is to do the job it was designed to do; to inspire and provoke. It is an honour to present these designs to the public, and it is my hope that the endless inspiration and unadulterated joy that these pieces have brought to me and so many others over the years, will now be shared with collectors, museums & institutions from around the world.”

Kerry Taylor, fashion expert and auctioneer who is collaborating with Sotheby’s on the sale, said: “This is an historic collection – many of the pieces offered for sale have been previously only glimpsed behind the glass of major museums. Shaun Leane’s beautifully crafted fashion jewellery and body sculptures are not only iconic in their own right, but have contributed to some of the most memorable ‘fashion moments’ of all time on the McQueen catwalk. From truly avant-garde finale pieces to numerous desirable examples for those wishing to purchase jewels to wear, the sale offers works for institutional collections, Contemporary art collectors and fashion enthusiasts alike. Provenance is key and it is rare to be offered pieces of this significance directly from the creator; the last time many of them were worn was on the catwalk by models including Kate Moss, Erin O’Connor and Stella Tennant. Those lucky enough to acquire pieces in this auction will not only purchase a unique work of art – but a little bit of fashion history too.”

SHAUN LEANE
“Shaun has been a close friend and companion for many years. He captures the feeling of my work and the aesthetic of the time we live in…full of structure and finesse, crafted to perfection.” – Lee Alexander McQueen

Few designers have achieved such simultaneous success with both their namesake brand and their prominent collaborations as Shaun Leane. Born and raised in Finsbury Park, London, Leane began studying jewellery at the tender age of 15. A year later, he began a seven-year apprenticeship in the traditional craft of goldsmithing with English Traditional Jewellery in Hatton Garden – a renowned workshop located in London’s jewelry quarter that produced high end pieces for many of Bond Street’s most prestigious jewelry brands and created unique pieces for royal families across the world. Upon finishing his apprenticeship, Leane continued to work for the brand over the next five years, crafting lustrous fine jewels ranging from solitaires to tiaras.

Immersed in the contagious creative energy of the London arts scene in the early 1990s, Leane first met Lee Alexander McQueen, then a student at the prestigious Central Saint Martin’s College, in 1992, through a fortuitous set of circumstances with a group of tastemakers invested in the burgeoning city’s growth. Upon graduating the following year, McQueen visited Leane at his workplace and took a keen interest in the young designer’s craftsmanship and unwavering attention to detail.

It was under McQueen’s influence that Leane became exposed to a new outlook for Jewellery design, where the runway was viewed as a dreamscape in which he could question the very nature of a piece. He experimented with materials that heretofore were absent from his creative vocabulary, such as silver, brass, and aluminium. The two designers collaborated on up to eight collections per year over the course of their 17-year partnership, which lasted until McQueen’s tragic suicide in February 2010. In honor of their unique creative brilliance and friendship, Leane gave an address at the designer’s memorial service in September 2010.

With McQueen as his early patron and champion, Leane would go on to establish his own reputation amongst the fashion and jewelry industries. He founded his eponymous label, the House of Shaun Leane, in 1999 and continued to imbue his inimitable aesthetic throughout his incredible breadth of work. Leane’s jewelry has since been acquired for the permanent collections of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, among others. His designs have been worn by the likes of the Honourable Daphne Guinness, Sir Elton John, the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, Kate Moss, Sarah Jessica Parker and many others. Most recently, he was the recipient of the 2016 UK Fine Jewellery Brand of the Year Award, the 2016/17 CoolBrands® Award, and the 2015 Andrea Palladio International Jewellery Award for Best International Jewellery Designer.

COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS
Shaun Leane for Alexander McQueen 'Coiled Corset' The Overlook' collection, Autumn-Winter, 1999-2000 Estimate $250/350,000
Exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in 2006, the Coiled Corset is one of the most powerful examples of the designers’ creative collaboration. The stunning corset was debuted in McQueen’s Autumn/Winter runway show in 1999, which was inspired by the cult film, ‘The Shining’. Comprised of 97 aluminium coils bent to match the shape of McQueen’s fit model at the time, the corset is engraved on the rear right hip with the names 'Shaun Leane' above 'Alexander McQueen 99', and is the only piece in existence that is signed and dated by both designers – a telling attribute of the late designer’s enthusiasm for this particular piece.

