Just in: Swans in Schon. A Fine and Exceptional Mila Schon Beaded Ensemble. Part Three.

Swans in Schon.  Part Three.

One of the most iconic images from Truman Capote's famed Black and White Ball is of the fabulous Marella Agnelli wearing a fabulous beaded Mila Schon caftan with her fabulously handsome and elegant husband Gianni Agnelli.  It was all too, too fabulous!

Mrs. Agnelli's Mila Schon caftan is now in the collection of the V & A in London and is included in the exhibition set to open April 5th: The Glamour of Italian Fashion.

1966 Mila Schon.  Collection V & A Museum.  Gift of Madame Agnelli

It is very rare to find these 1960s pieces by Mila Schon but I am thrilled and excited to have found a few!  One of which has similar embroidery to Marella Agnelli's caftan - only ours is a haute bohemian long tunic top with a high slit in the middle and a pair of softly draped harem pants (and the harem pants totally work as a part of this ensemble!)

1960s Mila Schon beaded tunic and pants available for purchase at RARE vintage.
info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7273

love, baci and vintage Mila Schon, Juliana

Master of Couture: David Pedroza

I am thrilled and excited to announce my first contributing editor to the RARE vintage blog, David Pedroza, whose monthly column will be called Master of Couture.  David understands the inner mysteries of haute couture like no one else I have ever met and, not only, is he a devotée of haute couture and fashion history but he also creates beautiful, old school, French haute couture by his own self-trained petits mains.  

He is very opinionated as a Master should be and it is always an honor and an enlightenment to listen to him speak about the complex subtleties of vintage haute couture and that is how we came up with the idea of his writing a monthly column for RARE vintage.

Read on...

Forquet and his Gold Dress.

When Federico Forquet designed this graphic pattern, lamé gown, the whole concept of design relied on the beauty and integrity of the fabric.  Federico Forquet favored bold, geometric prints that had become popular in the 1960s, especially among Italian designers such as Emilio Pucci, Princess Irene Galitizine and Simonetta.

The blouson sheath silhouette is the perfect back drop to the beautiful, yarn-died, woven, graphic pattern of silk and metal lamé fabric, most likely woven in Como Italy.  Don't expect this quality of fabric to be hanging on the racks of Bergdorf Goodman.

Although simple in shape, the dress is meticulously constructed.  Mr. Forquet was one of the darlings of the Italian Alta Moda, or haute couture, during his brief career when he opened his own atelier in 1962 until 1971 when he closed his house to focus on interior and garden design.  Having been trained by Balenciaga, he applied the art of haute couture workmanship into every piece he made, no matter how simple.

The rich lamé fabric is backed, not lined, in silk organza, to be soft against the skin, while keeping the grain and structure on the outer shell.

The hallmarks of of haute couture finishing, such as, hand-over-cast edges, grosgrain waist stays, and hand stitched facings are all integrated in this seemingly simple dress.

The top of the dress is cut on the bias, which allows ease and softness without the aid of seams, ties at the lower back, making this dress effortless and easy to wear.  What I found most interesting was the hem, which has been stiffened with nylon crinoline, and partially lined in China silk, to keep its shape and fall away from the body ending in a slight train.

Any woman with means and the life style on the search for a hostess ensemble would flock to Forquet for simple day dresses, pajamas, coats and evening dresses that reflected a happy and vivacious lifestyle.  To this day, this dress has the same appeal it did nearly fifty years ago and would still be the most perfect hostess ensemble to entertain your guests at home.

David Pedroza

Master of Couture

1966 Federico Forquet Lamé Gown available for purchase at RARE vintage.  

info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7273

*I am always interested in purchasing any pieces by the great Italian couturier Federico Forquet for RARE vintage, please feel free to email or phone, if you have a piece you would like to part with.

Just in: Swans in Schon. A Fine and Exceptional Mila Schon Beaded Dress. Part Two.

In 1966 Women's Wear Daily voted Lee Radziwill and Marella Agnelli Best Dressed.  It was the year of Truman Capote's famed Black and White Ball and Radziwill and Agnelli, Capote's swans, wore beaded dresses by Mila Schon.

