Mystery seller puts £500,000 clothing collection up for auction in Shropshire - with pictures

The only trouble is you have to be a size 40/42UK, or have size nine feet to buy anything.

There are over 1,300 individual items in the Halls online auction, including 150 pairs of shoes, 80 jackets, 66 suits and over 80 pairs of jeans.

Over half the entire collection is Gucci - the estimated total value is well over half a million pounds. It is a staggering show of opulence entitled ‘The Wardrobe of a Modern Man’.

To disguise the seller’s identity, staff at Halls Auction house in Shropshire rooted through more than 10,000 pockets, removing restaurant and dry cleaning receipts, or anything else which might have given a clue to the origin.

The only thing they will say is that he is a "modern man of impeccable taste" - not deceased - and that the collection originates from Cheshire.

Director of Halls Jeremy Lamond said: “We were delighted to hold the sale, since the clothing was of such excellent collectors’ condition.

"They were from the very best designers and makers imaginable.”

Sarah Davies, Halls’ fashion expert, added: “This is a man who clearly has led an international, luxury lifestyle, loved fashion and spent time overseas in a warm climate.

"A lot of the evening wear is lightweight and half lined. This is a collection which has clearly been acquired over a period of time.”

She would not confirm whether the intensely private vendor is a celebrity.

Many items still have labels attached. Mountains of designer jeans are heaped next to crocodile skin Guccis in every hue. Row upon row of Gucci loafers (all with a starting bid of just £40 online) sit beside D&G belts and stacks of Versace and Ray Ban sunglasses – every designer label of the past 20 years is represented here. Whoever he is, he is a committed shopaholic.

A highlight is a silk brocade Louis Vuitton evening jacket with a grotesque pattern by the Chapman Brothers, entitled the Garden in Hell and featuring Siamese zombie owls.

Lot 422 – it is identical to one worn by Brian Ferry on stage at Coachella in Indio, California, in 2014, but this one has allegedly never been worn.

“We have not found another one of these that has been made available since 2013,” Sarah revealed. “You would be looking at £3,400 to £3,900 retail.”

The size 52 (Italian) tuxedo was a special collaboration between Vuitton and English visual artists Jake and Dinos Chapman, presented during the Fall Winter 2013 menswear show by Kim Jones.

The disturbing print shows wrathful deities, talismanic monkeys and one-eyed birds from distorted fairytales; ‘Garden in Hell’ was a phrase Vogue Editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland famously used to describe her apartment. The artists Tinie Tempah and Labrinth have also been pictured wearing the same jacket – Tempah, at the Louis Vuitton Fall Winter 2014 show and Labrinth, at the 2014 Brit Awards.

Speculation is rife amongst potential buyers. John Loy, 37,a consultant surgeon from Shrewsbury, eyeing up a pair of of Gucci slip-on loafers with tassels and pony skin detailing, said: “We’ve Googled it, but we’ve ruled out George Michael – his feet were a size 12. Wayne Rooney lives in Cheshire and is a size 9. It would be great crack if it was Gary Barlow – everyone in Shrewsbury is convinced he lives here – it’s the joke of the town.”

His colleague James Rink, 42, an Upper GI surgeon at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, added, “There’s enough here to dress the whole of Shropshire in Prada.”

There are flamboyant pieces in the collection, such as the Louis Vuitton jacket, Gucci cream dinner jackets, silver leather lace-ups, crocodile leather slip-ons and a mysterious pair of red suede Fila fireproof trainers signed by Michael Shumacher (an F1 fan, perhaps?) – but much of the collection is low key. Expensive, but eminently wearable.

“The wonderful thing about this collection is that items which would ordinarily be completely inaccessible to the general public are now within reach,” Sarah said.

“This gives us all a glimpse into a totally different lifestyle. It is almost like this man had his own Gucci shop at home. We are thrilled to have it here at Halls.”

Clearly, there are bargains galore. All the designer jeans are listed at £20, starting bid, even a Gucci black leather pair. Gucci suits are nearly all at £80 – the jackets alone would cost around £2,000 retail - and Gucci moleskin coats, at £110. The Gucci shirts are listed at £30, a sublime black velvet, satin edged Gucci dinner jacket is £50, Gucci shoes in every hue, at £50 and Gucci leather belts all start at £20.

It’s not all Gucci - Prada, Canali, Pal Zileri, Charles Tyrwhitt, Paul Smith, Georgia Armani, Aquascutum, Hugo Boss, Skopes and Crombie also feature.

The timed online auction started on May 12 and finishes on May 30.