A Balenciaga Cocktail Dress. Provenance: Mrs. Rachel Bunny Mellon

One of my favorite pieces at RARE vintage is a very rare, mossy greens silk Balenciaga cocktail dress, scattered with pink and poppy red dahlias that had belonged to Mrs. Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon.  

1962 Bunny Mellon Provenance Balenciaga cocktail dress.  Available for purchase at RARE vintage. 

Clothing to me, is imbued with the spirit of the person who originally fell in love with it.  Sometimes, I think people believe that I want to hear "this was never worn", when it is actually quite the opposite.  I prefer to know that the dress I am buying, even if it was just for one night, had a grand time and created a memory.

But back to our Balenciaga cocktail dress.  It is symbolic not just because Bunny Mellon was a great client of Balenciaga, a couturier who, like Mrs. Mellon, desired privacy and avoided journalists, but the dress, with its painterly flowers, is also a reflection of Mrs. Mellon's passionate interest in gardening and her extraordinary Oak Springs Garden Library.

A Style Icon of a Different Sort: Mrs. Rachel Bunny Mellon

Bunny Mellon was not as beautiful as Babe Paley.  She was well known for being a client of Balenciaga but unlike another famous client of Balenciaga, there are no portraits of her in black and white posing for Cecil Beaton in a robe déshabillé in a grand room at the Hotel Lambert in Paris.  Like Barbara Hutton she was born into great wealth but she did not squander her money nor waste her time with princes and playboys.

Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon was a woman in full.  Nothing was too small to escape her notice but it was not a dress to impress mentality, it was about collecting pieces she loved, whether in art, garden seeds or fashion.  And really, if you could have someone make, not only your cocktail dresses, but your entire wardrobe from your gardening hats to your staff's uniforms wouldn't you want it to be Balenciaga or Hubert de Givenchy too?

"This garden is made of love.  And details." Bunny Mellon told Vanity Fair in a rare interview in 2010.  And I think the feeling of love and details that extended from her wardrobe to her homes and to her gardens is what made her a true icon of Style.

There have been few but tantalizing peeks into the secret world of Bunny Mellon and what is so remarkable when you see the interiors and the gardens that she created is how timeless they are.  Everything is just so but nothing appears too precious, too showy.  So often I see a house in a magazine overly decorated, a Marilyn Minter or Murakami painting placed too prominently, or everything looks like it was purchased by the decorator and nothing by the home owner.  But Mrs. Mellon was a woman with passionate interests and ideas.  Mrs. Mellon described wandering into Mark Rothko's studio one day near her former home on 70th street in New York and quickly purchasing 13 of his paintings, including the serenely beautiful 'Yellow Expanse'.

"Nothing should be noticed.  Nothing should be noticed." said Mrs. Mellon to Sarah Booth Conroy in a rare interview to the New York Times in 1969.  "Nothing should stand out.  It all should give the feeling of calm, you should only remember the peace."  

The extraordinary gardening room at Oak Springs in Upperville Virgina:

A detail from the Fernand Renard trompe l'oeil painted room:

Notice the simple teak stools with the soft curve, the beehive shaped basket - the Bunny is in the details...

I love the Jane Canfield bunny who looks like he got caught with a bag of vegetables and herbs from the garden...

I don't mean to gush but gush I must.  Bunny Mellon had an incredible eye for color.  

Mark Rothko's Yellow Expanse in the library at Oak Springs:

 the pale seashell pink living room in the Mellon's former Manhattan townhouse with a John Singer Sargent painting above the mantel.  I love the lucite console behind the chintz covered sofa and the mocha upholstered chairs.

the Yves Klein blue crosshatched painted dining room in the Manhattan residence with thyme, rosemary topiaries which Mrs. Mellon became famous for:

in Antigua, a framed museum Mark Rothko museum poster (!) - and of course, this is from a woman who had an absolutely stunning and incredible art collection.

The Oak Spring Garden library which is so beautiful.  I can just imagine the "Mrs" as she was called having her coca cola and looking at the scrapbook Jacqueline Kennedy gave her of the White House Rose Gardens Mrs. Mellon created and in which Jackie Kennedy pressed flowers from the garden...

love, kisses and thoughts on a true style icon, Juliana

SingulEar

"Once you've dressed, and before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take at least one thing off."
Coco Chanel

Words to live by don't you think?  And if you buy, like I hope to, the earring that Camille Miceli designed for Louis Vuitton Fall 2014, you (and I : ) will already have one thing taken off.

I just hope they are not too heavy because I do want my earlobes flipping and flopping around when I get older...

Camille Miceli single earrings for Louis Vuitton Fall 2014.  Photo by Camille Miceli.

One of my style icons, Tina Chow, often wore a single earring of her own design.

Tina Chow wearing a single earring of her own design.

and I think she is wearing a single pearl earring here too:

and I was lucky enough to have had one of Tina Chow's single earrings at RARE vintage awhile back... and cross my fingers, we will have more Tina Chow pieces soon...

Tina Chow single Tibetan turquoise earring from RARE vintage.

So, ladies, single file as we line up for the wait list for the LV earring please!

love, kisses and single earring obsessed, Juliana

No Ladies, Just Gentlemen: The Met Gala Part 2

I think I mentioned that I was a little dubious about how the white dress code for this year's Met Gala would look on most men and was pleasantly surprised that it looked really elegant, chic and made the men look very handsome.  Some men opted for white jackets but that had the unfortunate effect of making them look like the waiters who were wearing white jackets.

