One Perfect Dress

Have you ever noticed when you go on a trip and you have thoughtfully planned your packing that at the last moment, right before you close your suitcase, you are suddenly filled with doubt and fear.  Do you really have enough...  What if you desperately need... I once packed so spartanly for a trip to Europe that I actually packed more clothes for my husband then myself.  And everyone knows there is no way a husband needs more clothes then his wife : )  

So there you are with a stuffed suitcase and what happens?  You pretty much wear the same few things the entire trip.  You really just need the right thing.  

This Azzedine Alaia Spring 2015 dress is the just the right thing.  In a shade of electric blue with finely woven sheer lace circles, a longer length that works for flats or for heels and the very amazing black leather belt cinched at the waist with a circular hook.  It really is the perfect dress.  

xo, Juliana

Oscar de la Renta 1932-2014

Oscar de la Renta passed away yesterday at his home in Kent, Connecticut.  He was 82 years old.

I think there is no doubt that Mr. de la Renta's legacy will be his gorgeous and lush cocktail and evening dresses.  They were not complicated or intellectually challenging but designed to make a woman look and feel her best.  And what woman/girl does not feel lovely in silk faille and gowns richly embellished with beading, feathers... They were always feminine and flattering and perhaps safe - which is certainly one of the reasons he dressed four first ladies - and just this month, Mrs. Obama wore Oscar for the first time.

This is one of my favorite photos from Vogue that is really a summation of Oscar de la Renta's world: it was photographed at his home in Kent in his famously beautiful garden, with his step-daughter Eliza Reed Bolen and two other young society women, Marina Rust and Aerin Lauder.  Mikhail Baryshnikov dives into the pool.  The ladies are in gowns and while Mr de la Renta may have dressed their mothers, he stayed relevant for their daughter and granddaughters too. 

My daughter the morning of  her 2013 4th grade graduation wearing Oscar de la Renta and a fascinator her Spansih teacher made.  I think Oscar would have approved...

xo, Juliana

Fashion Will You Still Love Me, Will You Still Need Me When I'm 93? The Iris Apfel Edition

The models just keep getting younger and younger, oops I mean older and older, these days.  

The latest ad campaign for & Other Stories, the sister brand to H & M, features not Gisele Bundchen or Daria Werbowy but nonagenarian all around fabulous wears so many necklaces I am surprised she does not topple over because I think I would, Iris Apfel.

The photographs were taken in Iris Apfel's apartment by Ari Seth Cohen.

I love the beaded dress for 145 pounds (!) and look at Iris rocking the silver embossed knuckle rings!  And the gloves are pretty great too for 55 pounds.  & Other Stories will be opening in New York on Broadway.

xo and see you at & Other Stories, Juliana

John Galliano to Maison Martin Margiela!

According to WWD, John Galliano is headed to Maison Martin Margiela to become creative director.  It is both exciting and baffling at the same time.  On the surface it seems a bit of an odd fit for Galliano, a designer of lush, exotic dreams of fantasy fashion and the paired down all white house of Margiela.  But there is the couture - and January haute couture will be Galliano's debut for Margiela - the ready-to-wear and the secondary line MM6.  

And then again - maybe there are some similarities...

Martin Margiela Spring Summer 1990:

and John Galliano's first collection Les Incroyables in 1984:

Margiela's dressmaker form vest from Spring 1997 (and see here from RARE vintage):

and Galliano's undone Christian Dior dresses from the Fall 2005 couture collection:

I can hardly wait until January!

xo, Juliana

The Duchesses and Dior

"When Dior invented the New Look in 1947, my mother-in-law, 'Moucher' Devonshire and her friend, the Duchess of Rutland, who were in Paris for a less frivolous reason, wanted to see the collection.  They arrived at Avenue Montaigne in their tweed overcoats, which had done years of war service, and ditto shoes.  They weren't allowed in. Of humble nature, the two duchesses were disappointed but not at all surprised.   They sat on a bench eating their sandwiches to pass the time till they could decently return to the embassy where they were staying."

From Debo, the Duchess of Devonshire's book, Counting My Chickens

Alexander McQueen: Deliverance Spring/Summer 2004

The Venue: Salle Wagram - a grand nineteenth -century dance hall.

The Collection: Deliverance, Spring/Summer 2004

The Designer: Alexander McQueen

The Inspiration: The 1969 Sydney Pollack film, They Shoot Horses Don't They? based on the book by Horace McCoy

'The marathon dance was held on the amusement park pier at the beach in an enormous old building that had once been a public dance hall.  It was built out over the ocean on pilings, and beneath our feet, beneath the floor, the ocean pounded day and night.  I could feel it surging through the balls of my feet, as if they had been stethoscopes.'

They Shoot Horses Don't They, Horace McCoy

The lights come up on seven couples, each in their own spotlight, dancing to big band music.  The women are in evening gowns, tattered patchworks of silks, sparkling crystals that catch the spotlight, and in feathers that fall to the floor.  

The lights fade and the music dies...

"McQueen's show, offering both emotion and fine clothes, was at the summit of the 2004 collections."

Suzy Menkes

I am so thrilled to be able to offer for sale a rare and exquisitely beautiful Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2004 Deliverance Collection silk dress identical to the one in the runway show.  Available for purchase here.

The dress has torn bits of silk chiffon squares sewn onto the bias of the skirt.  The patch work bodice has inserts of sheer nude silk chiffon and the shoulder straps are twisted.

For the right person, for the right wedding, this could make a dream wedding dress - or for rehearsal dinner dance...

xo, Juliana

We'll Always Have Paris: Valentino Edition

Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccoli have really proved to be a perfect fit for the house of Valentino - they have taken Valentino forward but still reference the codes of the house.  I particulary loved the longer floaty bohemian pieces which are so right for summer...

xo, Juliana

Comme Des Garcons: Blood, Guts and Glory

Now, there is a title that I never thought I would write for a fashion post!  But Comme des Garcons Spring 2015 was all blood, guts and glory.  Rei Kawakubo sent out a bloodied almost disembowled collection - it was bizarre and oddly beautiful...

xo, Juliana