There might be a temptation to play hooky when wearing it — stealing away in a Ferrari GT to catch a matinee game at Wrigley Field.
Alas, no one is likely to confuse the person donning it with Abe Froman, the “sausage king of Chicago.”
But for a six-figure sum, you could still channel Ferris Bueller, whose patterned sweater vest from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” the 1986 John Hughes comedy about a suburban Chicago teenager ditching school, hit the auction block this week.
The vest worn by the actor Matthew Broderick in the movie could fetch several hundred thousand dollars, according to Sotheby’s, which is handling the garment’s sale.
The auction began on Thursday, the 40th anniversary of Ferris’s high jinks, and runs through June 24, with the bidding taking place online.
As Ferris’s monotone economics teacher, played by Ben Stein, would say: “Anyone, anyone?”
The vest is reminiscent of a cheetah print and made from acrylic yarn. It is expected to fetch an estimated $300,000 to $600,000, far outpacing the rate of inflation. And then some.
Marilyn Vance, the movie’s costume designer, who collaborated with Mr. Hughes on several signature looks from his Brat Pack-era productions, recalled in an interview on Friday that she had bought the sweater for about $28 at a Marshall Field’s department store in Chicago and cut the sleeves off.
“I didn’t want him to look like he had perfectly matched anything, because he’s a kid, and because he, you know, he had eccentric taste,” Ms. Vance said of Ferris Bueller.
She paired the vest with a Perry Ellis suit and a white T-shirt to complete the ensemble of the rebellious teenager, who feigns illness and sets out with his girlfriend and best friend on a Windy City excursion.
They take in a Cubs game, get some culture at the Art Institute of Chicago and crash a snooty French bistro, where Ferris tells the mâitre d’ that he’s Abe Froman, the sausage king.
A Ferrari GT and a parade float are expropriated by Ferris, who outwits his gullible parents and repressive high school dean.
“I love the idea that it was going to clash with his outfit,” Ms. Vance said of Ferris’s vest. “Everything he did was a little off.”
Ms. Vance, who was also the costume designer for “Pretty in Pink,” “The Breakfast Club,” “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and “Weird Science,” helped confirm the vest’s authenticity for the auction.
“To find something, any props in the 1980s, is difficult, but to find something really iconic is next to impossible,” Ralph DeLuca, Sotheby’s vice chairman of popular culture, said in an interview on Friday.
Sotheby’s identified the vest’s seller as Darren Rovell, the former ESPN sports business reporter and the founder of cllct, a website that covers the collectibles market.
He bought it three years ago and asked Ms. Vance for a letter of provenance confirming the vest’s authenticity, according to the auction house, which did not say how much he had paid for it.
Sotheby’s said it also enlisted an outside company to verify that the vest was the real deal, a process that involved matching it with photos from the movie.
The vest comes with several other pieces of memorabilia from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” that Sotheby’s said Mr. Rovell curated for the auction, including a prop baseball that was used in the movie when Ferris catches a foul ball.
A ticket stub from the June 5, 1985, Cubs game featured in the movie is also included and was autographed by the team’s closer at the time, Lee Smith.
As of Friday afternoon, Sotheby’s had received four bids for the vest, with the highest coming in at $130,000, according to its website.
That figure does not include a 27 percent buyer’s premium, which Sotheby’s, like other auction houses, tacks onto the hammer price to help cover expenses from a sale.
“If you’re from Chicago, what a piece of Chicago pride, cinematic pride,” Mr. DeLuca said, suggesting that it would be an ideal centerpiece for a bar or restaurant. “It’s click bait, it’s social media, like everyone will come in and want to take a picture of this thing.”
Ms. Vance, who is retired and is a founder of “Designing Hollywood,” a podcast, said it was mind-boggling how the vest had become so coveted.
“It blows me away,” she said. “I remember running around like a lunatic trying to get the right thing.”
The vest is on display in the lobby of Sotheby’s New York galleries until the auction ends. Browsing is not frowned upon, even for those who don’t have six figures to plunk down for the vest.
“I mean, listen, you see this here with the art previews,” Mr. DeLuca said. “I mean, people want to come look at a Basquiat or a Warhol.”
So would anyone in their right mind spend that kind of bank and wear the vest? Mr. DeLuca didn’t think so, saying it would probably wind up in a climate-controlled display case.
“Unless, you’re like Kim Kardashian,” he said, “who wears a Marilyn dress to the Met Gala.”
Neil Vigdor covers breaking news for The Times, with a focus on politics.
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