What Catherine Deneuve Would Bring to the Himalayan Mountains

A Louis Vuitton embellished bag.  I love this bag not sure if I would take it to the Himalayan mountains but to each her own...

love, kisses and vintage,  Juliana

Channeling Chic: Catherine Deneuve in YSL Silk Scarf Blouse

I saw this fantastic photo of Catherine Deneuve in a graphic striped silk Yves Saint Laurent rive gauche blouse on Habitually Chic and it made me swoon all over again for the classic staple of the YSL wardrobe.  I think tomorrow I will channel CD in YSL and wear one of my beloved YSL silk scarf blouses, bowed at the neck and maybe even a big swoop in my hair. 

Saint Laurent designed an infinite variety of silk blouses: some with scarves, some without, some in a deep blue, some in an ever so slightly lighter shade of blue - it's was so interesting when we had a large collection of YSL blouses and we lined them up by color - it was like a pantone color chart in silk - some blouses buttoned down the front, some buttoned on the side, the variety and colors seem endless.  And YSL silk stripes at RARE vintage...

For more information or to purchase please email info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7273

Joan Juliet Buck on the Personal Magic of Clothes

I rarely buy from auction for RARE vintage because I prefer to know the history of the pieces I acquire for the store.  It is not just a dress I buy, but its story too.  

Joan Juliet Buck wrote an essay in the fall Bergdorf Goodman magazine on borrowing versus owning a dress for an important event and it really captured the personal story that clothing can have and the love it gets imbued with.

From Dressing for the Heights by Joan Juliet Buck

At twenty-four I had arrived.  I wore borrowed couture.  

But it wasn't the total treat I had expected. Nothing ever fit quite right because these were model clothes made on girls taller and flatter than I was.  I could never relax in borrowed clothes.  There was the tedious avoiding of spills, stairs and effusive drinks.  The kind of dancing I liked was often impossible because of the tight cut of silk and satin, and the next day I had to return the dress.

I began to write books.  For my first book party, I bought a velvet suit at Saint Laurent and wore it for the next seven years.  Each time I wore it, I had fun.  It was so feel cut I was put on the Best-Dressed list.

When my second book came out, I borrowed a book-tour wardrobe from Saint Laurent couture.  I was thrilled.  Among the suits was a satin number in deep magenta that I imagined was the expression of something deeply personal  I wore it to parties for my novel given in houses of such grandeur that guests came to look at ceiling details and legendary jewel-encrusted moldings, not me in my Saint Laurents.

At the end of the book tour, I returned all the clothes.  A little while later I saw Catherine Deneuve at a movie premiere wearing my magenta satin suit.

Her suit.

My suit.

My book tour suit.

Her movie launch suit.

It was terrible. It was if I'd borrowed Catherine Deneuve's mojo, and now she'd gotten it back, and even the memory of that mojo was gone, because there were more pictures of her in my suit, then there were of me in my suit.  so it was more her suit than mine.  So it was if it had never been mine.  Which, of course, it had not.

And this gets to the most interesting point, which is that clothes are personal magic. which can neither be borrowed nor loaned but can be lost.  When I was twenty-four and had to return a ball dress that I had worn to enchant and had been enchanted in, the enchantment went out the door.  The consequences may have hung around for awhile - some dead flowers, the man himself, a new liking for a certain song, new friends, sore feet - but the feeling left.

Gala dresses are made of fabrics designed to summon high spirits: Lace is made to catch them, satin for them to slide along, tulle to keep them fast and lamé is to reflect and multiply them.  You can tell at once if a gala dress is going to give you wings or sink the evening.  And once you wear it and see that you were right, you know that it will never let you down.  Then, like a British Dowager, you will wear it for decades.

You can read the complete essay in the fall Bergdorf Goodman magazine.

Joan Juliet Buck in Vogue Russia 2011

Tony Scott 1944-2012

I was saddened to hear about the apparent suicide of the director Tony Scott.  Of course, if you think of the Scott brothers you think action! adventure!  manly men!  aliens!  but then you remember one of the great cult flicks of all time: The Hunger.  

A soigné set of vampires played by Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie.  It was all too too chic, highly stylized and quite ridiculous but who minds a bit of ridiculousness when everyone looks this good?  This was the last film that Catherine Deneuve wore Yves Saint Laurent designed costumes.

R.I.P. Tony Scott and may you find peace.  Thank you for all of the great movies.

La Dolce Vita

1960s Italian style epitomes La Dolce Vita as captured and experienced by the photographer Benno Graziani.

Catherine Deneuve and her sister Francoise Dorleac dancing with Benno Graziani:

Dinner on Aristotle Onassis' yacht The Christina:

The Countess Rudi Crespi at a ball in Venice:

Jackie Kennedy wrote to a friend, "I am experiencing, in Italy, the most beautiful vacation of my life."  (John F Kennedy wrote to Jackie saying more Caroline and John, less Agnelli):

Gianni Agnelli and Heidi van Salvisberg.  Really does it get better then this?!  (Does anyone know anything about the beautiful and incredibly sexy Heidi van Salvisberg?  Do tell if you do!  I would love to know more about her):

All photographs from the book Benno Graziani Collection privée

And a fabulous 1960s heavy silk dress by Botti with green hand curled feathers across the shoulders.  The dress is beautifully made.  The hem is weighted all around.  Very Claudia Cardinale at her most gorgeous non?!  Si!

1960s Botti Dress with feathered neckline.  Size 6


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Frocked Up!

"When you put something on from Yves Saint Laurent's couture, there is an immediate sensual experience: everything, no matter what it's made of, is always lined in silk satin. He wants to spoil women, to envelop them in the pleasure of his clothes." Catherine Deneuve

We could not have said it better than the original Belle De Jour. We have two great haute couture day dresses from Yves Saint Laurent. The first is a 1980s silk day-to-evening dress in a very beautiful and unusual shade of aubergine. It has a silk satin lining which really does feel sensual - you won't want anything coming between you and your YSL it feels so nice! The dress has a draped plunging neckline and a belt with a small wooden buckle. Size 4/6. SOLD

Our other Yves Saint Laurent haute couture piece is a beautiful early 1970s day dress. It is very elegant and bohemian and if you have ever had a fantasy of being Charlotte Rampling or Jane Birkin this is the dress that will you be able to do it in. The print is a sweet but almost abstract flower print. Size 4. SOLD

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