Cherchez la Femme!

Look no further! If anyone knows how to dress a woman like a woman it is Arnold Scassi. Mr. Scassi's exuberant designs celebrate femininity and luxury. This 1980s off the shoulder little black dress with pouf is as pretty as it gets. The fabric is a beautiful gazar with a subtle black on black print. A dress with a great pouf is fun to wear because well, it is just fun to have something with a pouf and mostly because it makes your legs look long, lean and luscious. So, go ahead Gorgeous and slip into a little Scassi.

1980s off the shoulder silk gazar cocktail dress with scalloped neckline. Size 4/6.

Labeled Scassi Boutique.

For more information about this item please email info@rarevintageinc.com or call (212) 581 7273

Film Noir

The heroine of the film noir: is she the dangerous femme fatale or is she the slightly wounded heroine? In the forties, she had to pay for her intelligence and sexuality but in the eighties and nineties she got some poor sap to pay for her crime while she rode off happily in a limo (like Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction) to a better life and a hotter man (like Kathleen Turner in Body Heat).

This robe noir, which is unlabeled, belonged to an Italian film actress of the sixties. It is beautifully made - each silk chiffon ruffle is hand finished - and there are a lot of ruffles! The black lace on the bodice is sheer and would look beautiful with a nude bra or body suit underneath. It has all the hallmarks of what we love in vintage - it is an absolutely unique piece - we love to have what no one else has and what no one else will be wearing and it is still incredibly current and modern.

So, could this have been worn in a film noir by some brilliant seductress who out schemes everyone just by being so distracting in her ruffled, silk chiffon gown with transparent lace? We like to imagine so! We supply the dress, drama optional.

Unlabeled 1960s Italian couture silk chiffon and lace gown. Size 4.

For more information about this item please email info@rarevintageinc.com or call (212) 581 7273

Harlequin Romance

RARE vintage's great romance is with Yves Saint Laurent. Each piece of haute couture and ready to wear that we find never fails to set our hearts pounding.

The 1979 haute couture collection was inspired by the art of Picasso and Diaghilev. Art was essential to Yves Saint Laurent and his incredible art collection which includes paintings by Matisse, Picasso and Goya will be going up for auction next year at Christies.

Here is a silk dress for day with a dropped waist and ruffles around the cuffs and neck. There are also ties that can drape casually from the slightly open neck. With a great pair of boots, the dress will have an easy bohemian feeling and with a pair of this seasons chunky high, high heels it will have a more polished lady like look.

Circa 1980 harlequin print silk Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche dress. Size 4.

For more information about this item please email info@rarevintageinc.com or call (212) 581 7273

RARE vintage Goes To Dallas

We are pleased to have been invited to hold a special trunk show in Dallas so we have packed our couture and are bringing a bit of New York RARE vintage to Texas.

We will not be posting any new pieces for the next dew days but will leave you with this special couture dress from Gianni Versace. The sweetness of the color of the dress is countered by a bit of tough gold hardware, a graphic sixties mini silhouette and sexy peek-a-boo cutouts all around the waist. Gianni Versace was a great admirer of Madame Gres who also exposed different areas of the body in her work. You can take a look at our post titled ‘Gres is the black’ on February 1st 2008 for a very beautiful banded crepe dress with cutouts running down the side of the body by Madame Gres.

This is a true collectors piece from a great period by Versace. It will make you feel good to know that it is hanging in your closet and make you feel even better, even prettier and even sexier when you when wear it. That is what Gianni did for us girls and still does we might add!

Early 1990s Gianni Versace Couture dress with gold Medusa medallions and peek-a-boo cutouts. Size 4.

For more information about this item please email info@rarevintageinc.com or call (212) 581 7273

A Luxe Look Straight From The Runway

The runway of circa 1963 that is.

RARE vintage likes to edit and curate our collection to the very best pieces from our favorite designers. It is important to us that the pieces that you love are not only wearable but collectible.

This is a saturated midnight blue silk cocktail dress by the great Italian couturier Pino Lancetti. The deep blue is so luminescent and dreamy that it resembles the sea under the light of a full moon. The dress is elegantly restrained and romantic at the same time. There is an historical merger of a sleek 1960s cocktail dress from the front and a romantic bustled skirt in the back that is poetic and powerful. The pleated top fans enticingly away from the inner bodice and the back. The back is a definite erogenous zone and the way the the top falls away is very sexy. Don't be surprised if some handsome mysterious stranger suddenly kisses your shoulders!

