Y? Because We L♡VE YSL!

I am personally not a huge fan of wearing a brand's logo but I do love a vintage V like in my Valentino couture coat from 1968.  (I say my because I was the totally evil vintage store owner and decided to keep this coat for my personal archive.  The temptation is sometimes too great...) or like in this amazing and absolutely perfect little suede clutch from Yves Saint Laurent (which is mighty tempting I might add:)

The subtle Y is perforated in the suede on leather (just connect the dots).  There is a little suede fringed tassel and it is the perfect size.  And unless you are living in a cabin in a remote wilderness without access to the internet, a subscription to WWD (which is just the paper every cabin owner in the wilderness needs of course!) or Vogue, you will know that a clutch is The Bag of the moment and come Fall, you will be sorry if you missed the chance to be the one clutching it.

1970s YSL clutch

Please note that the condition is excellent though there are some extremely minor signs of wear but to all the best vintage a little life lived must fall.

PURCHASE

INQUIRY

Summer Love: Bags and Blouses: Day Two: Feeling Noir

I love color for summer but after a burst of color, I end up craving a bit of film noir femme fatale dark  mystery.  You know the type: sleek hair, red stained lips, is she good or is she bad, dressed in a bit of dangerous black.  Fasten your seat belts because it's going to be a bumpy night kind of girl.  

For all of you femme fatales out there, it's going to be a dark and stormy night at RARE vintage...

1980s Chanel silk black tank with gilt four leaf clover buttons.  Size 6.

1980s Yves Saint Laurent black velvet and black sequin clutch/shoulder bag.


PURCHASE

INQUIRY

Summer LOVE: Bags and Blouses All This Week at RARE vintage!

Sometimes it is the little things in life that makes us the happiest.  Like falling in love with a vintage Ungaro blouse in the perfect shade of yellow to brighten our day and our outfit or an unusual metal mesh wristlet bag that no one will have and everyone else will want (and don't we love to have something that no one else has?!)

Feel the l♡ve because at RARE vintage we l♡ve to l♡ve you!

Ungaro blouse with gumdrop yellow buttons:

Circa 1980 Ungaro yellow blouse.  Size 6

An anonymous metal mesh wristlet bag is space age chic in a turn of the century material in a size that will fit all of your modern day stuff: mobile phone, credit card, lipstick, keys...  Love it!  

The bag opens fully when you tilt the wristlet ring flat.  Oh yes and what was I saying before, no one else will have this little bag which is another reason to love it.  Oh, how do I love thee, let me count the ways...  sorry!  I tend to obsess over these things...  and I know I am not the only person to lie awake in the middle of night because I just can't stop thinking about that bag or blouse I saw.  You know who you are!  But be comforted by the fact that there are thousands of other girls awake in the middle of the night, thinking the same thing:)

PURCHASE

INQUIRY

A Colossal Talent and a Troubled Soul: Amy Winehouse 1983-2011

I was so sad about the death of Amy Winehouse this weekend.  I can not tell you how many times we played Back to Black at RARE vintage but it was A LOT.  She had her own totally unique thing going on with her music and her style.  I loved the skinny girl with the huge beehive, the lined eyes, the boobs pushed up, short shorts and little ballet flats.  But even more then the style was The Voice: moody, knowing, soulful.  

Amy Winehouse performing at a party for Fendi

Karl Lagerfeld called Amy Winehouse a style icon.  She inspired the December 2007 Chanel Paris-Londres collection.

Chanel Paris-Londres collection.  2007.

Addiction is a terrible thing and it has taken a great talent.

Goodbye to All That: Rifat Ozbek

Rifat Ozbek said goodbye to the fashion designer life for a farm in Turkey and a store called Yastik.  Yastik which means cushion in Turkish sells pillows made from new and antique  textiles sourced in Turkey and Central Asia, filled with down and most amazing of all: lavendar.

But once upon a time there was a boy born in Turkey, who moved to London, designed clothing inspired by Africa and India.  In 1997 he showed his first collection in New York which was called 'White Voodoo'.

Naomi Campbell wore this heavily beaded, heavily symbolic, all very mysterious jacket/cardigan with cut out shoulders.  Too too amazing don't you think?!

1998 Rifat Ozbek 'White Voodoo' Collection beaded jacket.  Size 4.


PURCHASE

INQUIRY

The Charming Kazuko

For as long as I can recall, I remember walking into Barneys from the Madison Avenue entrance and seeing a glass display case front and center with its magical and enticing display of jewelry made from spun gold and semi precious stones and crystals.  Then one day those pieces were gone, replaced by something else and I felt some of the magic was gone.  

