Unveiling Mathilde Favier's 'Sale of the Soul' at Christie's
PARIS -- Imagine if Mathilde Favier's couch could talk. It's heard its fair share of gossip, from the front rows of Paris Fashion Week to the intimate circles of high society.
Now, this chintz sofa, a centerpiece in Favier's 2024 coffee-table book "Living Beautifully in Paris," is up for grabs at Christie's, timed to coincide with the Paris haute couture shows.
The online auction, titled "Mathilde and Friends in Paris," runs from Monday to February 4 and showcases clothing, jewelry, and design objects from Favier's private collection, alongside contributions from friends like designer Julie de Libran, decorator Jacques Grange, and cosmetics guru Terry de Gunzburg.
Key pieces will be on display in a public exhibition, designed by illustrator Tatiana de Nicolay, opening on January 28 with a cocktail event.
As the public relations director at Dior Couture, Favier oversees VIP relations, putting her on first-name terms with everyone from Rihanna to Jennifer Lawrence. Her book, billed as the ultimate insider's guide to Paris, has made her a celebrity in her own right, with 236,000 followers on Instagram.
Favier's colorful interior is a Pinterest favorite, but with a move out of her English-style home in the 16th arrondissement, she felt it was time to turn a page.
Items for sale include her sofa, estimated at 2,000 euros to 3,000 euros; a set of two Yoruba-style armchairs covered in beads; a Romanian carpet with a rose pattern, and a console made of patterned tiles.
"My new home doesn't match this decor, so I decided to get rid of it," she explained. "I'm letting go of things that made me incredibly happy and that I took great care of, because they were truly part of our family. Now I'm passing them on, trusting they'll bring just as much joy in their next home."
Billed as a collection of "cherished objects, iconic outfits, poetic talismans, and unexpected treasures," the sale consists of 121 lots in total, of which 16 belong to Favier.
"They're calling it a sale of the soul," she said. "But there's nothing sad about it. From the start, it was fun, joyous, and everything just flowed."
Favier's taste was shaped by growing up around women like interior designer Madeleine Castaing. The half-sister of Victoire de Castellane, creative director of Dior jewelry, Favier has moved in fashion circles since her teens, when her uncle Gilles Dufour got her an internship at Chanel, where he worked alongside Karl Lagerfeld.
Among the clothes she's putting up for sale is a Chanel haute couture cocktail dress with black bows, designed by Lagerfeld in 1995, and a John Galliano-era pink Dior skirt suit she was gifted around the birth of her daughter Héloïse Agostinelli.
A pair of violet flower JAR earrings comes with a starting price of 3,000 euros to 5,000 euros. Favier says she stopped wearing big earrings when she got her now-signature pixie cut.
De Libran has offered a white embroidered asymmetric evening gown trimmed with ostrich feathers that was worn by Amal Clooney in 2023 to the Cartier Women's Initiative Awards.
Grange, who has helped Favier decorate several homes, contributed a pair of green glazed terra-cotta lamps he designed for the Galerie du Passage, run by his partner Pierre Passebon.
The sale includes oddities such as a leather jacket worn on stage by rocker Johnny Halliday; Surrealist leather shoes with molded toes created by Chilean-born sculptor Carlos Peñafiel for Pierre Cardin, and a Claude Lalanne sculpture of a butterfly alighting on a mouse.
This follows Christie's earlier sales of the wardrobes of Catherine Deneuve and Zizi Jeanmaire in Paris, and the personal belongings of André Leon Talley and Iris Apfel in New York City.
Favier said it was another opportunity to bring together friends and family -- many of them featured in the book -- around a shared vision of Paris and of beauty.
"It's not like we did it by design, but these are not exactly happy times. The news is totally depressing, and everything feels so gloomy, so if we can bring a smile to someone's face, then that's not a bad thing," she mused.
Favier confessed that while she loves the idea of acquiring objects with a provenance, she's never bought anything from an auction house -- though she gave herself a fright last year by bidding on a piece of jewelry at a Christie's sale.
"I had set myself a limit, and the moment it went past that limit, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I just don't have the nerves for buying at auction," she confessed.
