Three Decades of Chanel, One Owner: A Rare Wardrobe Heads to Auction
Single-owner Chanel collections of this scale rarely surface, and when they do, they tend to reveal something more valuable than individual hero pieces: a way of dressing over time. On 19 February 2026, Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr will present Chanel: A Private Collection in Paris, a live auction comprising 367 lots drawn from one woman’s wardrobe, assembled steadily between 1995 and 2023.
Organised by season, the sale offers a clear view of Chanel as it was worn and collected across nearly three decades, spanning the creative tenures of Karl Lagerfeld and Virginie Viard. Rather than a retrospective assembled after the fact, the collection reflects continuity — how silhouettes, materials and signatures evolved from one season to the next, and how they were integrated into a working wardrobe.
The offering includes approximately 130 jackets, dresses and coats, alongside 70 knitwear and outerwear pieces and around 80 examples of costume jewellery. Accessories feature prominently, with Première Mini watches, Ultra rings, handbags, ballet flats and sandals completing the ensemble. Together, the lots chart Chanel’s sustained hold on the idea of the Parisian wardrobe, grounded in tweed, knitwear and jewellery designed to be worn repeatedly rather than preserved as statement pieces.
Among the highlights is a long black tweed coat from the Cruise 2005 collection, designed under Karl Lagerfeld. Finished with a gold CC patch, the piece reflects the early-2000s moment when Chanel’s ready-to-wear became a cultural shorthand beyond the runway. The coat is offered with an estimate of €1,500–2,000. Other Lagerfeld-era pieces include a zipped black tweed coat with white heather and silver lurex from Autumn/Winter 2014 (estimate €1,200–1,500), and a long tweed jacket trimmed with blue braid from the Métiers d’Art Paris–Byzance collection of 2011 (estimate €900–1,200).
Later examples from Virginie Viard’s tenure are also represented, including a short multicoloured tweed coat from the Cruise 2023 collection, estimated at €1,500–1,800. The mix underscores the continuity of Chanel’s house codes — tweed, braid, jewellery-like buttons — even as proportions and colour palettes shifted.
Costume jewellery forms a substantial and well-preserved segment of the sale. Highlights include imitation pearl sets from the Autumn/Winter 1996 and 2012 collections, each estimated at €1,000–1,200, alongside brooches from the late 1990s and 2010s featuring glass paste, champagne metal and the interlocking CC motif. These pieces speak to Chanel’s long-standing approach to jewellery as an extension of the garment rather than an accessory afterthought.
According to Hubert Felbacq, Director of the Fashion and Accessories department at Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr, such a comprehensive single-owner Chanel collection is uncommon at auction. Built gradually since the mid-1990s and maintained by season, type and colour, the wardrobe offers collectors both depth and coherence — qualities increasingly sought after in the vintage and secondary markets.
Chanel: A Private Collection will take place on 19 February 2026 at Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr, 6 avenue Hoche, Paris.
