Santa Baby: RARE vintage's Christmas List 2

One of my style icons is Coco Chanel.  In fact, one of my women in business icons is Coco Chanel.  The woman grew up with spinster aunts, in an orphanage, worked as a seamstress, opened a hat shop and created an empire.  She borrowed money from a lover, repaid the loan and bought herself a Bentley.  She cried when her lover didn't buy her jewels and when he bought her a tiara from Cartier, she cried some more because she thought it was a necklace and did not fit.  Coco mixed her real jewelry with her brilliant costume jewelry and the rest is fashion history!

Chanel Haute Couture in Black

All of the beautiful and dark Chanel couture at yesterday's show has put me in the mood for a little beautiful and dark Chanel haute couture at RARE vintage.  

The classic.  Black with black trim and two pockets on the jacket.  Wear it with a whimsical hat set on the back of your head and Chanel Le Vernis in Blue Satin.  

Chanel haute couture suit in black.  Size 4.  

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Shades of Casati at Chanel Haute Couture Fall 2011

The original flame haired superstar was not Rihanna but the Marchesa Casati.  La Casati wore necklaces of live snakes, walked a cheetah on a diamond studded leash and put droplets of the poisonous belladonna in her kohl lined green eyes so they would glitter like emeralds.  

The Marchesa Casati was painted by Boldini

Photographed by Man Ray

And portrayed with her cheetahs

When I saw the Chanel haute couture Fall 2011 show, I was getting a very Casati vibe.  The Place Vendome was recreated under the darkened dome of the Grand Palais in neon lines with Coco Chanel instead of Napolean on a column.  

Fun Fact: When the Marchesa Casati was twenty five million dollars in debt and her possessions were confiscated and sold at auction in 1932, Coco Chanel was among the bidders.

Papery black taffeta was wrapped around the body, with a peplum that had a peek of noir feathers underneath it.  

The colors were of the midnight sky, under a full moon, under the clouds.

There were leopard prints on sheer silk done in tiny beads with long frock coats worn over.

There was an art deco gilet worn over a satin skirt.

There was black lace on the body and over the eyes.  There were long sheer fingerless gloves and Chanel's Blue Satin nailpolish (one of my favorite nail colors!).  

There were feathery chiffon dresses beaded and hemmed to just above the ankle worn with a patent toe tipped sheer boot (all too fabulous don't you think?!)

And there was a jacket in a new shape in white satin, begonia pink and in grey and black tweeds: cropped, three quarter length sleeves that were relaxed and not tight against the arm.

There has been an embarrassment of riches at the couture shows this week.  There has been so much creativity, so much beautiful handwork, it was a stellar season of real clothes under the Parisian sky which is why the poor showing by Dior was even more glaring.   But I know they will recover and  the House of Dior will be back: sixty five years old and better then ever.   Vive le couture!  A job well done!

But what was the real essence of this creature?  Was she aware of her continuous metamorphosis, or was she impenetrable to herself, excluded from her own mystery? Gabriele D'Annunzio

The Couture Devil is in the Details

Devilishly difficult: between eighteen and twenty tons of cast iron looms are required to produce lace weighing approximately twenty grams per meter.  It must be a devil of a job to watch over 5,376 bobbins working simultaneously on the loom.

"The devil made me do it": what you say your when your husband asks you just how much that couture dress was.  But I and RARE vintage want to play the devil's advocate: Tell your husband it is vintage and cost a fraction of the original price.  "Oh to hell with it, you look incredible" your husband might say in that case.

And here, my vintage friends, is a bit of heaven: Valentino haute couture in detail.  A match made in heaven.  I know you will remember that Carine Roitfeld wore this recently to a dinner honoring Mario Testino and it was like manna from heaven.  A perfect fit: so divine.

Fun Fact:  Marescot is the one and only producer of lace for the haute couture.

Please note this dress is no longer available.

Dress Me Up! Dress Me Down!

This is for the girl who loves to dress up in a gown but who also loves to wear a pair of comfy Citizens of Humanity skinny jeans with a The Row tank top (it is what I want to wear every day- woe to all of the other clothes hanging in my closets - who said that, I mean, closet, one, teeny, tiny, closet - just in case my husband is reading this).  

Scene One.  Take One: So there you are in your skinny jeans and your tank top when your girl friends call and want to meet you for a cocktail downtown.  You just need something a little more glam to throw on...

Scene One.  Take Two:  So there you are in your skinny jeans and your boyfriend, who you are pretty certain, is going to become your husband calls and wants to meet you for dinner uptown.  You just need something a little more glam to throw on...

