FANS got a chance to rummage through Elton John’s colourful wardrobe yesterday when he put his old clothes up for sale for charity.

Almost 10,000 items, ranging from a $2,500 (£1,400) signed Hermès duffel coat to a $50 pair of red satin boxer shorts, were on offer in New York to fund the Elton John Aids Foundation. The singer and his partner, David Furnish, undertook the massive spring-clean after realising that much of their wardrobe goes unused.

“You look at it and you think, ‘Will I ever wear it again?’ and you say, ‘No’,” Sir Elton said yesterday. “There are shoes that have not been worn and clothes that have not been worn. I am never going to wear these kinds of colourful clothes again.” The designer jumble sale was packed with sequins, fake furs and studs. One rack held several dozen dinner suits; another a selection of leather trousers. Fans could pick up a Versace silk shirt for $300 or a Burberry tartan kilt for $75 at the makeshift shop called “Elton’s Closet” at the Rockefeller Centre.

Perhaps the most prized item was the pink polka-dot Richard James suit that Sir Elton wore in his controversial 2001 Grammy Awards ceremony duet with the rapper Eminem, who was then being accused of homophobia. It was the first to sell, fetching its asking price of $1,500, plus an undisclosed donation to the Aids charity.

Jeremy Rowbottom, from Nottingham, found that he fitted into Sir Elton’s togs. “We are nearly the same size,” he said. “I bought two jackets by Richard James. One is bright pink. I’ll wear it to parties and restaurants. I would not do my shopping in a pink jacket. Going around Sainsbury’s? I don’t think so!” His wife, Tina, approved of the jacket but found other clothes too garish.

Amber Spradlin, a New York stylist who lost her uncle to Aids-related illness in the 1980s, bought T-shirts and jeans. She said: “It’s fabulous. It’s a palate with more colours than anyone else.”

Sir Elton says that similar sales mean that he is sometimes confronted by fans in the front row of his concerts wearing his old clothes. Past sales in London and Atlanta have raised about $2.5 million for his charity, which has raised more than $90 million to help HIV/Aids prevention and service in 55 countries since its creation in 1992.

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