Whitney Houston's Wedding Dress Is Up for Auction
Some of Whitney Houston’s prized possessions, including the wedding dress she wore to marry Bobby Brown, are up for auction.
Various personal affects will be on the chopping block come June 24 and 25 in an auction held by Heritage Auctions. The company, which was sanctioned by the late singer’s estate, is hoping to fetch at least $7,000 for the one-of-a-kind Marc Bouwer ensemble from her 1992 nuptials. The four-piece ensemble has some marks and scuffs from coming into contact with the floor. The silk gown with sheer sleeves also comes with the floor-length sheer white silk veil, decorated with semi-round pearlescent beads. According to the auctioneer’s website: “Whitney wanted a fitted gown but one that was not revealing, with a non-traditional veil. There were over 800 guests in attendance as her father John Houston walked her down the aisle on the grounds of her estate in Mendham, New Jersey.”
Also up for grabs is a black Marc Bouwer crushed velvet, form-fitting jumpsuit Houston wore on her 1991 “I’m Your Baby Tonight” tour. Expected to reach up to $4,000 at auction, the piece has a high neck and plunging back, adorned throughout with costume beads of various shapes, labeled.
Houston’s Dolce & Gabbana, black, sheer, floor-length coat she wore for her 1999 “My Love Is Your Love” tour is also available starting at $4,000. According to the Italian label, the sequins on the coat were applied by hand and it took four women two weeks working “day and night” to complete the task.
“The [Houston] family actually reached out to the president of our company, ” Garry Shrum, director of Entertainment and Music Memorabilia at Heritage Auctions, told Billboard. “We had worked with a good friend of theirs, David Gest. He knew us and liked what we did and told the Houston [family] about us, and my colleague Margaret Barrett and I went out to New Jersey and listened to what they wanted to do. We gave them some ideas, they gave us some ideas, and we came up with this 119-piece collection that’s basically a retrospective of Whitney from the beginning, from when she first started singing after she left being a background singer for Chaka Khan and Lou Rawls.”
Other items include the passport she used during her first international tour, a jacket embroidered with her childhood nickname Nippy that she received as a gift from father, a Disney coloring book in Japanese, and more. Shrum estimates that the entire auction will bring in more than half a million dollars.
Houston passed away on February 11, 2012 after she was found underwater and unconscious in the bathtub in her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
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