Chanel, Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele and RARE vintage

"For personal chic you need to mix your own shit in and make it happen." 

Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele

Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele probably first entered my radar in a 1997 issue of House and Garden (which I am still the proud owner of - oh, how I miss House and Garden under Dominique Browning!).  In her closet there were rows upon rows of Chanel multi colored ballerinas and piles upon piles of Chanel multi colored cashmere sweaters and I was completely gobsmacked by the extravagance and Chanel-ness of it all!

Carlyne does not do minimalist.  More is, simply, more.  Why have less, when you can have more?!  Haven't you heard?  Carlyne style is a salade!  It is a mix of something Chanel, a pair of jeans, something inexpensive, something expensive.  These days it might be a gold Rolex with a pair of Jermey Scott winged high top sneakers and a track suit ( I am really trying to convince my children that those high tops are awesome!)

"She sees fashion as a brilliant kaleidoscope.  Even in the days of minimalism (often boring and pretentious) , she stuck with her style and was influenced by nobody".

Karl Lagerfeld on Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele

Mid-nineties Chanel is so Karl but also so Carlyne... and I am so glad to have an amazing collection of mid-1990s Chanel just in at RARE vintage!

These photos are from a 2009 issue of French Vogue styled by CC de D but many of bits and pieces are vintage Chanel.  As you can see, it's a salade!

Working a Chanel cashmere sweater, iconic leather woven Chanel belt and the discreet charm of a charming little baby Chanel 2.55 bag on big sis Chanel 2.55.  

And Baby Chanel in the house of RARE vintage:

Bronze Baby Chanel 2.55 available for purchase at RARE vintage.  

For more information or to purchase please email info@rarevinatge.com or phone 212.581.7273

Chanel ID bangle and belt in the house of RARE vintage (I LOVE this amazing belt!  So chic!  And so cool!):

                                               Available for purchase at RARE vintage.  

For more information or to purchase please email info@rarevinatge.com or phone 212.581.7273

Available for purchase at RARE vintage.  

For more information or to purchase please email info@rarevinatge.com or phone 212.581.7273

and in the House of RARE vintage, a black and white silk ribbon pin monogrammed with Chanel - perfect with a classic vintage Chanel tweed jacket, a tee... please note this is unused and in its original box.

Available for purchase at RARE vintage.  

For more information or to purchase please email info@rarevinatge.com or phone 212.581.7273

Real Girl, Real Vintage: Giovanna Battaglia in Alaia

Real Girl, Real vintage: the glamorous Giovanna Battaglia at Paris Fashion Week in 1991 leopard Azzedine Alaia:

and back in the day... photographed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino and styled by Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele:

and at RARE vintage... SOLD but not forgotten... we are always looking for leopard Alaia!

The Red Carpet Needs a New Pose

I would love to see a new pose on the red carpet...

Let the James Begin!

And so it begins... Charles James, the focus of next year's Spring exhibition and Met Gala, will no doubt be influencing designers in the coming months and it looks like Zac Posen already got his James on Juliette Lewis at the CFDA awards in June.

Very James: the color, the satin, the details...

and the original, the inspiration...  oh, to be one of these lovelies...

Yves Saint Laurent, The Lalanne(s) and the Crocodile

"I have a passion for objects depicitng birds and snakes but in real life these animals scare me."

"Some nights its a little unsettling."

Yves Saint Laurent

In 1969 Yves Saint Laurent commissioned the Lalanne(s) to create bronzed body jewelry for the fall collection.  The breast plates worn over cerulean blue silk dresses were poetic, beautiful, tribal and slightly surreal.

Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé collected Francois-Xavier and Claude Lalanne pieces too for their homes.  A flock of sheep so YSL could feel as if he was on a farm in Normandy, a vineyard of vines for the Paris apartment...

Fashion imitates Art, Art imitates Life...

I was absolutely thrilled to acquire this 1986 limited edition 20th anniversary Goosens for Yves Saint Laurent crocodile gilt cuff for RARE vintage

YSL gilt crocodile cuff.  Available to purchase at RARE vintage.  

For more information please email info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7273

in pristine condition and so Lalanne Fauteil-Crocodile, 1987...

Fashion Will You Still Love Me, Will You Still Need Me When I'm 85? Part #7

"I think if you're 85 and still working, you become interesting." Betty Halbreich

Betty Halbreich is a Manhattan legend and for the past thirty-six years has been THE personal shopper at the luxury oasis, Bergdorf Goodman.  The New York Times recently profiled Mrs. Halbreich in her Park Avenue apartment where she has lived since 1947 and the rent for an eight-room apartment was $220 a month.

She greeted the Times journalist, Dan Shaw, in a Marni dress and gave him a tour of her life in her apartment.  I love that the apartment is a little bit - or perhaps more then a little bit - of a time capsule to a bygone era - when women were the keeper of the home and devoted to lifestyle.  But of course what is so interesting is that Halbreich is a working woman.

Her clients at Bergdorfs include Sarah Jessica Parker and Meryl Streep.  Patricia Fields has called her a fellow stylist.  

Betty Halbreich in her blue dining room:

A cupboard of pressed linens:

A drawer of jewelry:

"Everybody goes mad for these shoe closets that are built into the back of a door" BH

A butler's pantry:

I love this spot in her house - a bar is so old school and most couples from my grandparents generation had a similar small bar somewhere in their home.  

"This is my favorite spot in the house.  I keep my vodka in the refrigerator with spearmint in it in case you are really interested." BH

Betty-isms:

"The one thing I pride myself on, is knowing your size the minute you walk in. It's like a man sizing up a beautiful woman."

