A Fine Vintage #1: Helmut Lang Spring/Summer 1991

I have always loved Helmut Lang's languid cool girl chic with a slash of romance.  I love the bits and fluttery pieces.  I have a pink organza cape from Helmut from back in the day and it is one of my favorite pieces that I own.  Every girl should own a pink organza cape by Helmut Lang...

Here is look back at an exceptional collection by Helmut Lang from spring/summer 1991:

p.s. I am always looking for 1990s Helmut Lang runway pieces, so if you have any Helmut hanging in your closet and you are ready to part with, please get in touch with us at info@rarevintage.com and we will reminisce about our Helmut Lang days!

A fine vintage #1: Helmut Lang spring/summer 1991

xo, Juliana

Chanel Gold Chain Gloves

My grandmother had a little drawer in her dressing table neatly filled with gloves.  She actually had drawers filled with gloves, some drawers were filled with all white, some with pastel colors, spring gloves, fall gloves, lace, silk, satin, evening ... and one of my favorite things to do when I was little to get my hands inside those glove drawers, make a big mess and try everything on.  

My daughter also loves gloves and while I do not have a glove drawer but a box filled with gloves, she loves to go in the glove box with her friends, make a big mess and try everything on : )

I buy lots of gloves and the winter coats with the shortened sleeves have been a great opportunity to wear long gloves.  I love to buy gloves for RARE vintage too and sometimes gloves for RARE somehow end up making their way into my closet.  I don't know how it happens : )  Like these grommet gauntlet gloves in a maraschino cherry red by Alaia.  Alas, I was powerless against their amazingness and had to keep them...

I am trying to resist these 1990s Chanel black leather gloves with a gilt chain which are sooo fabulous!  They are one of my favorite style of gloves: fitted to the hand, to the wrist - very sexy - tough and glamorous all at the same time.  They have a tiny, subtle CC stitched on the inside of the palm.  Pretty perfect and hard to resist...  

Purchase the 1990 Chanel gloves with gilt chain from RARE vintage here.

xo, Juliana

Friday Eye Candy: Chanel

Friday flashback with some Chanel eye candy.

and at just in at RARE vintage!  The Chanel pistachio candy colored tweed bra top!

1990s Chanel candy colored tweed bra top available for purchase at RARE vintage 

love, kisses and Chanel eye candy, Juliana

Just in: La Peregrina

Okay, well, not really the famous La Peregrina - found by a slave, worn by a few queens and at least one diva... but la Peregrina as interpreted by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel.  

Slightly military-inspired, from entwined gilt, hangs 'la Peregrina' large, elegant, majestic, mysterious...

Just in:

Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel entwined gilt brooch with a substantial faux pearl I like to call 'La Peregrina':

Circa 1990s Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel 'la Peregrina' brooch.  Available for purchase at RARE vintage.
info@rarevintage.com or 212.581.7273

and some photos of that other legendary big pearl...

love, kisses and bigger really is better, Juliana

Just in: French Chic and YSL

One of my favorite new pieces for RARE vintage is a little black skirt fully scattered with black sequins  with a black silk ribbon around the waist and it is the epitome of French chic by the Master of French chic: Yves Saint Laurent.

Just in:

1990s Yves Saint Laurent rive gauche black sequin and silk skirt,
info@rarevintage.com or 212.581.7273

To wear right now: a pair of sheer black stockings and a bitchy stiletto.  Very Carine Roitfeld:

Carine Roitfeld perfect in sheer black stockings

or to wear for the summer: a little tank and a flat sandal.

C'est parfait!

love, bizous and vintage, Juliana

Just in at RARE vintage: The Architect: Gianfranco Ferré

An architect, imagines and creates.  He builds a place to house our dreams, to fulfill our fantasies.  He builds something practical but often luxurious.  He takes raw materials and transforms them into something extraordinary.  Gianfranco Ferré (1944-2007) was known simply as "L'architetto" in Italy. Hs chosen materials were thread and cloth...

It's all about the coat:

I love this new piece from 1990 by Gianfranco Ferre just in at RARE vintage: an embroidered brocade coat with suggestions of a dual nature: restraint and opulence.  It is a journey to Italy and to India.  It is extravagant and practical.  It is delicate and strong.  It is beautiful.

1990 Fall/Winter Gianfranco Ferre Embroidered coat available for purchase at RARE vintage.
Please email info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7273 for more information.

love, kisses and vintage, Juliana

In a Palazzo in Milano: Dolce e Gabbana Alta Moda

In a palazzo in Milano, ladies in starched white lab coats with black lace collars, stitch silken flowers, hand-made in Vicenza by a woman whose company made the flowers used by Monsieur Dior in the 1950s, onto fluffs of blackened tulle.  

In a palazzo in Milano the signora of the palazzo, a contessa or a principessa, wears a pink silk dressing gown piped in crimson.

