Fashion writer Suzy Menkes to sell her own clothes online

LONDON, ENGLAND - Suzy Menkes, doyenne of the fashion press, says she plans to auction off part of her own label-strewn wardrobe at a two-week online sale in July.

The International Herald Tribune fashion editor, a regular on the front row at catwalk shows of the world's top designers from Giorgio Armani to Diane von Furstenberg, will open bids for 80 lots of clothes on July 11 in the Christie's sale.

"I have never thrown anything out of my wardrobe since 1964," she said in a statement on Tuesday.

Menkes will sell coats, dresses, skirts, tops, jackets and accessories that she has laid in a "tomb of trunks" from designers such as Ossie Clark and Emilio Pucci, to Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Lacroix.

"They need to live again and this auction provides the opportunity for them to walk out in the sunshine, to dance the night away and to give someone else the joy that they gave to me," she said.

Estimates for individual lots start at 200 pounds, with the majority on offer for under 1,000 pounds. The star lot of the sale is an Yves Saint Laurent cocktail jacket from his 1980 collection 'le soleil' estimated at up to 2,000 pounds.

Menkes follows in the footsteps of British designer Vivienne Westwood, fashion trendsetter Daphne Guinness, English model Erin O'Connor and Italian fashion writer Anna Piaggi by selling much of her collection via a single-owner auction at Christie's.

The New York Times Co, which owns the Herald Tribune said earlier this year that it would be rebranding the paper as the International New York Times.