If I were in the stage I am now in 2003 when Sotheby's was auctioning off pieces from the home of Bill Blass, I would have placed bids on some items. I wouldn't have walked home with a single item because according to the New York Times report of the auction, pieces went for five times the high estimates. But how thrilling it must have been to witness and to see the fabulous things Blass surrounded himself with.

No other fashion designer has had such a stronghold in the aesthetics of the interior design community than Blass. His apartment often makes the list of fine examples of excellent decorating and superior taste with its mix of figurative sculptures, Regency furniture, masculine lines and its overall use of neutral colors.

In an excerpt from a New York Times article: Coming as it did on the heels of the colorful, overstuffed 80's, the spare style of the apartment and its minor treasures -- walls lined with architectural drawings and classical male nudes; rooms stocked with simple, idiosyncratic, almost sculptural antiques -- made an impact on many in design. ''It was a new idea of what good taste could be,'' said the interior designer Victoria Hagan. ''For this generation of designers, everyone knows that apartment.''