Of course, the dress is also a blend of art and craft. The details and work and the organza lining are fashion design and haute couture skill at its best.

Circa 1963 Lancetti midnight blue silk cocktail dress. Size 4.

For more information about this item please email info@rarevintageinc.com or call (212) 581 7273

Get Your Flirt On!

Who among us can resist a feminine, flirtatious frock? Something that dips deliciously in the back and whose ruffles - each lined in horsehair - declare Girl Power! It is exuberant and youthful but also gives a woman what she wants: to look good and feel good. So, go ahead, slip into Oscar de la Renta from the 1980s and get your flirt on!

1980s ruffled silk organza Oscar de la Renta cocktail dress. Size 4.

For more information about this item please email info@rarevintageinc.com or call (212) 581 7273

Mila Schon

In 1966, in an antique palazzo on Via Montenapoleone with modern furniture by Joe Colombo and Eero Saarinen, Mila Schon opened her own design house. The connection between vintage and modern is also a very RARE vintage philosophy.

Mila Schon died last week at the age of 91 on the eve of a major retrospective in Milan. She had been called the female Courreges for her precisesly cut angles and nod to futurism. She also believed in simple elegance.

At Truman Capote's famous black-and-white ball in 1966 she dressed Marella Agnelli in an embroidered caftan and Lee Radziwill in a black and white sequin shift - an image which has been widely published.

RARE vintage has an extraordinary strapless silk cocktail dress by Mila Schon. The draped bodice references the 18th century but is minimalist and sculptural in black taffeta. There is a definite return to glamorous black cocktail dresses for the Fall season and this dress with glittering jewelry will be a standout and timeless piece.

Draped silk taffeta Mila Schon cocktail dress. Size 2/4.

Labeled Mila Schon.

For more information about this item please email info@rarevintageinc.com or call (212) 581 7273

Gone in Sixty Seconds

This 1960s cocktail dress in black mousseline with allover black paillette embroidery with a slight tulip skirt came into RARE this morning and as we walked into the store so did a client who scooped it up. She kindly let us hold onto it for the afternoon so that we could photograph it.

Pirovano is not well known in the United States but is an Italian haute couture house that had a store on Via Montenapoleone. All of the Milanese Alta Moda would have shopped at Pirovano. This dress is beautifully made and extremely glamorous. We could easily see Claudia Cardinale rolling around on a fur carpet with David Niven in The Pink Panther wearing the same dress.

1960's Pirovano cocktail dress with allover black paillette embroidery.

Labeled Pirovano.

A Fine and Important Roberto Capucci Ballgown

Roberto Capucci opened his Paris atelier on 4, Rue Cambon in the Sixties. He worked with an incredible team: La premiere was Mme. Germaine who had been with Christian Dior, Mme. Marguerite who had worked on the New Look collection with Dior and the press office was run by Mme. Josette, who had been secretary to the writer Colette. His collections were enthusiastically received by the notoriously exclusive and closed world of haute couture in Paris.

Here is an inky midnight blue silk satin ballgown. Strapless and cut close to the body it defines the waist before falling into an extremely full skirt, brilliantly constructed. The simplicity of the dress combined with geometrical form - a trademark of Capucci's work - makes it like a soft sculpture.

It is also a completely unique gown that on the body makes you feel completely serene, darkly romantic and beautiful.

Mid 1960s midnight blue silk satin Roberto Capucci ballgown.

Labeled Roberto Capucci Paris Rome.

For more information about this item please email info@rarevintageinc.com or call (212) 581 7273

Thrice as Nice!

Tomorrow we will start posting some amazing new pieces but tonight we would like to share with you another image of Rachel Weisz from The Toronto Film Festival in a 1980s Thierry Mugler strapless jumpsuit with patent leather belt. Unfortunately, in this photo we only see the top but it is incredibly sexy! No one cuts a jumpsuit to mold to a woman's body like Thierry Mugler.

Rachel Weisz in a 1980s Thierry Mugler black strapless jumpsuit.

Michelle Trachtenberg Blogs about The Costume Institute Gala in Cosmopolitan

Celeb Blog: Michelle Trachtenberg... Fantasy World
Gossip Girl star Michelle Trachtenberg dishes about her first time at the Met Costume Institute Gala

Buzz up!

