Kerry Taylor
Auction Specialist
Kerry Taylor is an auction specialist. She joined Sotheby’s in 1979 and rapidly rose through the ranks to become the youngest auctioneer in the company’s history at just 21 years old. Taylor was made director and head of the collector’s department in the early 1980s, and in 1986, re-established costume and textiles auctions at the New Bond Street sale room. Taylor left in 2003 to set up her own auction business, specialising in the fields she loves - fashion of all periods and textiles. Since leaving Sotheby’s, she has repeatedly attracted headline-grabbing collections and historically important garments belonging to some of the most beautiful and fashionable women of the 20th century, including Princess Diana, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Daphne Guinness, the Duchess of Windsor and many others. However, it is her unrivalled expertise and experience built up over more than three decades, her interest, knowledge and passion for the subject, and her care and research of the items she handles that makes her sales unique.
Taylor is a regular contributor to television programmes, and is the go-to person for journalists worldwide on the subject of historic and vintage fashion. In 2007, The Guardian voted her one of their ‘Women of the Year’ and she has been profiled in British Vogue and The New York Times amongst others. Taylor is a Trustee of the Costume Society and a Patron of the Gallery of Fashion at Platt Hall, Manchester. She continues to act as textile consultant to Sotheby’s and regularly assists major museums giving lectures, providing valuations, assisting with applications for funding and regularly sits on the UK Government’s Export Review board. Her book Vintage Fashion & Couture, from Poiret to McQueen was published by Octopus in 2013.
Kerry Taylor is an auction specialist. She joined Sotheby’s in 1979 and rapidly rose through the ranks to become the youngest auctioneer in the company’s history at just 21 years old. Taylor was made director and head of the collector’s department in the early 1980s, and in 1986, re-established costume and textiles auctions at the New Bond Street sale room. Taylor left in 2003 to set up her own auction business, specialising in the fields she loves - fashion of all periods and textiles. Since leaving Sotheby’s, she has repeatedly attracted headline-grabbing collections and historically important garments belonging to some of the most beautiful and fashionable women of the 20th century, including Princess Diana, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Daphne Guinness, the Duchess of Windsor and many others. However, it is her unrivalled expertise and experience built up over more than three decades, her interest, knowledge and passion for the subject, and her care and research of the items she handles that makes her sales unique.
Taylor is a regular contributor to television programmes, and is the go-to person for journalists worldwide on the subject of historic and vintage fashion. In 2007, The Guardian voted her one of their ‘Women of the Year’ and she has been profiled in British Vogue and The New York Times amongst others. Taylor is a Trustee of the Costume Society and a Patron of the Gallery of Fashion at Platt Hall, Manchester. She continues to act as textile consultant to Sotheby’s and regularly assists major museums giving lectures, providing valuations, assisting with applications for funding and regularly sits on the UK Government’s Export Review board. Her book Vintage Fashion & Couture, from Poiret to McQueen was published by Octopus in 2013.
