Best Dressed: Yurie Pascarella in RARE vintage Bob Mackie

At the opening of High Style: The Brooklyn Costume Collection, our friend and client, Yurie Pascarella, wore, fabulously, a vintage Bob Mackie from RARE vintage and dear readers, this is The Way to wear a Bob Mackie domino!

It was a major moment: elegant, exuberant yet restrained.  Yurie made the cover of SFGate (of course :) and Style.com:

We have the best clients!  Thank you Yurie!  xo, Juliana

Bob Mackie Then and Now

I owe a special thank you to Cherie of Shrimpton Couture for this post on Bob Mackie, Then and Now. Cherie, who has a great eye : ) found the 1991 image of Gabrielle Reece, looking muy calinete, in a Bob Mackie bead embellished sunflower yellow bolero and she remembered seeing the Bob Mackie bolero in our RARE vintage collection and emailed me the image.

Bob Mackie Then:

and Bob Mackie Now at RARE vintage:

1991 Bob Mackie beaded bolero available for purchase here.

Thank you Cherie!

xo, Juliana

The Bob Mackie Black Domino

Awhile back at RARE vintage, we had a nothing less then spectacular Bob Mackie black domino that Shalom Harlow had worn to the 2009 Met gala, The Model as Muse.  Hamish Bowles, the authority on all things stylish, declared Shalom Harlow to be best dressed for the evening.  

As it happens with vintage there is a story.  Shalom Harlow found the vintage Bob Mackie, not at RARE vintage but another vintage store here in New York, where it had been before, who it had belonged to, I do not know.  I would love to know it's history before it found its way to Shalom Harlow and the party of the year, the Met Gala, because you just know such a special piece, so romantic,  so dramatic, it most certainly belonged to a woman with a strong sense of the wonderful.  Maybe she wore it to feed her chickens a la the Duchess of Devonshire...

maybe she was an American in Paris and wore it in a hotel particulier at 34, avenue New York a la Mona Bismarck...  

whatever its story, you just know there was one...

How could there not be.  Shalom Harlow wore it with a beaded Nina Ricci black beaded catsuit and then donated it to Elettra Wiedemann's charity One Frickin' Day and that is when it came to us at RARE vintage.

It was bought by our client - who has an amazing sense of style - and when she decided it was time to let the Mackie go on and find its next story, she brought it back to RARE vintage.  She came in looking super chic in an enviously effortless kind of way (I feel like for me to look that chic it would take concerted effort) wearing a massive Christian Lacroix necklace and two Pauline Trigere gilt cuffs.  You don't see that kind of chic often enough these days and it made my day brighter.

So here it is the Bob Mackie black silk domino, the ruffles lined in horsehair, ready for its next story...

Bob Mackie black silk domino available for purchase at RARE vintage.

The Mackie domino can be purchased here.

love and kisses, Juliana

What Would Elizabeth Taylor Wear?

Elizabeth Taylor would wear something gutsy and glamorous and something that would set off those lavender eyes.  After a private walk through this morning of Elizabeth Taylor's collection of couture and jewelry I confess to being slightly surprised by the collection.  I absolutely thought of her as a jewelry person and her collection is just incredible.  And you know it is also a really joyful collection - you just sense Elizabeth Taylor's happiness and delight in her jewelry.  The big Taylor Burton cut cornered rectangular cut diamond, weighing approximately 33.19 carats and flanked on either side by a tapered baguette cut diamond, mounted in platinum ring (sounds delicious doesn't it?!) was blinding.  I really wanted a better look but whatever angle I tried to view it from, it just shined brightly back at me.

But I did not necessarily think of Elizabeth Taylor as a fashion icon.  Of course, she was stunning in the slip and fur coat in Butterfield 8 and in the bathing suit in Suddenly, Last Summer.  But there are some really great pieces there.  So when I was walking through I thought Elizabeth Taylor would look amazing in our spectacular Bob Mackie domino.  The woman knew how to make an entrance.  And the woman who wears this will have to know how to make an entrance too.  If you are the shy wallflower type this is not the piece for you but if you are star and a dame then, honey, this is exactly what you are looking for!

We actually had this same piece awhile back in black and Shalom Harlow had worn it to the Met Gala opening of The Model As Muse.  Hamish Bowles declared Shalom the best dressed of the evening and I saw her that night too and she was best dressed.

Please note that the color looks slightly harsh in this photo and it is actually a much softer lavender.

