Cyndi Lauper auctions 1980s wardrobe against corporate homogenization
Cyndi Lauper is selling over 200 items of her iconic clothing and memorabilia at Bonhams New York. The 'Suitcase of Memories' auction, timed to the 40th anniversary of her 'True Colors' album, is framed by Lauper as a stand for creative individuality.
Cyndi Lauper is auctioning her iconic 1980s wardrobe and memorabilia through Bonhams. The two-part sale, titled 'Cyndi Lauper: Suitcase of Memories,' features over 200 lots of fashion, accessories, awards, and personal mementos spanning four decades. The first auction is scheduled for October 22 at Bonhams in Midtown Manhattan, with a second part running online through October 23.
Lauper, 73, stated she is selling to combat corporate homogenization. She says the individuality of creativity is getting squashed out as big corporations buy up smaller companies and the color is drained and becomes beige. The auction coincides with the 40th anniversary of her sophomore album True Colors.
Career highlights and context
The exhibition features outfits from her five-decade career, including clashing prints, jutting tutus, and statement headwear. Lauper was born in Queens and raised in New York’s Garment District, where her family worked as cutters and seamstresses. She left home at 17 and worked at the Manhattan vintage boutique Screaming Mimi’s while singing at downtown clubs.
Her debut album She’s So Unusual was the first by a woman to produce four top-five singles upon its 1983 release. She sold more than 50 million records. Lauper won a Tony award in 2013 for her Kinky Boots score and co-founded the True Colors United foundation in 2008 to benefit homeless LGBTQ+ youth. She retired from live performance in 2023.
Lauper believes the exhibition is timely as the midterms approach and artists are being squeezed out by gentrification. She sees songs like Pink Pony Club as landmarks for LGBTQ+ representation. In 2022, she released a new version of her abortion rights song Sally’s Pigeons to protest the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade. She stated, "If we don’t have control over our own bodies then we have no real freedom."
She became increasingly drawn to sculptural pieces from Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen in the 90s. For her 1994 Twelve Deadly Cyns album, she paired an electric blue Dolce & Gabbana shrug with a bowler hat she spray-painted and decorated with feathers. She said she wanted it to look like art.
Key items and creative process
The collection is a mix of vintage pieces and DIY projects. It includes the leopard print pyjamas from her family’s favorite mail order catalog, worn in the Girls Just Want to Have Fun video. The archive also features a hoop skirt covered in newspaper strips and Paper Magazine pages, worn during the True Colors promotional cycle.
Lauper described the process of creating the paper skirt as invention, noting she was the dress form and they stapled it. The skirt was a photoshoot creation that did not fall apart. Chappell Roan wore a replica of it while inducting Lauper into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023.
Lauper's perspective
Lauper defends the sale as an act of creative resistance. She stated she was OK with selling everything and wanted to share her pieces, saying she would rather someone else wear them. She said she would miss the dress she wore when first chatting with her future husband, David Thornton, but added it is only stuff. What am I going to do? Hold onto it forever?
She aims to inspire both the older dames and people like her and the young to look and go, 'Yeah, I could do that.' She removed awards from the auction, calling it a mistake because it is oppressive for other people to see them up for sale. Lauper expressed displeasure with some auction displays, stating they did not wear a top and pants like that and noting a skirt was displayed backwards.
She is not a perfectionist, saying she would call herself someone who either does it right or doesn't do it. Lauper stated she never regretted any outfit because everything had a reason. She mentioned being impressed by Chappell Roan and Selena Gomez as contemporary artists following her path. In 2023, she gave her blessing for Nicki Minaj to sample Girls Just Want to Have Fun in Pink Friday 2 and joined her on stage, calling the collaboration a political act. Cyndi Lauper said: "We’ve been corporatized, we kind of have braces on our brains. You know, it would be nice if you could think for yourself sometime."
The auction runs online through October 23.
