The recent Met Ball at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York made headlines around the world, as A-list celebrities dressed on the theme of Chinese influences on western fashion.

And social media was buzzing with pictures of pop star Rihanna in a dress by Chinese designer Guo Pei, the train of which resembled – depending on who you listen to – an omelette, or a deep-pan pizza, while Sarah Jessica Parker's flamed headgear drew comparisons to one of the 2008 Beijing Olympics mascots, Huanhuan.

Meanwhile in the Cotswolds, fashion fans have been digging out pre-loved pieces to ensure the next generation of snappy dressers look fabulous at this year’s social gatherings: a range of accessories will be going under the hammer at the next Moore Allen & Innocent auction in Cirencester on Friday, May 15.

There’s almost nothing more Chinese than hand fans and parasols, and one lot has both: a small collections of fans including one with mother of pearl handle and hand-painted vellum (pigskin to you and me), and a pair of late Victorian bamboo-handled parasols. The lot carries an estimate of £50 to £80.

The epitome of East-meets-West fashion, of course, is the silk scarf, with its Oriental material and European design.

There are literally boxes of silk scarves offered for sale, but the most coveted are signed examples from the French fashion houses of Céline and Les Must de Cartier, Singaporean fashion designer Benny Ong, British designer Asprey, and Italian brand Gucci, produced during the 90s and early noughties. A bid of £50 to £80 should secure the lot.

The silk scarf was popularised by legends of the silver screen Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn, who said: “When I wear a silk scarf I never feel so definitely like a woman, a beautiful woman,” but the most iconic image of the actress – from her role as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's – features not a silk scarf, but a cigarette holder.

Anyone wishing to get the Hepburn look will be delighted with a cased set of seven cigarette holders by Alfred Dunhill of London, which will be sold in a lot that also contains a Dunhill lighter and Asprey cigarette case, commanding an estimate of £50 to £80.

Meanwhile a set of two Les Must de Cartier cigarette lighters, one gold plated, the other in simulated tortoiseshell, are expected to achieve between £50 and £80.

And returning to silk scarves, the sale also includes a pair that predate the 20th century trend. Produced in the late 1800s, one promotes the Boer War, with a portrait of Lord Roberts, commander of the British Forces in South Africa, and Queen Victoria.

The scarf is also printed with a map of South Africa and the words and music to The Absent Minded Beggar, a poem by Rudyard Kipling and set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan – of Gilbert and… fame – written as part of an appeal by the Daily Mail to raise money for soldiers fighting in the war.

The second scarf celebrates Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887, and features a portrait of Her Royal Highness surrounded by various Prime Ministers, and her nine children, which reads like a consideration list in that other big news story of the week – the recent arrival of Princess Charlotte: Victoria, Helena, Louise, Beatrice, and bookies’ favourite Alice.

A bid of £100 to £150 should secure the lot.

For a full auction catalogue, log on to www.mooreallen.co.uk