Whitney Houston's Garments To Be Auctioned Off in Rare Sale: 'These Clothes Tell a Story'
While it was Whitney Houston’s legendary voice that made her a superstar, she also lit up the stage with her beauty and captivating presence.
Looking back at the teal Grecian gown she donned winning her first Grammy award in 1986 to the white athleisure jumpsuit she sported at the 1991 Super Bowl, Houston’s style was all her own.
Now some of Houston’s dresses will be auctioned off on Dec. 7 at GWS Auctions’ “Artifacts of Hollywood & Music” auction. These include a black long-sleeved Pamela Dennis evening gown, a royal blue embellished Scala dress, a sequined ivory high-neck jumpsuit, a belted black halter cocktail dress and a gold-and-black sequined halter neck sequin mini dress.
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“Each piece is so different,” GWS Auctions owner Brigitte Kruse tells PEOPLE. “If you look at every piece, you can literally imagine Whitney wearing each piece.”
Kruse’s personal favorites are the long-sleeved Scala dress and ivory jumpsuit.
“I can see the sequin jumpsuit being something she wore out to lunch in with her girlfriends, and I can see this blue gown being something that she wore to a red carpet event,” Kruse says. “I can tell you Ms. Houston was a fashionista. She loved beautiful things in all phases of her life.”
This is the second time some of these dresses have been auctioned off. They were originally acquired from an unpaid storage unit owned by Nippy, Inc., Houston’s New Jersey-based management company, which was part of a 2007 auction BY AJ Willner Auctions in New Jersey. From then on, the dresses were held in a private collection in Europe.
“It’s just exciting every time these items pop up,” says Kruse. “Out of all the pieces that I personally handled from that sale in 2007, these are the highest quality garments that I’ve personally seen.”
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Of the five dresses being auctioned off, only two (the Pamela Dennis and Scala gowns) have designer labels. The gold-and-black sequined dress was custom-made for Houston, while the other two have no labels.
“A lot of celebrities cut the name tags or the wardrobe tags off their clothing because they didn’t want people to use that information to sell them in a secondary market,” Kruse tells PEOPLE. “We absolutely were astonished when we saw that two of these pieces still had the labels.”
Eight years after the star’s tragic death on Feb. 11, 2012 from an accidental drowning, Kruse believes the chance to buy these clothes will be sentimental to bidders.
“These are always emotional purchases,” Kruse says. “These clothes really do tell a story.”
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As for how much each of the garments will go for, Kruse’s conservative estimate is around $1,000-5,000, with each of them priced at a minimum of bid of $250. But they’re likely to go much higher.
“People always get themselves attached to the story,” Kruse says. “It just depends on who the bidders are on auction day and also the nostalgia that they feel for the particular pieces that we’re offering.”
The six-time Grammy-winning singer, whose life was the subject of her best friend’s recent memoir, Robyn Crawford’s A Song For You: My Life with Whitney Houston, is still revered for her once in a lifetime talent. Crawford, 58, previously told PEOPLE, “I felt an urgency to stand up and share the woman behind the incredible talent.”
The GWS Auctions’ “Artifacts of Hollywood & Music” auction begins Saturday, Dec. 7 at 10 a.m. PT.
