WHY LIZ TORCHED HER WARDROBE!
CLOTHESHORSE Elizabeth Taylor once torched her designer duds! Known for her flashy looks and outrageous jewelry, the glam movie goddess — who died in 2011 at 79 — was such a fashion plate, she had a bomb shelter in the basement of her Gstaad, Switzerland, chalet turned into a storage area to preserve her iconic outfits, claims Tim Mendelson, her personal assistant for more than two decades.
He reveals sometime in the late ’50s or early ’60s, a leak developed in the underground vault and left Liz with racks of wrecked clothes — including custom pieces made by French designer Coco Chanel.
But rather than dropping the drenched items in the trash, the Cleopatra star burned the pricey pieces!
“She said she cried when that bonfire happened, because it was so sad to lose all that beautiful clothing,” Mendelson recalls.
“Elizabeth did have a great appreciation for design and for material objects that had value.”
While the ruined stash went up in smoke, Mendelson says Liz kept a closer eye on her bling and was “very, very protective” of it.
He adds, “It was more than just jewelry to her, it was so much about the sentimental value, the memory of it. When she would travel, she bought jewelry as a souvenir — she liked to commemorate things.”
After her death, the Oscar winner’s estate auctioned off her remaining couture collection for $2.6 million and her gems for more than $115 million — with part of the proceeds going to the AIDS foundation Liz established in 1991.