Kazuko, like Madonna, who wore one of her tulle crystal embroidered scarves in the video "Like a Virgin", went by one name.

Madonna in a Kazuko crystal edged tulle veil in Like a Virgin

Her spun gold and crystal and stone bangles, pendants and charms became the must have accessory for women like Bianca Jagger and Gloria Vanderbilt.

I am happy to be able to offer a small collection of Kazuko's jewelry at RARE vintage, not far from Barney's New York on Madison Avenue I might add.  They can be bundled together and worn as a pendant or as pins.  Kazuko believed that everything happened for a reason and so do I.  Let the magic begin again...

Kazuko charms in gold and silver.  

PURCHASE

INQUIRY

Breaking Fashion News: Satisfy Me: Male Models

Beautiful boys just want to have fun.  A great video by Justin Wu.  Love the pompadoured dudes!  Enjoy!

All That Glitters Is Not Necessarily Gold

And I say hallelujah to that because the price of gold has just hit a record high.  But here at RARE vintage we are just simple girls with couture dreams and champagne tastes but with an eye for sound investments and a good return on our money.  We also know that when someone says, "There is gold in them thar hills!"  that gold, if it is there, is going to cost you a pretty penny.  

But we also know that all that glitters is not necessarily gold and that costume can sometimes be even more fabulous and fun then the real thing.  As a client of ours said to me in Hong Kong, "You know it is not so convienent to go around wearing two million dollars worth of jewelry anymore".  Girl, it sure isn't.

So what do you do?  You don't want to bedeck yourself in $2,000,000 in jewelry for a cocktail party tonight but you don't want to go unadorned either.  RARE vintage to the rescue!  It's fabulous, it's fake and it's by anonymous.  It's glamorous but with a edge.  Interspersed throughout the gold beads are 'nails' with rhinestone heads.  So look beautiful!  Have fun!  And don't break open your piggy bank for a necklace that will amaze your friends  (& make them envious!).  And that is golden.

Circa 1980s gold and glamourous beaded necklace

PURCHASE

INQUIRY

Weekend Reading 14: In My Secret Garden There is a Rabbit Wearing a Ruff and a Dinosaur Spouting Water

Weekend reading for you from RARE vintage.  Read on...

In my head there are many rooms.

Tete-Maison, 1973

Within those rooms there is a meadow dotted with sheep

Moutons on the grounds of the Chateau de Chenonceau, 1991

Think Pink: Roberto Capucci

Think pink! when you shop for summer clothes.
Think pink! if you want that quelque chose.
Red is dead, blue is through,
Greens obscene, brown's taboo.
And there is not the slightest excuse for plum or puce
or chartreuse.
Think pink! forget that Dior said black and rust.
Think pink! who cares if the New Look has no bust.
Now, I wouldn't presume to tell a woman
what a woman oughta think,
But tell her if she's gotta think, think pink!
- Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) in Funny Face

I love pink for summer whether it is on my favorite nail polish, Morning Rose by Chanel

which is the softest, prettiest shade of pink with flecks of gold (this color is super flattering and everyone always comments on how nice it is) or on a 1970s Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche dress which is The Ultimate Summer Dress by the way (very Rolling Stones model wife Patti Hansen as shot by Helmut Newton don't you think?!)  But it is also a model sized 34 alas - calling all lucky French sized 34 girls!

Or think Roberto Capucci pink from the 1960s.  Roberto Capucci was recently celebrated at the Philadelphia Museum of art's exhibit, Roberto Capucci: Art Into Fashion.  From 1962 to 1968, Capucci worked from Paris and this dress is from that period.  Known for his architectural shapes, this dress stands out for its sculpted, pleated silhouette at the front.  Rare, collectible, wearable: the RARE vintage way.

1960s Roberto Capucci pink gown.

PURCHASE

INQUIRY

The Interior Life of RARE vintage

A truly fashionable life means a fashionable interior. 

Mona Bismarck in Balenciaga in her apartment on Avenue de New-York in Paris

Even without the fashion, it is still all about the style.

The living room in Yves Saint Laurent's Paris apartment

So that is why when I was originally shown a collection of Joe Eula fashion sketches, I knew I had to have them.  One of our clients, Julie Brown, was kind enough to share the framed drawings she purchased for a client's home.  The drawings are in hand painted frames, mounted on gilt edged linen and set behind museum quality glass.  That's the way you do it!  

Photo courtesy of Brownhouse Design

Brownhouse Design

662 Springer Terrace

Los Altos, California

Thank you Julie for sharing!  The drawings look amazing!!

La Principessa and Jackie Kennedy

So I am feeling very Jackie in Capri these days at RARE vintage.  First it was the great big, anti-paparazzo sunnies and now Jackie in Capri with her BFF, La Principessa Irene Galitzine.  

