PARIS — As the market for vintage fashion booms and competition at auction heats up, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne has emerged as a force to be reckoned with.

Its secret weapon? Krystyna Campbell-Pretty, a style aficionado with deep pockets and a quiet purpose: to build a world-class collection of rare and historic clothes. 

The philanthropist has bought and donated more than 600 items to the museum’s fashion and textiles department. Among her recent trophies is a Jean Paul Gaultier evening gown in denim and ostrich feathers, which went under the hammer for 377,000 euros, a new world record for a Gaultier piece. 

A former researcher and management consultant, Campbell-Pretty stumbled upon her new calling after the sudden death of her husband Harold in 2014. 

“This was not planned. This was not a vision,” she says. 

The couple had been longtime supporters of the museum, known as the NGV, and after his passing she stepped up her involvement by joining its foundation board. 

When NGV director Tony Ellwood informed her that French fashion designer Dominique Sirop was offloading his trove of 130 fashion designs from 1800 to 2003, including pieces by Worth, Chanel, Vionnet and Madame Grés, Campbell-Pretty initially suggesting asking top donors for help in securing the “impressive” collection — but no one was interested. 

“I have to say, 10 or 11 years ago, I don’t think people in this country realized what vintage fashion would become. So I talked to my solicitor and my accountant, and they said, ‘You can do what you like.’ So I did: I gave him the money,” she recalls.

Until then, the museum had relied largely on the generosity of wealthy patrons donating the contents of their wardrobe. Campbell-Pretty knew a more strategic approach was required.

Soon, she was actively in the market for acquisitions. “I got this bug,” she recalls. 

“He would treat everyone as if you were an unwanted reptile, you know — but we developed a relationship.”

Krystyna Campbell-Pretty

Strategic Acquisitions

A regular visitor to Paris, Campbell-Pretty found Didier Ludot’s now-shuttered vintage emporium at the Palais-Royal as a great source — though the owner could be famously frosty with newbies. She eventually won his trust. “He would treat everyone as if you were an unwanted reptile, you know — but we developed a relationship,” she relates with dry candor.

As someone who always had an interest in fashion, she now combined her burgeoning passion with her background as a researcher, working together with the NGV’s curators to develop a cohesive collector’s strategy.

“We’d scour every auction, look at all the things we wanted, develop wish lists, and it became quite a serious thing,” she says. “Little by little, it has developed and expanded, and with each new expansion, there’s new joy.”

Among her acquisitions are instantly recognizable pieces, like Karl Lagerfeld’s 1992 black Chanel dress with gold chains, worn by Penélope Cruz in the Pedro Almodóvar film “Broken Embraces,” and a Paco Rabanne metal dress from 1967.

She has introduced into the NGV collection designers such as Elsa Schiaparelli and Christian Lacroix, alongside design classics like Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s little black dresses. By 2019, her gift had grown so large that the museum dedicated an entire exhibition to it. 

Capitalizing on her close relationships with the directors of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Louvre and the Palace of Versailles, the NGV also named Campbell-Pretty as its ambassador to France. She’s keen to emphasize that the title is symbolic, and that she has no say in the NGV’s programming decisions.

“I don’t think I have the deep fashion knowledge of a curator to be able to make those kinds of decisions. That’s not my place. My place is to give them what we need to develop the best collection we can,” she says.

“I buy everything, even if I don’t like it. In fact, I’ve probably bought more that I didn’t like than I did.”

Krystyna Campbell-Pretty

A Formidable Rival

In recent months, she’s been sweeping up vintage Vivienne Westwood in preparation for the “Westwood — Kawakubo” exhibition, set to bow on Dec. 7. Among others, Campbell-Pretty has secured the platform shoes that Naomi Campbell wore when she famously took a tumble on the catwalk. 

The collector gravitates to feminine designs from the likes of Dior and Dolce & Gabbana and treasures her vintages Yves Saint Laurent pieces, but she’s careful to separate her personal taste from the requirements of the museum. “I buy everything, even if I don’t like it. In fact, I’ve probably bought more that I didn’t like than I did,” she tells WWD Weekend.

As demand for vintage fashion explodes, there is stiff competition from major museum collectors. She often finds herself bidding against another fashion force from the southern hemisphere: textile and banking heir Jorge Yarur, founder of the Museo de la Moda in Santiago, Chile. 

Campbell-Pretty concedes her rival has the better collection. “He’s been at it for a lot longer than I have and he has money,” she remarks. Whether she’s in the room or on the phone, she can usually sense when Yarur — who mostly bids online — is in the mix.

“I know the sorts of things he buys. Sometimes we align very closely, and sometimes we don’t,” she explains. “There’s a thrill, and there’s also a time when I think I’m against him, but I’m going to let him have that one, because I want something else later in the auction.”

Leaving a Legacy

She’s never set a budget for her endeavors, instead spending on an ad-hoc basis. “It’s all the things your accountants tell you you mustn’t do,” she says with a laugh. “I’m just buying when I can, and hoping for the best. You only live once.”

Over the past decade, Campbell-Pretty has seen many changes in the vintage market, including bigger prices for key pieces, partly driven by celebrities and their stylists buying vintage pieces to wear on the red carpet. The Kardashian-Jenner clan often opt for archival Gaultier, while Zendaya has worn everything from Versace to John Galliano-era Dior. 

“A lot of these people are not actually valuing the garment or the item for its history,” laments Campbell-Pretty. “They’re buying for an event, and they’re one-off, and then it’s forgotten about.”

She sees her motivation as more long-term. “I’m actually a great believer in museums,” she says, noting that many exhibitions at the NGV are free. “It’s trivialized, but without beauty, people are not at peace emotionally.”

In recent years, she’s diversified her acquisitions to the field of performing arts. She bought dozens of items — including Olivia Newton-John’s custom blue Steinway baby grand piano — on behalf of the Arts Centre Melbourne’s new Australian Museum of Performing Arts, set to open at the end of this year.  

In recognition of her charitable initiatives, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2019. But Campbell-Pretty isn’t keen on the idea of seeing her name on a wing at the NGV.

“Name doesn’t matter,” she says. “The depth of what you leave, that’s what matters.”