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The most comprehensive collection of Supreme t-shirts are offered for sale at Christie’s for around $ 2 million, highlighting the growing value of the luxury streetwear brand and the growing importance of a new generation in the world of items. collection.
The T-shirt collection is the only complete set of Supreme ‘box-logo’ T-shirts, released since 1994, known to exist. The collection includes 253 shirts, which is an average of over $ 7,900 per t-shirt.
The collection is offered for private sale, meaning that a buyer would buy it directly from Christie’s rather than through auction. The exact asking price is not public, but Christie’s said the collection is valued at over $ 2 million.
It is featured to promote Christie’s very first auction dedicated to Supreme, which started as a one-off skateboard store in downtown Manhattan and has grown into a global streetwear sensation. Supreme was recently acquired by VF Corp. for $ 2.1 billion.
The t-shirt collection is sold by James Bogart, a 21-year-old Canadian fashion student who started buying Supreme clothing at the age of 14. friends who introduced him to the brand, leading him to buy a Supreme jacket inspired by American journalist Hunter S. Thompson.
After learning more about the brand, Bogart began shopping for T-shirts and set a goal of creating the first “complete archive” of each of Supreme’s 241 models as well as 12 T-shirts that were samples. or “friends and family”. drawings. Supreme is famous for its limited edition “drops”, where customers line up for blocks to get their hands on a small number of new releases.
The first shirts were the hardest to find, he says, since Supreme sometimes only released 50 to 150 shirts. He accidentally found a shirt in the collection, while visiting another collector in London who showed him a Christmas colored t-shirt he didn’t even know existed. Another design, with Arabic letters, is also extremely rare.
“My passion kind of morphed,” Bogart said. “Finally, I was like, hey, I can do something that no one else has ever finished.
Bogart admits that $ 2 million is a “ridiculous” amount for a set of T-shirts. But he said Supreme looked more like fine art than clothes, with a rarity, cultural relevance and values that speak to a new generation of collectors.
A collection of Supreme skateboards were auctioned off by Sotheby’s last year for $ 800,000, and Artcurial held a Supreme auction in 2018 that grossed over $ 1 million.
“Supreme has been a mainstay,” Bogart said. “They have been at the forefront of defining culture. The easiest way to define the value of this collection is the fact that it is the heart of the brand, it is something that will always be a very important cultural symbol. “
Bogart will not say exactly how much he spent to assemble the collection. He said each t-shirt went through an extensive multi-step verification process, with help from a former Supreme staff member. He uploaded detailed images of the shirts to a digital archive for further public verification.
Currently studying business and fashion in Italy, Bogart said that while he would profit from the windfall, he would be sorry to part with the collection.
“I think it will be a little bittersweet,” he said. “For me, it was always about the hunt. And the fact that so many people find this collection impossible to complete. So once it was completed there was great relief and pride, but I really wanted to put it on a stage where it could be enjoyed and do the collection justice. “
As to whether a new buyer will actually wear the meticulously groomed shirts, Bogart said, “I hope they don’t wear them. I spent so much time trying to get these shirts in their best condition. I think it would. A bit of a pain to watch. But again, whoever buys it, I would totally encourage them to do anything that makes them happy. “
Christie’s supreme auction, titled “Behind the Box: 1994-2020,” opened for auction on Tuesday and will run until December 15.
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