Princess Irene Galitzine and Jackie Kennedy in Capri

Princess Irene Galitzine was the founder of an uber glamorous fashion house in Rome in the 1960s.  She was well known for her famous evening pant, cut slim and embroidered.  Diana Vreeland coined the term, "palazzo pajamas" after the setting for her fashion shows, the Palazzo Pitti, in Florence.  

Diana Vreeland with Irene Galitzine and Niki de Gunzburg

And Claudia Cardinale wore a pair of Galitzine palazzo pajamas in the 1963 film, 'The Pink Panther'.

Claudia Cardinale in Irene Galitzine in The Pink Panther

PURCHASE

INQUIRY

Jackie's Capri

The paparazzo Settimio Garritano photographed Jacqueline Kennedy in Capri from 1969 to 1972.  (He also took the infamous photographs of Jacqueline Kennedy sunbathing nude on Skorpios in 1971 but we are not going to go there.)  The photographs of Jackie in Capri are the essence of summer style and chic.  Just a simple First Lady in a pair of cotton pants, fitted t shirt, Canfora thong sandals, head scarf and oversized sunglasses.  

And I'm talkin' about a HUGE pair of sunglasses.

I personally love the super glamorous but super relaxed and very real style of Jacqueline Kennedy in these photos.  She is not teetering around a pebble beach in high heels or wearing a swimsuit with a leather belt or anything else ridiculous.   So if you see me on the beach on Long Island or in Italy I am usually in one of my many vintage head scarves (it's an addiction) and an enormous pair of sunglasses.  Now, if you don't have an enormous pair of sunglasses, well, look no further my like minded 'Jackie in Capri' friends.  Here they are at RARE vintage in New York:

(and I mean big!)

Anonymous 1960s/early 1970s oversized sunglasses

Tod's and La Conchiglia present the exhibition "Jackie's Capri"

July 3rd to August 20th 2011 at the Hotel Quisiana, Capri

Pigs Fly! The Cows Have Come Home and This Is The Day!

I was shocked I tell you!  Shocked!  When I turned on my computer and saw on Style.Com: Alaia.  Azzedine Alaia.  It seemed like everyone (but Vogue) was writing about Alaia.  Cathy Horyn has been a wonderful supporter of Alaia and I have always turned to her blog, On the Runway,  to read a review of what he has shown and catch a glimpse or two of what he is doing.  But there on Style.com was a listing of designers and amid the designers was the name Azzedine Alaia for the Fall 2011 Couture shows.  I thought I would only see this day when pigs fly or when the cows come home, in other words, that will be the day.

And the day arrived with coats with fitted bodices and full skirts, zippered pencil skirts, tufts of fur and a lacquered looking crocodile and most amazing  of all: a semi sheer evening gown, snug to the  waist but which appeared to have panniers sprouting from the waist for a full regal effect.  All in the colors from an Egon Schiele painting.

Azzedine Alaia.  Fall 2011 Couture.  Photo from Style.com

The track was Je Suis Snob by Josephine Baker.  Here is the version by Serge Gainsbourg:



Aren't you glad the couture chickens have come home to roost?!    And what did the master couturier serve for a small select group after the show?  Roasted chicken in the kitchen.  

Summer of 1965: Oscar de la Renta for Jane Derby

Oscar de la Renta had apprenticed with the great Cristobal Balenciaga and  designed for Elizabeth Arden before partnering with Jane Derby in 1965.  Jane Derby was seventy years old, recently remarried and hoping to enjoy more time at her house in Bermuda when she died suddenly leaving Oscar de la Renta to take over the label.  He used the label: Oscar de la Renta for Jane Derby for one year before switching to his name alone and the rest is extravagant eveningwear history.

I adore these silk dresses from the 1960s that look so great with a flat gilded or jeweled sandal or a high heel.  They are fitted and small in the bodice with a tiny bit of stiffness and have a slightly A lined skirt.  They feel like summer in someplace wonderful like Capri, Antibes or Patmos.  He dressed society girls from the very beginning, Minnie Cushing being one of the first to be seen out and about in Oscar de la Renta for Jane Derby.

Minnie Cushing.  Vogue 1966.

Enjoy the photos of these exceptional, rare and early Oscar de la Renta for Jane Derby dresses which are putting me in the mood for a Pimms...

Bejeweled, bedecked and beautiful in 1965/1966 Oscar de Renta for Jane Derby aqua silk cocktail dress with beading in shades of pink, blue and pale green.  Please note that the color of the dress is a gorgeous aqua closest to the detail photo.

All that shimmers is Oscar:

PURCHASE

INQUIRY