$T 0189: Money ≠ Taste ✨

Over the past 12 months, “taste” has become Silicon Valley’s catch-all shorthand for that elusive aura of luxe… the ineffable spark that makes a product feel inevitable. 

Ask the newly self-anointed arbiters of good taste to pin down what that actually means and you’ll get a mood-board of color gradients and serif fonts, niche cool-guy jargon, Lake Como instagram reels, and maybe a vintage Cartier Santos peeking from under a cuff (when in doubt, they always go back to something vintage). 

In reality, taste can’t be reverse-engineered or forced; by definition, it’s the quiet confidence that looks effortless. Because it is.

In a few short weeks, one of the foundational tokens of modern “taste” and the transformation its made into a new-money trophy is opening in an auction at Sotheby’s: the very first Hermès Birkin Bag. 

The story’s been told a thousand times, but the origin of the world’s most iconic handbag reads like a PR fairytale. Except this one actually happened. A chance encounter on a flight to London. A French-British film icon seated beside the CEO of a storied fashion house. She laments her travel bag’s uselessness, he sketches a solution on the back of an airsickness bag. Soon after, a cultural artifact is born: the Birkin Bag. 

Jane Birkin, the bag’s namesake, was the definitive muse of the ’60s and ’70s. Hermès, once a purveyor of equestrian goods, was evolving, beginning to position itself not just as a luxury brand, but as the standard-bearer of aspiration and restraint. It wasn’t just for those with money, but for those with discernment. Those with real taste. 

On June 26th, the original prototype Birkin, crafted for Jane herself, will go to auction. It represents a perfect alchemy of provenance, status, craftsmanship, and that impossible-to-replicate quality that defines “taste.” The kind of taste tech subbed in the word “aura” for, but can’t quite grasp. 

This week in Shiny Thing$, we explore past auctions that offered up pieces from true tastemakers. These are the items that didn’t just sell for huge sums, but shifted the center of gravity in the world of luxury and taste.

🐑 Princess Diana’s “Black Sheep” Sweater

Princess Diana’s influence on the way people dressed, and style their look can’t be understated. She was a force of taste and luxury, even though she was considered “the people’s princess” because her life and upbringing were so relatable to so many. Her “Black Sheep” sweater, worn in June  1981 at a polo match just weeks before her marriage is an example of something only she could probably get away with at a time. The red Warm & Wonderful jumper, emblazoned with a single black sheep among white, sold for $1.14M at Sotheby’s in September  2023. Originally expected to fetch $50–80 k, bidding exploded to 14x the estimate. The sweater marked Diana’s transition from shy aristocrat to fashion icon, reframing knitwear as a vehicle of luxury and signaling the power of any personal narrative in defining it - not just royalty. Even to this day, you can find recreations in everything from the official offering at around $300, to $30 knockoff versions on Amazon. 

👨🏻 Freddie Mercury’s Garden Lodge Door

Taste isn’t just what you wear. It’s how you live. Freddie Mercury was larger than life, and from the moment he became famous, he lived up to it on a daily basis. In September 2022, a graffiti-covered green door from Freddie Mercury’s London home sold for $525 000, far surpassing its estimate. More than a physical portal, the door served as a tangible entry into Mercury’s personal world. It was a symbol of privacy merging with public fascination. It shifted the boundaries of what constitutes fashion-adjacent collectibles, blending architecture, music, and celebrity aura. In the words of Sothebys "The high brick walls acted as a shield from prying eyes and the main exterior door, a gateway to the star’s life away from the spotlight.” 

⌚ Steve McQueen’s Heuer Monaco “Le Mans” Watch

If theres a way to quantify the brand value of “taste,” this watch is it. Launched in 1969 the Heuer Monaco was almost instantly made famous, because Steve McQueen chose to wear it in the 1971 film Le Mans. One of only six Monaco chronographs made for the film, worn and worn-in by McQueen, it sold for a staggering $2.2M at Phillips in 2020. Beyond just the celebrity provenance, this is an early example of what can happen when an individual hold weight in two different categories of luxury: International racing, and high-end timepieces. The watch epitomizes timeless cool. An actor’s effortless style immortalized in both cinema and horology, locking together cinema history and collector-grade luxury watches.

🧟 Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” Jacket

Certain items are so impactful, they are tied to one individual and one moment in time forever. The “Thriller” jacket is exactly that. Worn by The King of Pop in the groundbreaking 1983 music video, this red leather jacket fetched $1.8 million at auction in 2011. Its history is inseparable from one of the most iconic visual moments in pop culture. In one of biggest scenes ever shot in music, Jackson, emerging from the mist with a zombie gang, clad the vivid red & black jacket makes his way down a dimly lit street in a fully choreographed rise form the dead. A footnote of a big-budget video at the time, the price paid reflected how artifacts tied to cultural and stylistic revolutions can become collectible masterpieces. To this day, basically any red leather jacket with zippers will be referred to as a “Thriller Jacket.” 

🧶 Kurt Cobain’s MTV “Unplugged” Sweater

Kurt Cobain is the reason grunge went mainstream. Today, every major fashion house and every gen Z fashionista who wants to channel the 90s is essentially a moodboard from the Nirvana era… except now, it costs into the thousands as opposed to the thrifted cardigan Cobain wore in one of the most memorable performances in MTV history. The sweater, outfitted on Cobain during Nirvana’s emotionally charged MTV Unplugged session in November 1993 just months before Cobain’s tragic death was beyond iconic. The moss-green acrylic-mohair cardigan, still stained and marked with cigarette burns, sold for a record-setting $334,000 at Julien’s Auctions in New York in October 2019. Accompanied by a provenance letter from the family’s nanny, it stands as the most valuable sweater ever auctioned. More than a garment, it’s an artifact from rock’s defining chapter, epitomizing Cobain’s anti-establishment ethos, DIY aesthetic, and the haunting unfiltered vulnerability that continues to influence grunge fashion and music culture. We’re not sure how Cobain would feel today if he knew luxury brand John Elliot was selling a version of it for $598.

Until next week…