As Amy Winehouse became one the world’s most famous singers, she was assisted by two close friends who helped create her distinctive style.
Naomi Parry and Catriona Gourlay’s names are engraved on Winehouse’s gravestone, but now they are being sued by her father over the auction of some of her clothes following her death.
Mitch Winehouse is seeking more than £700,000 from the sale of about 155 items, including his daughter’s most iconic outfits, the High Court in London was told on Monday.
He claims that Parry and Gourlay “deliberately concealed” the items in two celebrity auctions of memorabilia in Los Angeles, which he intended to raise money to build a school in his daughter’s memory in Saint Lucia.
They include the custom-made dress designed by Parry that Winehouse wore at her final performance at the start of a tour of eastern Europe, which was cancelled after one performance in Belgrade in 2011. It had a guide price of $20,000 (£15,000) but fetched $243,000.
The boots Winehouse was photographed wearing on the cover of her first album, Frank, in 2003 sold for $19,200. A pair of blood-stained ballet shoes Winehouse was photographed carrying following a fight with Blake Fielder-Civil, who was her husband at the time, sold for about $4,000.
The list of disputed items includes a card from Mark Ronson, the music producer, and the singer Adele, which Gourlay claims was handed to her when Winehouse failed to attend her own birthday party in 2008. It sold for $3,200. There was also a pink Mac lipstick and a black Rimmel eyeliner, which were described as being “owned and used by Amy Winehouse”.
Naomi Parry and Catriona Gourlay, with Mitch Winehouse, are said to have helped Amy Winehouse develop her style
Sadie Frost, the actress, and Kelly Osbourne, the television personality, have given witness statements on behalf of the friends in which they describe how Winehouse gave away her clothing.
Winehouse died aged 27 in July 2011 after binge-drinking vodka while watching clips of herself on YouTube. A verdict of misadventure was recorded following a second inquest into her death.
Gourlay met Winehouse when they were teenagers in 2002 and they were flatmates in Camden, north London, from 2004 to 2005, the court was told. Gourlay worked at Rokit, a vintage clothes shop, and would buy items and bring them back to their flat to “share and swap”.
Ted Loveday, Gourlay’s barrister, said: “Her fashion sense helped to shape Ms Winehouse’s look as she approached the peak of her fame. These items were not expected to have enormous value at the time. When they swapped and lent items to each other, especially in the earlier period, it was not done with serious regard to their legacy value.”
Winehouse’s second album, Back to Black, was released in 2006 and became one of the bestselling records of all time.
Winehouse arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London
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Loveday told the court that many of the items in dispute never belonged to Winehouse and others were gifts from the singer between 2003 and 2011.
He said that within days of the first auction in 2021, Winehouse’s father vowed to unleash “the finest and most aggressive attorneys in London”. He also tried to persuade the police to investigate the friends for fraud, which was “rebuffed immediately”, the court was told.
Gourlay spent the proceeds of the sales paying her debts, renovating her flat and paying medical bills, while Winehouse’s father is a multimillionaire, having inherited his daughter’s fortune because she died intestate, the court heard.
Gourlay, 41, said in a witness statement: “Naomi and I have known Mitch for a long time and were very close to Mitch and the rest of Amy’s family since Amy’s death. Naomi and I had dedicated a huge amount of time and energy towards working with Amy’s family to keep her legacy alive.”
Gourlay, left, arrives for the hearing on Monday
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Parry, also 41, met Winehouse when they were both 19. She was the singer’s freelance stylist from autumn 2006 until her death, the court was told. They lived together in Camden from 2008 to 2010.
Beth Grossman, representing Parry, said the stylist was close friends with Winehouse “throughout a period of considerable turbulence and created and maintained the looks which became synonymous with Amy”.
Winehouse increasingly gave away items as she was inundated with freebies from designers and brands who wanted her to promote them, including Fendi and Harvey Nichols.
Mitch Winehouse, 75, whose memoir, Amy, My Daughter, was published in 2012, is suing the friends as a personal representative of his daughter’s estate.
He told the court that his daughter was “generous to a fault”. He added: “I assume she would have given them [Parry and Gourlay] some things but I don’t believe it is 150 items.”
Winehouse performs at the Brit Awards in London in 2008
ALESSIA PIERDOMENICO/REUTERS
Henry Legge KC, representing Mitch Winehouse, a former taxi driver, said that he believed all the items in the 2021 auction were sold on behalf of his daughter’s estate after the clothing was retrieved from a storage unit where it was “gathering dust”.
He denied that the claim was the result of “jealousy and greed”. Legge said his client was aware of his daughter’s “generosity” and the “close relationship” between the women and would drop the claim if they could prove ownership of the items. Legge said his client would settle if they donated 30 per cent of their profit to his daughter’s foundation.
Examples of Winehouse’s generosity included giving £27,000 of designer clothes, including Alexander McQueen dresses, to a charity shop; lending her friend Tyler James £50,000 when he asked for £15,000; giving Dionne Bromfield, another singer, a guitar; and handing a friend’s mother a £20,000 watch following a concert in Birmingham.
Frost, 60, said in a witness statement that Winehouse gave her an “expensive designer dress by Fendi”, adding: “I think she probably did so because she felt bad at not returning various items that I had lent her over time.”
Osbourne, 41, said Winehouse gave her items including “a Jojo & Malou dress”. She added that, as somebody also in the public eye, she would “give away to friends and family if I have no use for them … and I know that Amy did the same”.
Mitch Winehouse will continue his evidence on Tuesday.