Anna Wintour, on Late Night with Seth Myers, said that Benedict Cumberbatch was the only one who 'nailed' the white tie.  Bradley Cooper almost nailed it but wore mother of pearl cufflinks instead of onyx.

Personally, I think it was very refreshing that the men had to fret about their attire for the evening and go out and buy something that they are going to wear for just one night for a change : )

Here are some of the men who really stood out Monday night... enjoy!  

and a look back at one of my favorites, not from the Met Gala but of handsome men in white tie...

love, kisses and men at the Met Gala, Juliana

Carolyn Murphy in a 1960s Roberto Capucci Ball Gown from RARE vintage at the Met Gala!

I was very lucky to attend Monday night's Met Gala and it was a thrilling and enchanted evening of handsome men, dapper and elegant, in white tie and decorations and the women in silk ball gowns.  There seemed to have been a little confusion about the meaning of white tie - which is, a black tail coat, a waistcoat, a wing collared shirt and a white bow tie.  I was a little uncertain how it would look but when I walked up the red carpeted steps and shook hands with a very handsome Bradley Cooper in white tie, I knew he was beautiful - oops!  I mean, I knew it was going to be beautiful : )  

We had cocktails as usual in the Charles Engelhard Court which was a dream with ice blue silk velvet sofas, men in white tie (some but not all, naughty, naughty) and women in silk ball gowns and all of us swanning about long trains.  My train included : )

The beautiful Carolyn Murphy was inspired by the classically beautiful Hitchock ice-cool-blonde beauty Grace Kelly but made the look her own by wearing a midnight blue, rare and significant, 1960s Roberto Capucci ball gown my store, RARE vintage.  And she looked amazing!

Carolyn Murphy at the Met Gala in our RARE vintage 1960s Roberto Capucci ball gown.

We all knew it was The One the moment she tried it on and Capucci, an Italian designer, was as consumed with form and architecture as Charles James so it was a meaningful tribute to Mr. James.  

More to come tomorrow on the Met Gala!

love, kisses and Met Gala memories, Juliana

Big Ball Gowns in Ball Town

This weekend, all over Manhattan, there are women, getting their hair high lighted, faces misted with oxygen, readying their jewels, having a final fitting and waiting for their gowns for Monday night's Met Gala celebrating Charles James. 

Not much has changed since Kitty, the Princess Ekaterina Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya, in Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina readied herself for a ball...

And this years dress code calling for white tie and decorations will be a beautiful step into the past, with the men in tails and the women donning some serious silk.

From Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and a view onto Monday evening's Met gala...

THE BALL was only just beginning as Kitty and her mother walked up the great staircase, flooded with light, and lined with flowers and footmen in powder and red coats. From the rooms came a constant, steady hum, as from a hive, and the rustle of movement; and while on the landing between trees they gave last touches to their hair and dresses before the mirror...

Although her dress, her coiffure, and all the preparations for the ball had cost Kitty great trouble and consideration, at this moment she walked into the ballroom in her elaborate tulle dress over a pink slip as easily and simply as though all the rosettes and lace, all the minute details of her attire, had not cost her or her family a moment’s attention, as though she had been born in that tulle and lace, with her hair done up high on her head, and a rose and two leaves on the top of it.

It was one of Kitty’s best days. Her dress was not uncomfortable anywhere; her lace berthe did not droop anywhere; her rosettes were not crushed nor torn off; her pink slippers with high, hollowed-out heels did not pinch, but gladdened her feet; and the thick rolls of fair chignon kept up on her head as if they were her own hair. All the three buttons buttoned up without tearing on the long glove that covered her hand without concealing its lines. The black velvet of her locket nestled with special softness round her neck. That velvet was delicious; at home, looking at her neck in the looking-glass, Kitty had felt that that velvet was speaking. About all the rest there might be doubt, but the velvet was delicious. Kitty smiled here too, at the ball, when she glanced at it in the glass. Her bare shoulders and arms gave Kitty a sense of chill marble, a feeling she particularly liked...

I can imagine Kitty in this Dolce e Gabbana Alta Moda dress made of tulle and handmade silk flowers... 

love, kisses and tulle, ribbons, lace and flowers, Juliana

Dream Jewels: Barbara Hutton's Jadite, Ruby and Diamond Necklace

I was completely and totally taken with a beautiful strand of milky clear jade beads with a diamond and ruby clasp that had belonged to Barbara Hutton and was recently acquired by Cartier. 

Barbara Hutton's Jadeite Necklace recently acquired by Cartier.  Photo from Cartier.

And if I had a spare $27.44 million, honey, I would have been on the phone to Hong Kong bidding against Cartier for them.  Alas, I do not have the $27.44 million or the necklace...  But hopefully Cartier will exhibit the necklace and I can go see it, close my eyes and imagine I am wearing it.  It looks so beautifully tactile in the photos, I can just imagine how wonderful those cool green jade beads feel against the skin...

I am sure you know the story of the poor little rich girl Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress who was born into great wealth, liked fast men and an extravagant lifestyle, burned through an enormous fortune and died poor, living in a hotel with $3,500 in her bank account.

According to Cartier, the necklace was a gift from her father in 1933, when Hutton married the first of her seven husbands, Prince Alexis Mdvani.  In 1934 Hutton commissioned from Cartier the current clasp which is set in yellow gold with calibré-cut rubies and baguette-cut diamonds.

Barbara Hutton at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in 1933 wearing the jade necklace.

She also commissioned from Cartier a ring to match.  

love, kisses and keep on dreaming, Juliana