"summer silks lit the hall with a burst of surprise, like a star rising amid the most delicate shades of light: pale pink, soft yellow, limpid blue..." Emile Zola, Au Bonheur des Dames

In a palazzo in Milano, on a meredienne-en-confident, lies a vast cloud of tulle strewn with flowers..."

"the wave of this cascade of linen slipped behind the quivering mystery of skirts, the chemise stiffened by the dressmaker's fingers, was about to become alive with flesh, warm and redolent with the smell of love, a white cloud sacrificed, bathed in the night, the slightest flutter of which to reveal the pink glimpse of a knee which in the depths of this whiteness would devastate the world." Emile Zola

In a palazzo in Milano, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have crafted a dream of Alta Moda for very few clients, not to be seen borrowed and worn on  a red carpet, and bedecked with flowers and  jeweled buttons.

In the early 1990s, my favorite designers were Dolce e Gabbana and I dreamt of owning one of their long sheer gowns in candy colors with the long coats piled with flowers.  I still dream of owning one of those so if anyone out there has early 1990s Dolce e Gabbana they wish to part with, please let me know!  And then after the 1990s I felt Dolce e Gabbana became a little repetitive, a little uninspired but they are back!  I have loved the recent ready-to-wear and I absolutely love the alta moda.  I also really love their philosophy that everything is one off and not really covered by the press (very few editors are invited).  It is fact, very hard to even find photos of the alta moda collections.  

For this collection 'i Fiori nell'Arte e le Donne' Domenico and Stefano looked to the garden, to the flowers found in museums and to women.  It is ravishingly beautiful... dream a little haute couture dream...

Dolce e Gabbana Alta Moda 2014.  Photos from various sources.

love, kisses and vintage, Juliana

Just in at RARE vintage: Azzedine Alaia!

'Shapely' and 'sculpted' are words often attributed to the work of the Tunisian designer, Azzedine Alaia.  Mr. Alaia's every line, every stitch comes from the curve of body, the line of the back, the definition of the waist.  There are no empty seams in his work.  Every line counts.

Just in at RARE vintage is this wonderful denim dress by Azzedine Alaia with detail stitching, defining the body, in a distinct turmeric color.

I love this dress and it is a testament to the craftsmanship of Mr. Alaia that he can take a somewhat stiff material like denim and cut it so precisely that it seems to "flow over a woman's body".

love, kisses and vintage, Juliana

PS Here is a sweet short film on Alaia commissioned by AnOther magazine. Animation by the artist Sarah Beeby. Enjoy!

 

Alaia 1990s denim dress.  Size Medium.  Available for purchase at RARE vintage.
info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7273

The 1990s as seen in The Wolf of Wall Street

There has been a big to do about how Martin Scorcese's Wolf of Wall Street is the first 'period' film of the 1990s.  It does not seem that long ago but when you go back and look at photos from the early 90s, you realize with a bit of a jolt, Damn!  It/We all looked so different. Supermodels with big hair, big thighs*, lots of make up, sheer stockings with close toed shoes, big jewelry, lots of gold.  A whole lot of glamore!

Gianni Versace ad campaign. 1990s.

Sandy Powell, the brilliant costume designer of The Wolf of Wall Street and who will surely win an Academy Award for this film, nailed the costumes for the men and women.  Armani big shouldered pin-striped suits, black leather jackets with those big sloping shoulder pads.  And poor Jonah Hill had to suffer  stone washed jeans, pastel colored button down shirts and sweaters tied 90s wasp style over his shoulders.  

Unfortunately, I could not find many photos of Margot Robbie as the wife of Leonardo di Caprio's character Jordan Belfort.  

But she wore an exuberantly beaded Versace from 1991:

and there is no photo that I could find but Robbie walks in on a gay orgy in full swing wearing a head to toe Gianni Versace 1992 bondage ensemble.  You know the collection: straps, golden Medusa.  The total look.  Very fierce.  Over the top.  Perfect for her character.

Something like this:

and then of course, you can not have the 1990s without some body conscious Herve Leger bandage dresses like the one Robbie wore in the film (do you see the gold on her sunglasses - so 90s!  A nice touch):

Looks similar to this one we have at RARE vintage - and Hello!  Herve Leger was made in Paris back in the day:

1990s Herve Leger from RARE vintage

and Alaia too:

and towards the end of the film, she was wearing 1995 Tom Ford for Gucci, a lime silk blouse- no photos here either but it was this one in the runway photo below:

It is a great entertaining film and Margot Robbie, beautiful and stunning, was perfectly cast and wore the 90s wardrobe well - and that Long Island accent! 

*And just so you know, I am not criticizing the 'big thighs' of the 1990s Supermodels - I am only noting the enormous difference in models bodies then versus the extremely thin models now.

love, kisses and vintage,  Juliana