What: Le Bon Marché is hosting a live women's fashion auction on 18 October, selling archival pieces by Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake in partnership with Penelope's Auction House.

Why it is important: Le Bon Marché is turning its cultural programme into a sales event, using a specialist auctioneer and her network of collectors to bring a coveted archive category into the store without holding any inventory.

Le Bon Marché will hold its first women's fashion auction with Pénélope Blanckaert's Penelope's Auction House, selling archival Japanese designer pieces sourced from her network of former clients and private collectors. The lots go on show in the store for a week before the 18 October sale, which is part of "Super Japon," the store-wide celebration of Japanese culture that opened in August. Bidding takes place live and online.

The sale centres on Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo, with additional pieces by Junya Watanabe, Kansai Yamamoto and Undercover, mostly from the 1980s to the 2000s. Highlights include pieces from Comme des Garçons' fall 1981 "Pirates" collection. Blanckaert, who organised the first auction dedicated to Japanese fashion in 2011, notes that limited production in the early 1980s makes those pieces the rarest and most sought-after.

Director of women's fashion Isabelle Fine says the format offers a new way to interact with customers; it also lets the store present brands outside its usual assortment. Bidding starts below €100 to open the sale beyond established collectors. If the test succeeds, further exhibition-auctions are planned.

IADS Notes: The auction is the final event of "Super Japon," the store-wide exhibition of everyday Japanese culture that Le Bon Marché opened in late August. The programme already included a Japanese fashion sale alongside Sacai's food-led takeover and dozens of niche brand collaborations (Fashion Network, September 2026). The store has applied the same idea of selling collectable objects inside a curated setting to its VIC offer, turning Salon Aristide into a space where every piece of designer Edgar Jayet's furniture can be bought or commissioned (WWD, September 2026). Both initiatives build on a cultural programme that is now central to Le Bon Marché's positioning. Its annual carte blanche collaborations with renowned artists, like Galeries Lafayette's partnerships with institutions such as the Centre Pompidou-Metz, have made Parisian department stores cultural destinations that attract diverse audiences and encourage longer visits (Le Figaro, March 2026). Galeries Lafayette treats its heritage as an asset in its own right: it catalogues archives dating back to 1894, lends pieces to major cultural institutions and expands its collection through acquisitions and donations (Fashion Network, December 2025).

Le Bon Marché brings Japanese fashion archives to the auction floor