Museums battled one another to acquire the black and red dress worn by Celia Birtwell in David Hockney's painting 'Mr & Mrs Clark & Percy' in London on June 23.

The famous portrait of the British textile designer, her then husband, fashion designer Ossie Clark, and their cat Blanche, was painted between 1970 and 1971 shortly after their wedding at which Hockney was Clark's best man, and hangs in the Tate Gallery.

Made by Clark for Birtwell in 1970, the 'Heavenly Twins' crepe dress was the star lot of Kerry Taylor Auctions’ sale of pieces from Celia Birtwell’s personal collection, and finally sold for £11,250, including the buyer’s premium, to Manchester City Galleries.

Birtwell was “delighted that the Manchester museum has purchased this piece. Not only is it my home town but the fashion museum at Platt Hall has always been close to my heart,” she said in a statement.

Other museums, both British and from overseas, snapped up other historically important garments at the sale.

They included: an Ossie Clark/Celia Birtwell 'Ziggy Stardust' printed chiffon dress, 1973-4 (which sold for £3,500); an Ossie Clark/Celia Birtwell chiffon dress and matching evening coat, 1976 (£2,125); an Ossie Clark/Celia Birtwell strawberry embroidered black crêpe ensemble, 1971 (£1,875); an Ossie Clark/Celia Birtwell printed chiffon and crêpe evening gown, circa 1974 (£,1625); and an early Ossie Clark 'Hoopla' jersey mini-dress, circa 1965 (£687.50).

Elsewhere in the same Passion for Fashion auction, other couture pieces with ties to the art world also fetched top dollar. Notable lots were an Issey Miyake/Cai Guo-Qiang printed 'Dragon or Rainbow Serpent' dress from the designer’s Guest Artist Series 4 (1999), an example of which had been exhibited in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York (£20,000); Comme des Garçons’ ivory calico 'waterfall' dress from Spring-Summer 1998’s 'Clustering Beauty' collection, which was featured in the 'Skin & Bones' exhibition at Somerset House in 2008 (£20,000); and a Keith Haring-patterned knitted ensemble by Jordan's Vivienne Westwood/Malcom McLaren 'Witches' collection, Autumn-Winter, 1983-84 (£11,000).

But the top lot, fetching an impressive £38,000, was a historically important Elsa Schiaparelli midnight blue 'Rococo' scroll appliqué slubbed silk jersey evening ensemble, from Summer 1937. Featuring large off-white shaped leather Dali-esque stylised lips buckle at the waist, the ensemble was chosen by the Duchess of Windsor for part of her wedding trousseau that year. She was also photographed by Cecil Beaton wearing a similar jacket with matching dress the day before her wedding to the Duke of Windsor at the Chateau de Cande, France in May 1937.

Another remarkable piece was a one-of-a-kind t-shirt that brought £22,000 (pictured below). The epitome of punk, the t-shirt was first hand-made by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren on their kitchen table — dyed, studded with the names of certain brands of Fifties motorbikes, and adorned with cut-up rubber tires, horsehair, zips, and chains. It was then further customized by Jordan (also known as Pamela Rooke, whose penchant for wearing Cubist face paint, spiked tinted hair, and provocative bondage gear earned her moniker the ‘high priestess of Punk’), and worn on the cover of Simon Barker's 'Punk's Dead'; in the company of Siousie Sioux; singing on stage with Adam Ant; attending the premiere of 'Grease' when the press clamored for her to dance with John Travolta; and even backstage at 'Live Aid' in 1985 when David Bowie kissed her.

“We had enormous interest from international museums and private collectors as well as women who wanted to acquire the clothes to wear,” said the auctioneer Kerry Taylor. “It was a great honor to have been entrusted with such an historically important collection.”