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Next Monday, June 25, Los Angeles will play host to Bonham’s inaugural “What Women Want…At Auction” event.

It features a collection of designer vintage and contemporary fashions, shoes, jewelry, handbags and accessories from luxury household names like Judith Leiber, Gianni Versace, Hermes, Chanel, and Valentino.

But note that nothing in the online catalog is labeled with dates of manufacture.

So, unless you’re an experienced vintage buyer, you might not recognize that the lovely little lace treasure above is a vintage Frank Starr and not a more contemporary lace dress.

Now I’m not one of those die-hard Vintage Crusaders who gets all bent out of shape when a dress that is only 6 years old or 11 years old or 13 years old gets called vintage. So I applaud Bonhams for helping to level the fashion playing field and for saying, in effect, that good design is good design regardless of the year it was made.

I think that putting vintage “on par” with contemporary clothing in such a way that it blends in and is barely distinguishable helps to make vintage fashion a whole lot more accessible for contemporary women.

This way, you can buy what you love without being hung up on the year of manufacture and you can rest assured that any item you snag with your winning bid will be either pure authentic vintage or a contemporary item that can age into a desirable vintage item of the future.

What do you think? Please leave a comment with your thoughts below.

If you’re lucky enough to be in LA, enjoy a live preview of items on June 22 and 23. If not, enjoy a little eye candy with your coffee break and check out the online auction catalog here.

(Photo Credit: Courtesy of Bonhams. Used with Permission.)