PARIS—A 1914 car coat by French avant-garde designer Paul Poiret set a new record at auction for 20th century couturier fashion when it sold for more than 130,000 ($167,000) here on Wednesday.

There was a burst of applause in the Paris showrooms when, after fierce bidding from the floor and on the phones, the hammer fell at 110,000, bringing the price including costs to 131,648.

Spokeswoman for the auctioneers, Isabelle de Puysegur, confirmed the coat had been bought by an overseas buyer who wished to remain anonymous.

The long linen-silk coat, cut from one rectangular piece, with blue and white diagonal stripes falling across the shoulders and a blue off-center fastening contrasting with a simple white flowing skirt, belonged to Poiret's former wife, Denise.

It was among a collection of more than 600 items being auctioned in Paris, most of which had lain undiscovered for decades in trunks in the family attic after Denise divorced her husband in 1928.

It is the first sale of its kind of designs by Poiret (1879-1944) who revolutionized the fashion world in the early 20th century, by freeing women from their corsets with his flowing sheath dresses, at the same time introducing bold, colorful prints to his fabrics.

Having no previous reference to work off, the Piasa auctioneers had tentatively priced the entire collection, now being sold by Poiret's grand-daughter Sophie, at between 800,000 to a million euros.

But the first day of the two-day sale on Tuesday more than matched expectations, taking some 795,238, including costs, in just a few short hours.

A pair of beaded evening shoes featuring a man on one foot and a woman on the other went for 40,912 on Tuesday, a new record for the auction of shoes.

The cream of the collection however was up for grabs on Wednesday.

Another coat, this time with a bold black and cream flower and leaf print designed by the avant-garde painter Raoul Dufy on Wednesday fetched 72,199 including costs well above the catalogue price of up to 20,000.

It had been expected that the 1911 floor-length fur-trimmed coat would prove the most expensive item in the collection.

A 1907 ochre summer walking coat meanwhile went for 52,946. Among the bidders for the collection were the Metropolitan Museum and the Fashion Institute of Technology, both in New York.

Other museums were discreetly snapping up pieces of fashion history, but also preferred to remain anonymous.

And in a bid to ensure that some of the rare collection remained in France some French museums were taking options on some of the less expensive items.

Several items were going for only a few hundred euros, including the outfits designed by Poiret for his children—the only known children's clothes he made.

Remarkably some clothes made for his daughter's dolls fetched 1,300 without costs, two of three times more then her own dresses.

Copyright AFP, 2005