Lee Radziwill wore a black and white undulating stripe beaded gown and Marella Agnelli wore a beaded caftan.  One of the hallmarks of a Mila Schon dress from the 1960s is that she preferred not to line her pieces but to duplicate the exterior on the interior.  Thus this silver metal thread short dress with glass beads and clear bugle beads, the interior is as beautiful as the exterior.  The beading is done in a geometric pattern most likely inspired by the modern art Schon collected.

And it is fabulous!  Very Twiggy and very beautiful!  One of the hallmarks of vintage is when someone comes in to RARE vintage and exclaims, "they don't make 'em like this anymore!" and this is a perfect example with the spectacular silver lame fabric run with metal thread and the glass beading.

Just in!

Late 1960s Mila Schon beaded silver metal thread mini dress.  Available for purchase at RARE vintage.
info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7273

and a look back at Lee Radziwill's dress from Truman Capote's black and white ball...

1960s Mila Schon evening dress and coat.  Collection V & A Museum.  Gift of Princess Stanislaus Radziwill. 

love, baci and vintage Schon, Juliana

Just in: The Little Black Dress by Norman Norell

Thoughts on The little black dress by Norman Norell...

The little black dress by Norman Norell is the fashion world equivalent to the art world’s minimalism by Ellsworth Kelly.

The little black dress by Norman Norell is taking fashion and reducing it to its purest form with clairity of shape, beauty in design and luxury in materials.  

The little black dress by Norman Norell is for the woman who wants to wear the dress and not the other way around.  

If the little black dress by Norman Norell could be anyone it would be Gloria Guinness.

The little black dress by Norman Norell does not shout, it murmurs closely and softly in your ear.

The little black dress by Norman Norell, can stand alone but will tolerate the perfect accessory.

The little black dress by Norman Norell is aloof and distant but warm and welcoming to those who understand it.

The little black dress by Norman Norell is as good today as it was fifty years ago.  And it knows it.

Here is the little black dress by Norman Norell 1960s and available for purchase at RARE vintage...

Just in:

1960s Norman Norell little black dress available for purchase at RARE vintage.
212-581-7273 or email info @rarevintage.com

love, kisses, and vintage, Juliana

Just in at RARE vintage: Pierre Balmain 1960s

There are capes and then there are capes.  This is The Cape.  

Pierre Balmain haute couture 1960s.  It has a wonderful 60s French haute couture feeling of crispness, newness and incredible French chic.  The cape actually has a dropped butterfly sleeve - so no simple slits - it is totally unlike anything I have seen before and soooo beautiful!

1960s Pierre Balmain cape available for purchase at RARE vintage.  Email info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7273

love, kisses and vintage, Juliana

Babe Paley in Valentino Haute Couture?

Babe Paley in Valentino haute couture?

I think so...

our (sold) Valentino haute couture dress from 1967 looks very much like the very chic Babe Paley's don't you think? 

RARE vintage Weekend Style and Inspiration: Marisa Berenson 1969

The beautiful Marisa Berenson photographed by Irving Penn in 1969. 

Hippie/Warrior Chic

Vintage to Wear and Collect Now: 1960s Pierre Cardin

I adore Pierre Cardin. I am very excited to have a few new pieces of 1960s Pierre Cardin just in at RARE vintage and I especially adore 1960s Pierre Cardin.  Well, truth be told, I do also adore the super  structural, geometric 1980s/1990s Pierre Cardin pieces.

If the saying, "the Devil is in the details" was applied to fashion, it would read: Pierre Cardin is in the details.  The precise stitching

Detail of a Cardin dress from RARE vintage

The leather details

Detail of a leather and crepe ensemble from RARE vintage

The circles

Collection Met Museum

Collection Met Museum

Collection Met Museum

The metal

Collection Met Museum

Cardin studied architecture before becoming an apprentice to Christian Dior and then opening his own fashion house and in the 1960s introduced the famous and iconic "Space Age" look.  There are many photos of 1960s Cardin, where you almost feel you are a very well dressed Fembot on the set of Star Trek

Photo from Tumblr

but if you take away the helmets, the goggles, the futurist team-hands-on-our-hips-about-to-face-Klingons-but-don't-we-look-fabulous you are left with  beautifully tailored dresses and tiny little suits that even the Duchess of Windsor adored.

And Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn on the beach in Pierre Cardin.  Photo from Tumblr.

Or the perfect little dress

 L'Officiel 1970.  Photographed by Guegan.

Pierre Cardin at RARE vintage.  Available now.  A sweet lavender hued and tartan print dress from the mid 1960s:

A cream dress also from the mid 1960s

It's all about the seam, the seam, the seam

I love the architectural detail on the armhole

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L'histoire de Hubert de Givenchy

In 1944 Hubert de Givenchy went to work for Jacques Fath.  In the mornings he worked with Fath and in the afternoons he studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts.  Eventually Givenchy left Fath to work with Robert Piguet and then at Lucien Lelong (where both Dior and Balmain launched their careers) before working with the great Elsa Sciaparelli.   In 1952 Givenchy opened his own house under his own name.

His PR was handled by the former model for Jacques Fath, Bettina Graziani.  

Bettina Graziani in a 1957 Givenchy hat. Photo by Frank Horvat.

Givenchy named one of his earliest and most popular designs after her, The Bettina Blouse.  Crisp white cotton and with Bishop sleeves ruffled in black and white broderie anglaise.

Photo from Life magazine

In 1955 Givenchy met his idol, Cristobal Balenciaga.  Givenchy said that Balenciaga taught him "it isn't necessary to add a button where it does not belong, or to add a flower to make a dress beautiful.  It is beautiful of itself."

I really adore this admiration Givenchy had and devotion to singular designers like Balenciaga.  Mr. Givenchy has been responsible in large part for the opening of the Balenciaga museum in Guetaria Spain - personally donating over 100 pieces to the museum.  I also noticed that the beautiful and heartbreaking last dress that Madame Gres designed and gave to Givenchy shortly after she retired in the incredible exhibit, Madame Gres, at the Musée Galliera this past summer.

Mr Givenchy said of the dress that an old and fragile woman was waiting to see him in his atelier.  It was Madame Gres.  She gave him the last dress she designed as a thank you for supporting her work.  Stunning.  Beautiful.  Sad.

Photo by Andrea Cairone for RARE vintage.

Givenchy designs became increasingly simple and striking and were often worn by his muse Audrey Hepburn.  He dressed her for Funny Face, Breakfast at Tiffany's, How to Steal a Million and live Happily Ever After and Charade.

I am so thrilled whenever I come across a beautiful piece by Givenchy (a personal favorite of mine) and this Givenchy couture sample with its beautifully embroidered bodice is so elegant.  I thought it was the perfect piece to end our week of 'pretty' on.  Striking.  Simple.  Glorious and glamorous.  Late 1960s Givenchy Couture.

1960s Givenchy Couture Gown.  Size 2/4

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The 1960s Gucci Bag

I don't know about you but I change my bags often.  I kind of have a dream that I can buy one bag and it will go with everything but it never happens.  It is either too big, not big enough, the wrong color, the wrong shape... this is one of the reasons why I can find myself without my wallet or a favorite lipstick - it gets left in an old bag.  My heroine is a woman I know who keeps everything inside her purse in small colorful Prada nylon bags.  So when she changes her bag it is very tidy and she has everything.  That is another dream.  Someday I will be super organized...

This 1960s Gucci is not an everyday bag.  It requires a certain ensemble.  It doesn't have to be an elegant dress though it is obviously perfect for that too.  It is also perfect with what I like to call the 'Elle Macpherson taking her children to school in Notting Hill look' (bummer for all of the other Mums don't you think?)

Anyway, as I was writing, this 1960s Gucci bag is also perfect with a pair of skinny jeans, ballet flats and a tailored jacket.  Crisp and lady-like but not too lady-like.  

1960s shiny brown faux crocodile leather Gucci bag with golden hardware.

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