A richly embroidered jacket by Yves Saint Laurent inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s painting Sunflowers has been purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria at auction for a record €382,000 (A$621,000).
The jacket, which was once modelled on the catwalk by Naomi Campbell, had been expected to fetch between €80,000 and €120,000 at the Christie’s sale.
The bright yellow and orange jacket took the haute couture embroiderer Maison Lesage more than 600 hours to stitch by hand, according to the Yves Saint Laurent Museum’s website. It was part of Saint Laurent’s 1988 spring/summer collection.
Only four of the sequined jackets, which are lined with silk, were made.
The designer’s 1988 collection also featured an equally detailed jacket honouring another flower-themed Van Gogh canvas, Irises.
The blue and purple garment was auctioned for €175,500 – four times the guide price – in January out of the closet of the Lebanese-born entrepreneur Mouna Ayoub, one of the world’s richest women.
“I have always been fascinated by painting, so it was only natural that it should inspire my creations,” the designer wrote in a catalogue for a 2004 Paris exhibition.
Saint Laurent died in 2008, aged 71.