"I believe in longevity in dressing.  I like to treat clothes like paintings.  As they grow older, sometimes they get better."

"I never wore what anyone else wore as a little girl."

and from Isaac Mizrahi:

"Behind every successful man is a woman and behind every successful woman is Betty Halbreich.

Photos from The New York Times

SEE and SEEN: That was Then, This is Now: Charles James

There are two certainties in this life: 

1. Tickets to the Met Gala, Charles James: Beyond Fashion, in May 2014 will not cost you anything even slightly remote to $200.  

and 2. Ain't no one, but no one, is going to be sashaying in a fashion show after dinner wearing a Charles James Four Leaf Clover Dress or a Charles James Swan Gown.

The Genius of Charles James.  The Brooklyn Museum. 1982.

"Like the career of James, the exhibition and the evening were more idiosyncratic than most.  There was to be the requisite dinner, this for 600 last night, to be attended by such guests as Halston, who underwrote the dinner and the fashion show, Bianca Jagger, Perry Ellis, C.Z. Guest.  There were nice nostalgic touches:  James' favorite champagne, Moet & Chandon, was to be served at dinner and the tables were set with his favorite flowers, orchids.

But unlike other exhibitions, the evening was to feature a fashion show of models wearing that designer's famous confections."  The New York Times.  October 15, 1982

"A benefit dinner and fashion show in the Blum Gallery at the Brooklyn Museum will open the exhibition "The Genius of Charles James".  The late designer, such a perfectionist that he only completed 200 dresses in a long career, is represented also by lithographs and the lip sofa considered so avant-garde in its day.  After dinner, models will parade in 20 James creations on loan from such proud possessors as Jennifer Jones, Elizabeth de Cuevas and Austine Hearst, co-chairman for the event with Halston.  Patrons will also be able to preview the exhibition before it opens to the public October 16th.  Tickets, $200. " The New York Times. October 10, 1982

Mrs. Charles James photographed by Cecil Beaton at 716 Madison Avenue.  1955

Dominique de Menil wearing Charles James on a Charles James designed sofa

Detail of extreme beauty... Charles James Swan gown...

I am so excited for upcoming exhibition Charles James: Beyond Fashion in the newly renovated galleries of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art!  Is it too soon to worry about what to wear?!  I don't think so!

Itsy, Bitsy, Teenie, Weenie Chanel Bronze Mini

It will not hold a cell phone, a key or a credit card.

But this baby Chanel 2.55 bag in a bronze leather will just look too cute and too adorable hanging on a big sister Chanel 2.55 bag or from a belt.  Or even on another bag as a little a charm...

Early 1990s Chanel baby 2.55 bag.  Pristine condition.  

For more information or to purchase please email info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7273

Mamma Schiaparelli Says Wear Your Peas

Like a good Italian Mamma, Elsa Schiaparelli wants you to eat your peas - wait a minute, that is not right.  Let me start over: Like a good Italian fashion designer Mamma, Elsa Schiaparelli wants you to wear your peas!

Schiaparelli was well known for the natural motifs she incorporated into her fashion designs and her interest in Surrealism both of which are reflected in this whimsical brooch.  

House of Schiaparelli 1950s signed peas brooch.  For more information please email info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7273

Roi of Light: Chanel and Louis XIV Le Roi Soleil

Recently, in the renovation of the Ritz in Paris, a previously undiscovered Charles Le Brun painting was discovered hanging in plain sight in Coco Chanel's suite and was sold at Christies by the owner of the Ritz, Mohamed Al Fayed, to benefit the Dodi Al Fayed foundation.  Charles Le Brun was the masterful decorator of Versailles who brought the magnificent vision of Louis XIV to a mirrored, gilded, parqueted, dressed to impress reality.  Louis humbly chose the sun as his emblem and became known as Le Roi Soleil.  And his emblem appears throughout Versailles such as on this door knob...

In the mid 1980s Karl Lagerfeld began amassing a collection of 18th century furnishings to live la vie Louis XIV.  It is from this period in Lagerfeld's life when he was successor to Coco Chanel and buying armoires by Jean-Henri Reisner, one of the master furniture makers under Louis XIV, and lighting his dining room solely by candlelight, that he did these super fabulous Le Roi Soleil earrings.

I love that KL put the gilded Sun God on a large resin disk.  Magnifique don't you think?!  And truly, who has visited Versailles does not dream of living la vie Louis XIV??

Circa 1990 Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel Le Roi Soleil gilt and resin earrings.  Signed.

To purchase please email info@rarevintage or phone 212.581.7273

Everyone Goes Crazy for Chanel Suspenders

For one brief, shining moment we had a pair of Chanel black and white suspenders in their original box, in pristine condition - and I say brief because they flew out of the store before they even made it onto the sales floor - that is the privilege of membership so to speak - our clients get to see the new pieces first : )  and it was crazy!  Everyone wanted them!

The Beautiful Bride: Malgosia Bela in RARE vintage!

Malgoisa Bela was married to Jean-Yves Le Fur on Li Galli this past weekend in a white Azzedine Alaia dress from RARE vintage and she looked absolutely stunning!  Her wedding epitomized the glamour of barefoot and bohemian chic in a beautiful setting.  She also wore a flowing lime colored Yves Saint Laurent caftan dress the following day (also from RARE vintage : ) with natural barely there makeup and her hair in soft waves.  So gorgeous!  Congratulations Malgosia!

Some photos courtesy of Purple Diary and were photographed by Olivier Zahm.