NEW YORK.-Phillips de Pury & Company will break new ground in the auction world with the introduction of its Contemporary Fashion category in its Saturday@Phillips New York sale on April 26, at 10 am and 2pm.

Saturday@Phillips is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary auction of Contemporary Art and Photography, Design and Jewelry.With the bold introduction of its fashion category, and with the growth of its ArtToys and vintageWatches categories, Saturday@Phillips continues to be a cultural reference point for young art
collectors, idiosyncratic tastemakers, budding designers, toy fanatics and fashionistas who seek the thrill of the hunt at this exciting live auction. The lush Saturday@Phillips lifestyle auction catalogue reflects the unerring sense of style and vast knowledge of Phillips de Pury & Company’s team of specialists, who propose three influential tastemakers to anchor each eclectic issue. The three Phillips de PuryTastemakers featured in the April 26 catalogue are: Irina Lazareanu the iconic model and musician, Simon Hammerstein of New York’s experimental cabaret The Box, and Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan of apartmenttherapy.com, all of whom discuss their personal wish-lists from the upcoming sale and confess to their private collecting obsessions.

The first fashion line featured in Saturday@Phillips is Electric Feathers, created by New York-based designer Leana Zuñiga. Each one-of-a-kind item has been created exclusively for Phillips de Pury & Company including handcrafted, knotted jewelry pieces designed in collaboration with Alyssa Norton. Special attention is paid to each garment’s textile and silhouette, exemplified in a slate blue silk poncho dress with a spectacular ikat woven pattern estimated at $500-$700, or in a delicate, hand-linked, brass chain link vest, estimated at $400-$600. Electric Feathers is creatively showcased in the Saturday@Phillips catalogue in a 12-page fashion editorial shot by KTAuleta and starring Irina Lazareanu.

The booming popularity of Art Toys, or “designer vinyl” reflects our cultural fascination with the collision between fine art and street culture. Saturday@Phillips not only offers its collectors the rare opportunity to mine for classic Japanese fantasy toys based on anime andmanga subcultures such as a 3-headed Ghidorah
(estimated at $1,500-2,000) figurine, but to bid on their contemporary toy descendants veering closer to graffiti art, music and skate culture. A rare figurine from KAWS (street moniker for graffiti artist Brian Donnelly) embodies this shift in Dissected Companion (Five Years Later), a 15” figure paying homage to both
the pop icon Mickey Mouse and obliquely, to the visceral artwork of Damien Hirst. KAWS’ sublime commentary on the superficiality – and the innards – of pop culture iconography is valued at $1,000-1,500. A pair of 1:6 scale, Daft Punk figurines is a dream find for toy, fashion and music fanatics, with both figures
wearing replica outfits based on the original Dior Homme by Hedi Slimane ensembles. The fully-jointed figures in the Daft Punk Real Action Figure Set, estimated at $400-600, come with removable sets of hands molded into pre-determined “rock” gestures. As the Daft Punk figurines were never offered for sale in the US, this Saturday@Phillips auction will be a rare opportunity for Stateside collectors.

Important toys from artists Steve Forde,Tim Buskup, James Jarvis and Junko Mizuno will also be part of the April 26 sale. Art collectors and savvy decorators will be quick to pick out Julian Opie’s View from My Bedroom Window, 2007. This signed, Opie animation LCD screen is a clever, computerized take on the classical landscape. Subtle color shifts mimic light changes over a continuously-renewed digital day. Julian Opie’s View from My Bedroom Window is estimated at $3,000-4,000.

A number of psychedelic Takashi Murakami offset lithographs, including the swirling 727-727, 2006, estimated at $2,000-3,000, will be available, plus diverse photography from Kim-Joon, Helmut Newton, Cindy Sherman, NobuyoshiAraki, Sherrie Levine and Nan Goldin. Luxury timepieces never go out of style, and are a classic first investment for many young collectors.

This Saturday@Phillips auction features a rare set of vintage Omega watches, including the Omega Seamaster Chronograph (Anakin Skywalker) estimated at $2,500-3,500. This manual-winding, 1969 timepiece in a tungsten-bombarded case was bestowed with its unusual nickname by noted watch expert Chuck Maddox.Watch connoisseurs will also note that that “Anakin Skywalker” shares the same caliber 861 found in the Omega “Moon Watch” – the official wristwatch of NASA. Pop culture enthusiasts may be attracted to a pair of Depraz and Dugena Cassius Clay watches, with the lot estimated at $200-300. The whimsical timepieces feature iconic images of “The Greatest” in rhodium-plated cases.
A strong selection of innovative 1970s furniture designs from Karl Springer, Gabriella Crespi, Max Sauze andVladimir Kagan are on offer, including a notable Pierre Cardin DiningTable from 1970.This sculptural, smoked-glass and steel table with a brass-plated base is stamped with the chic “Pierre Cardin” signature and is estimated at $8,000-12,000. Saturday@Phillips continues to be an accessible design resource for coveted mid-century Eames pieces including the “RAR” rockers and “CTW” coffee tables and a stylized 1989 art vase from Shiro Kuramata.