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Well, Ain't That a Coincidence! The Summer Solstice

My yoga teacher, Jodi, otherwise known as O Wise One, pointed out that today is the Summer Solstice and I thought, well, ain't that a coincidence!  because I just posted the ever so sunny Bob Mackie cropped jacket with an embroidered sun!   Sun Salute, here I come... right after this sunset cocktail... 

Sunrise on Long Island:

The Sun Also Rises: Bob Mackie

One of my favorite things about my so called job (is it still a job if it doesn't seem like work??) is a phone call or an email from someone who has vintage.  It could be anything.  It could be something quirky (more on the quirky next week), it could be something magnificent, it could be something fun and fabulous, it could be something so beautiful it takes your breath away. It could be something historically important.  It could be about a collection of Madame Gres or Tina Chow (those rank pretty high on some of my most special RARE vintage moments).

I love not knowing what I will find but knowing it as soon as I find it.  I especially love being shown a collection that belonged to someone who obviously enjoyed fashion.  Someone who had an eye for special pieces.  Someone who loved whimsy and beauty.  I myself am drawn to beautiful and fun pieces.  Clothing is a part of enjoying life.  To me it would not be much fun to wear a grey boxy suit with a drab black handbag and sensible shoes.  I want to put things on that make me feel good, make me feel happy, or make me feel pretty.  Clothing is in a way a journal, a diary of our past and who we were and who we have become.  It is one of the reasons, I feel so honored when someone invites me into their home - you see the private and the public person.

So when I was shown this cropped Bob Mackie bolero it was a moment of  not knowing what I wanted until I saw it.  I definitely do not seek out Bob Mackie - Cher's aesthetic is just not my aesthetic - but never say never.  This piece besides being so much fun, is really beautifully crafted.  It has it all:  color!  beading!  embroidery!  but is has it all in a small jacket and if I was Beyoncé or Rihanna, I would wear it with black tap pants and call it a fabulous day.  But since I am not Beyoncé or Rihanna, I would wear it super casual with a slouchy tank and a pair of really old and much loved jeans.  And I would feel happy and beautiful.

Bob Mackie "Sunburst' Cropped Jacket

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I Shopped Till I Dropped so in the Meantime I am Going to Let Natalie Joos Do All of the Work.

Quite literally.  I shopped and I shopped...  there is Galanos, Balenciaga, Bob Mackie, Chanel, Zandra Rhodes, Donald Brooks... and more...  so excuse whilst I lie back in a Smoking, in sparkly heels with a cigarette (just a prop ☺) and a nice glass of wine (not a prop!) ... 

Photo by Rico Puhlmann

me relaxing after a hard week of shopping...

while Natalie Joos, a blogger extraordinaire,  a woman Tommy Ton called the most stylish casting director, a woman whose most stylish and eclectic blog, Tales of Endearment, visits Julia Restoin Roitfeld, Hanneli Mustaparta and Fabiola Beracasa among other equally stylish and independent women.  Style, Substance, Fabulousness and a good dose of RARE vintage.  Take it Natalie...

Natalie Joos.  Tales of Endearment.  Thursday. 2 June 2011.

 Pierre Cardin from RARE vintage.  Photo courtesy of Tales of Endearment

Marc Bohan for Christian Dior, Galanos belt and Balenciaga sunglasses from RARE vintage.  

Photo courtesy of Tales of Endearment

Yves Saint Laurent 'Matisse' Print pants, Herve Leger cropped top and Chanel classic chain belt from RARE vintage.  Photo courtesy of Tales of Endearment

Stephen Sprouse neon orange mini dress and Stephen Sprouse shoes from RARE vintage.

Photo courtesy of Tales of Endearment

Thank you Natalie for such beautiful images!  And more (much more) at Tales of Endearment

The Never Say Never Gown

Someone told us to never say never. Was it our Mother? Was it our grandmother? Was it a boyfriend? Vintage is a passion and like all passions, it can be emotional, irresistible and irrational. 

When we saw this gown, we were curious, we fell in love and then we became obsessed. But how could we? Bob Mackie?! Ivana Trump circa early 1980s dancing in Bob Mackie has never been our ideal. But here we are naked in a dressing room with a beaded, nearly fuschia, beaded Bob Mackie gown staring at us. But the colors are almost the color of India, the dress is flowy and suddenly we can imagine a girl going to Woodstock wearing this dress and dancing in the mud and rain. It is hippie chic, very glamorous hippie chic. So, we will never say never again and next time listen to our Mamma.

For more information about this item please email info@rarevintageinc.com or call (212) 581 7273