Cyndi Lauper has described '80s rock 'n' roll fashion as "a time of individual expression".
The Girls Just Want To Have Fun currently has her Suitcase of Memories auction and exhibition running at New York City's Bonhams, and she has opened up about the importance of the collection.
She told Billboard: “The fashion stuff is very important to share because it’s inspirational. We spray-painted this, we put that together with safety pins.
“This is a great time to do this. Now that we’ve become so corporatised it’s good to look back at what we were.
"If you look back at rock n’ roll fashion in the ‘80s, it was a time of individual expression. In a time when we’re being forced into a square peg, it’s time to either remember or inspire.”
The collection features items like her DIY style True Colors skirt she made with Screaming Mimi's owner Laura Wills using torn up newspapers and magazines, as well as stage-worn Vivienne Westwood designs, and hand-me-downs from her grandmother.
Suitcase of Memories will remain open to the public until the end of the live auction date on Thursday (22.10.26), while the online auction will still be running the following day.
Cyndi, 73, noted that her passion for fashion was instilled in her from a young age thanks to her Italian family.
She explained: "[When] my family came over, the first relative was a seamstress. That’s how she made her money.
“Everybody sewed and could take a pattern and add to it. They could get hand-me-downs, look at you and measure and it would look like it was made for you.
"My mom, I can’t even get over how talented she was like that. My uncle was a cutter in the Garment District and became a sought-after pattern maker and then he became a women’s coat designer."
Cyndi is disappointed to see the way the fashion world has changed, with "big, gigantic corporations buying up little companies that are creative and the creatives are squeezed out".
She added: "Or you take a guy like Alexander McQueen and then you make him do 12 shows a year. Do you know [how much work] that entails?
"When they do that, they squeeze these people dry. They either lose their minds like [John] Galliano or they turn to drugs and alcohol, because after a while, coffee ain’t doing it.
"And that is where the problem is. Why do you have to be that greedy?"