Like many of the designs created by Leane, the corset unites two seemingly opposing ideas - the hard, structured metal material, and the soft, sensuous curves of the female form – and expands on the idea of tribal decoration present in many of the works on offer.

Shaun Leane silver 'Thistle' brooch 2006 Estimate $40/60,000
Worn by Sarah Jessica Parker to the 2006 MET Gala, the brooch, formed of spiked leaves pavéd with black spinel and talon-like claws enclosing four Grade AAA Tahitian pearls, is one of a pair that was specially commissioned by Alexander McQueen to wear to the exhibition opening of 'AngloMania'.

Shaun Leane for Alexander McQueen 'Skeleton’ corset 'Untitled' collection, Spring-Summer, 1998 Estimate $250/350,000
Featured in the March 2015 issue of Vogue UK, this remarkable corset was created with a particular vision in mind. Inspired by the idea of taking (what was to McQueen) the beauty of the human body’s internal structure, and turning it into an external adornment, Leane used wax and aluminium to sculpt the corset, with the human skeleton as his model with the addition of a primeval tail.

Shaun Leane silver 'Tusk' anklet Designed for Isabella Blow in 1997 Estimate $10/15,000
A staunch champion of McQueen, Isabella Blow came to admire Leane’s early works for the designer. Fascinated by Leane’s goldsmithing heritage, Blow encouraged the designer to fuse the worlds of metal working and fashion, and requested that he create a custom anklet reflecting his unmistakable aesthetic. It was partly through the fashion scion’s patronage and encouragement to explore his singular vision that Leane established the House of Shaun Leane in 1999. The anklet − an identical replica of the piece Leane created for Blow – features an oval band with meticulouslyplaced graduated tusks, and was exhibited at London’s Somerset House in 2014.

Shaun Leane for Alexander McQueen silver crown of thorns headpiece 'Dante' collection, Autumn-Winter, 1996-97 Estimate $40/60,000

Shaun Leane for Alexander McQueen silver thorn arm-vine and earring 'Dante' collection, Autumn-Winter, 1996-97 Estimate $30/50,000
The Crown of Thorns circlet reflects the gripping religious symbolism depicted in many of Leane’s pieces for McQueen. The Arm-Vine is inspired by McQueen’s vision of a rose briar enveloping and invading the body. Leane imagined the concept as representative of nature reclaiming the body after death, and fashioned the entwined coiling branches to ascend from the hand, interlacing the arm and shoulder, with a separate thorn ear-piece imparting the illusion of the briar growing through the head. The Arm-Vine and earring, along with the Crown of Thorns, embody the surrealist and often discordant ideas that form a distinct harmony in Leane’s designs for the iconic brand.

Shaun Leane for Alexander McQueen porcupine quill ear-rings, 'Irere' collection, Spring-Summer, 2003 Estimate $25/35,000
Purchased during a trip to South African in 1995, the porcupine quills used in the earrings were acquired by Leane for his personal cabinet of curiosities, knowing he would one day find a special use for them. Nearly a decade later, Leane combined their elegance and delicacy with silver to form the striking earrings, which debuted on McQueen’s Spring/Summer runway in 2003. Among Leane’s favorite pieces, the curved ear-loops toy with the idea of how the ear should be decorated, as evidence by their encircling and framing detail.

Shaun Leane for Alexander McQueen large shell earrings, 'VOSS' collection, Spring-Summer 2001 Estimate $4/6,000
From McQueen’s Spring/Summer 2001 ‘Voss’ collection, the earrings, created from the discarded shells of Black-Lipped oysters, were worn by Kate Moss on the runway. Tahitian pearls that were enclosed in the oysters were used to create multiple pieces featured in the show, while polished fragments of the shells adorned spectacular garments throughout the collection.