“How do you dress like an auction house?” sounds like the kind of pretentious question an annoying “art guy” might ask at a New York cocktail party. But it’s also a real question recently posed by two perfectly likable people: Kristina O’Neill, Sotheby’s head of media, and Erik Torstensson, co-founder and creative director of Frame.

O’Neill, former editor-in-chief of WSJ Magazine, joined the 281-year-old auction house in 2024. One of her key roles? “To explore how Sotheby’s can engage with broader cultural conversations,” she tells Vogue. “We’re encouraged to think creatively and outside the box.” After brainstorming and testing ideas, they landed on a concept: What if Sotheby’s had its own fashion line? And what would that look like?

O’Neill recalled Frame’s collaboration with the Ritz Paris, where the brand translated the hotel’s signature “Ritz Blue” aesthetic into sweaters, sweatshirts, and button-downs. She reached out to Torstensson—could he do something similar for Sotheby’s?

A mood board took shape, drawing inspiration from Richard Gere, Harrison Ford, the Hamptons, Bonfire of the Vanities, and Wall Street. On June 4, the Frame x Sotheby’s collection officially launched.

“We imagined a blend of Upper East Side elegance with the preppy irreverence of the 1980s,” Torstensson tells Vogue. The collection includes argyle sweaters, Oxford shirts, cable-knit sweaters, pocket squares, and navy blazers with gavel-patterned linings. T-shirts and totes feature the word “collector” in bold lettering.

“High fashion does heritage in a way that appeals across generations—from uptown collectors to downtown nepo babies,” Torstensson adds.

If it all sounds a bit over-the-top, that’s intentional. Torstensson was drawn to the “decadence and carefree attitude of 1980s Manhattan,” where yuppies and HENRYs (high earners, not rich yet) worked out at New York Sports Club to flaunt their abs in the Hamptons, where young brokers (the real-life Gordon Gekkos and Patrick Batemans) drank at The Four Seasons and partied at Tunnel, and where ambitious women like Tess McGill climbed the corporate ladder in tweed jackets and power blazers.

So what connects the 1980s and art? That’s when New York’s elite truly embraced collecting. After the economic struggles of the ’70s, the ’80s brought a resurgence—for better or worse, “greed is good” and trickle-down economics became the unofficial creed of the 1%.

On a simpler note, formal style has always been Sotheby’s signature. “The old dress code was: Don’t wear anything to the office you wouldn’t wear to a wedding,” O’Neill says. “That says a lot about how polished our team has always been.” (Need proof? Two Sotheby’s employees, Kimberly Pirtle and Ashkan Baghestani, modeled in the campaign.)

Love it or hate it, yuppie style—à la The Official Preppy Handbook—is having a moment. Shows like Sirens and The Perfect Couple poke fun at the look, while heritage brands like St. John and Bally are making a comeback. Just maybe skip the popped collar.