While it wasWhitney Houston’slegendary voice that made her a superstar, she also lit up the stage with her beauty and captivating presence.
Looking back at theteal Grecian gown she donnedwinning her first Grammy award in 1986 to thewhite athleisure jumpsuitshe sported at the 1991 Super Bowl, Houston’s style was all her own.
Now some of Houston’s dresses will be auctioned off on Dec. 7 atGWS Auctions’ “Artifacts of Hollywood & Music” auction. These include ablack long-sleeved Pamela Dennis evening gown, aroyal blue embellished Scala dress, asequined ivory high-neck jumpsuit, abelted black halter cocktail dressand agold-and-black sequined halter neck sequin mini dress.
“Each piece is so different,” GWS Auctions owner Brigitte Kruse tells PEOPLE. “If you look at every piece, you can literally imagine Whitney wearing each piece.”
Kruse’s personal favorites are the long-sleeved Scala dress and ivory jumpsuit.
“I can see the sequin jumpsuit being something she wore out to lunch in with her girlfriends, and I can see this blue gown being something that she wore to a red carpet event,” Kruse says. “I can tell you Ms. Houston was a fashionista. She loved beautiful things in all phases of her life.”
Courtesy of GWS Auctions
“It’s just exciting every time these items pop up,” says Kruse. “Out of all the pieces that I personally handled from that sale in 2007, these are the highest quality garments that I’ve personally seen.”
Of the five dresses being auctioned off, only two (the Pamela Dennis and Scala gowns) have designer labels. The gold-and-black sequined dress was custom-made for Houston, while the other two have no labels.
“A lot of celebrities cut the name tags or the wardrobe tags off their clothing because they didn’t want people to use that information to sell them in a secondary market,” Kruse tells PEOPLE. “We absolutely were astonished when we saw that two of these pieces still had the labels.”
Eight years after the star’stragic death on Feb. 11, 2012 from an accidental drowning, Kruse believes the chance to buy these clothes will be sentimental to bidders.
“These are always emotional purchases,” Kruse says. “These clothes really do tell a story.”
As for how much each of the garments will go for, Kruse’s conservative estimate is around $1,000-5,000, with each of them priced at a minimum of bid of $250. But they’re likely to go much higher.
“People always get themselves attached to the story,” Kruse says. “It just depends on who the bidders are on auction day and also the nostalgia that they feel for the particular pieces that we’re offering.”
TheGWS Auctions’ “Artifacts of Hollywood & Music” auctionbegins Saturday, Dec. 7 at 10 a.m. PT.
source: people.com
