When the time came to decide what was going off to Julien’s, Paltrow found certain things surprisingly difficult to part with. “There was a Baby Taylor guitar that Tim McGraw and I had made for the whole cast and crew when we finished Country Strong,” she says. “I was like, oh, this is sad to go, but someone’s going to be more excited about having this than I am.”
She looked for pieces that felt emblematic of different phases of her life and career. Among the items up for auction are Ralph Lauren’s sketches of the iconic bubblegum-pink dress Paltrow wore to the 1999 Oscars, where she won for Shakespeare in Love; and a John Galliano-era Dior dress (worn on the runway by Gisele Bündchen) that she donned for the LVMH Tower opening that same year. The ombré Atelier Versace evening gown she wore to the 2010 Country Music Awards represents her musical era, she says, citing Glee and Country Strong. And Marvel fans may recognize the custom silver Armani short suit she wore to the Iron Man 2 premiere.
“The thing that really appealed to me about it is that I think things have energy,” Paltrow says. “It’s nice for those things to live on. It’s nice for things to accrue value through different provenances and different owners.”
A bit of backstory you won’t find in the Julien’s catalog? Paltrow points to a gray Atelier Versace tunic and cropped pants, which she wore to the 28th Annual Vision Awards in 2001. “I wore that also to the Clinton White House for—God, for something,” she says. “I have a picture of me in that outfit holding a cigarette outside at the White House.”