I cannot even begin to describe the experience of attending the Met's Costume Institute Gala. With a guest list overseen by Anna Wintour herself, which includes the night's honoree, Giorgio Armani, as well as Valentino, Dolce & Gabanna, Tom & Katie, Posh & Becks, Jennifer Lopez, and the one and only Chris Noth (Sex and the City's Mr. Big), just to name a few!

I was lucky enough to wear a gorgeous outfit put together by Juliana Cairone, the owner of RARE Vintage and my date for the evening. I wore a stunning skirt and top ensemble by Yves Saint Laurent from the 1970s and I couldn't help but think about how many visits to Studio 54 that gold lamé skirt had made back in its glory days! The ball had a theme, Superheroes! Some of the most amazing and most famous legends of crime fighting had their fancy "battling evil" costumes on display. Every reincarnation of Wonder Woman, Batman, Cat Woman, and Iron Man was behind the Plexiglas. It was kind of like a big kid's fantasy world!

A lot of my fellow Gossip Girl cast members were out in force: Blake Lively, Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford, and Ed Westwick. It still makes me giggle whenever I hear Ed's British accent because he is soooo good at playing the devilish American boy we all love to hate, Chuck Bass. The ball was exquisite, and gave me the chance to catch up with old friends. My former "big sis," Sarah Michelle Gellar, was all glammed up and looking beautiful. Sarah and I have remained superclose all of these years post-Buffy, and it was so nice to have her be a part of such a magical evening for me. A special shout-out goes to my girl Fergie. Not only did she look amazing, but I was surprised to find out that this Met Ball was actually her first as well. Believe me, we were both living it up!!

The night was definitely one for the record books. And really, aren't we all superheroes deep down inside!?! Too bad I can't turn invisible and sneak into Chanel...oh well, a girl can dream!

xoxoxo,
Michelle

Twice as Nice: Rachel Weisz in RARE vintage.

RARE vintage has had three dresses on two amazing actresses at The Toronto Film Festival. Anne Hathaway wore Jean-Louis Scherrer couture and Rachel Weisz also wore Jean-Louis Scherrer couture but instead of black tulle it was lady-like silk leopard. Last night for the premiere of The Brothers Bloom she wore a pale powder blue Herve Leger couture bandage dress.

Rachel Weisz in pale powder blue Herve Leger couture bandage dress.

Rachel Wesiz in a 1980s silk leopard Jean-Louis Scherrer dress

Fit for a Princess: Anne Hathaway in RARE vintage

Anne Hathaway, referred to as Princesse Anne in the September issue of French Vogue, looked glamorous, chic and extremely feminine in an exuberant and playful tulle dress by Jean Louis Scherrer from RARE vintage while promoting her new film Rachel Getting Married.

The tulle ballerina dress gone goth in dotted black tulle with romantic white and silver roses partially concealed looks modern and edgy with towering black sandals.

Anne Hathaway in a Jean-Louis Scherrer 1980s black tulle dress with partially concealed roses and stiff petticoat.

Labeled Jean-Louis Scherrer couture.

The Beautiful Fall

Yves Saint Laurent in black velvet is beautiful, seductive and timeless. It is also severe and incredibly glamorous at the same time. It is perfect with red lips, strong brows and a good manicure. It is also perfect for walking home early in the morning from a rendezvous with slightly smudged make up and tousled hair. It is the future and the past. It is how we all want to look and feel in the evening and the morning after: chic and glamorous.

Late 1970s Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche moulin rouge cocktail dress in black velvet with silk taffeta ruffles and original silk taffeta sash.

Labeled Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche. Size 36.

For more information about this item please email info@rarevintageinc.com or call (212) 581 7273

Chanel Haute Couture 1978

After a summer of light frocks our thoughts always turn with excitement to cozy Fall clothes.  A perfect Fall piece is this Chanel haute couture winter-weight tweed dress with matching scarf. It was featured in the 1978 ad campaign and is right on trend for Fall's seventies-inspired looks. The tweed dress is one of Coco Chanel's classic contributions to fashion and this slim fitting 1978 piece is high glamour.  It is always important to see an haute couture piece close up.  The intimate details such as lining which can you see in the photograph with mannequin tape are incredible.  We also love the glossy black buttons with the gilt CC.  How gorgeous would it look with a great pair of booties?!

 

1978 Chanel haute couture runway dress.  Sold with original matching scarf.  Unlabeled but with original mannequin tape.  Size 36.  Fits a modern size 4/6.

For more information about this item please email info@rarevintageinc.com or call (212) 581 7273