Approaching the 10-year anniversary of Amy Winehouses tragic death by alcohol poisoning at age 27, it’s been reported that her family are going to be selling some of her clothes and accessories in a bid to raise money for a charity set up by them.
‘Amy Winehouse Foundation’ is run and founded by her parents, Mitch and Janis, and its aim is to ‘support, inform and inspire young people’ hoping to guide them in the right direction, and to prevent what happened to Amy, happening to others.
At an event, Mitch spoke about how the organisation has helped to address over 300,000 young people, adding ‘’that’s a tremendous addition to Amy’s legacy… because Amy’s legacy is not just going to be about music, it’s going to be about all these other wonderful things that she’s doing.’
Talking to The Mirror newspaper, Mitch spoke about what inspired them to make this choice:
“Amy’s belongings were in a giant lock-up and the family decided that while we would keep the most precious, personal items for ourselves, auctioning others would help those in need via the foundation and other charities.’’
‘’With the anniversary of her death coming up, every time the family go to the lock-up, it’s overwhelmingly emotional seeing her lovely dresses hanging on the rails, so we decided to auction these show outfits.”
The auction will take place in LA, with Julien’s Auctions organising the sale of the outfits. There has already been talks of what the items will be and how much they are expected to go for.
One of the items includes Amy’s red love heart shaped bag that she wore to the 2007 Brit Awards, expecting to be sold for around £14,000. They also expect a dress designed by Naomi Parry to go for roughly the same amount. Other items include outfits that she has worn to gigs and events, including the dress she wore to her last ever gig performance.
‘’seems a fitting way to raise funds in her name’’
As well as the auction that will be held, marking the 10-year anniversary, BBC will also pay tribute to Amy in July, with a documentary, ‘Amy Winehouse: 10 Years On’. In the show, Janis talks about her daughter, sharing how she doesn’t think ‘the world knew the true her’.
Janis says: ‘I don’t feel the world knew the true Amy, the one that I brought up, and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to offer an understanding of her roots and a deeper insight into the real Amy.’
Amy’s life will also be celebrated across other platforms with the BBC. Radio 6 will be doing an Artist Collection and Radio 2 will be doing a documentary about how she has influenced the next generation of female singer – songwriters.