Scene One.  Take Three:  So there you are in a glamorous silk evening dress, going to a very glamorous wedding and you just need a little something glamourous but not boring to throw on...

Enter, Our Hero:  Gianni Versace.  He is a little bit rock and roll, a little bit sexy and a whole lotta glamorous.

 And our heroine in the skinny jeans and the evening gown lived happily ever after.

The End.

1989 Gianni Versace couture silk embroidered shawl.  Embroidered with multicolored stones, diamanté and glass stones.  Inspired by the work of Sonia Delaunay, there are cosmological images, numbers, swirling letters and hearts.

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Luxe, Calme et Volupté: Yves Saint Laurent

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté.

There, all is order and beauty,
Luxury, peace, and pleasure
-Charles Baudelaire

Perfectly describes the world of Yves Saint Laurent haute couture.

The skirt is beautifully lined in the same colored silk organza.

Luxe, Calme et Volupté by Henri Matisse:

The colors of Matisse:

The colors of Saint Laurent:

What color will you wear it with?

1980s Yves Saint Laurent haute couture skirt.  Size 6.  Please note the skirt is unlabeled.

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That's Amore: Fashion and Glamour

Women adored Gianni Versace's clothes. They were not somber or deconstructed or elusively intellectual.  They were sexy and joyful and they were also the designs of one of the great creators and personalities of Italian fashion.

This gown in a lavender knit is all lush elegance.

The fit is perfect as there is a built in nude bodysuit.  There are some designers who are creative directors but there are a select few who actually know how to drape a dress and when a designer knows how to cut and sew there is a remarkable difference in the fit.

There is a smattering of deep plum beading on the dress and appliqued flowers have been applied to a tulle neckline.  There also strips of metal mesh around the flowers.

Gianni Versace, where fashion fantasies come to life!

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1968 Valentino Haute Couture

Here is an image of our incredible coat from 1968:

V is for enVy

I know one should never be envious but when it is 22 degrees and the snow has hardened into a dull, grey, frozen mass, I feel envious of anyone who is here:

Six Senses Resort and Spa in the Maldives

When I am at RARE vintage and the store is being changed over from winter to spring and there are clothes and accessories everywhere (and I mean everywhere!)  and I have a stack of clothes that need to go to the dry cleaners AND it is 'awards season' so the phone is ringing constantly, my blackberry is  buzzing constantly and I am beginning to wonder just how many people have been invited to the Vanity Fair Oscar party anyway??  I am envious of anyone who is here:

Six Senses - oh yes!  already mentioned that didn't I?!

So, I confess to some feelings of enviousness for the girl who gets this nothing short of extraordinary Fall/Winter 1968 Valentino haute couture black coat covered with stitched V's.  I have a weakness for 1960s Valentino.  Okay, I have a weakness too for Valentino of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s...  I loved RARE vintage's Valentino haute couture moment at the 2008 Academy Awards:

Can anyone say Goddess??!! 

Calista Flockhart in 1970s Valentino haute couture at the 2008 Academy Awards.  

And her date was Harrison Ford...  

The Harrison Ford.  Working Girl, Indiana Jones, Witness, the Fugitive, American Graffiti...

Harrison Ford in Roman Polanaski's Frantic.  Just a naked man and his teddy bear.  

Makes a girl want to snuggle doesn't it?! 

Anyhoo!  How did we go from a rare Valentino haute couture coat to a nearly naked, teddy bear clad Harrison Ford?  How one's mind does wander!  You can put a girl in a Valentino haute couture coat but you can't take her mind off the man.  And by 'the man' I mean, the man, Valentino.  Mr. Valentino.  Mr. Valentino Garavani of Rome, New York, Gstaad, the Chateau de Wideville, Capri and the yacht, T.M. Blue One.  What was I saying about envy?

Mrs. John F Kennedy was an important client of Valentino's in the 1960s and she had a decided preference for his coats.  Valentino's coats were all about: the cut, proportion, shape and quality.  And this coat has all of that plus it is covered in his signature V's.  The coat has the pristine and sharp cut of the 1960s, fitted with high, narrow arm holes.  Simple.  Amazing.  Simply amazing.

The signature Valentino V's of the 1960s:

Collectible.  Wearable.  A dream come true.  1968 Fall/Winter Valentino haute couture black wool coat.

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Vogue's Best Dressed!

Dianna Agron in Chanel haute couture from RARE vintage in New York made us proud at the SAG awards AND now she is making  Vogue's Best Dressed of the Week  under the title 'The Glamour Returns'!

Dianna Agron at the SAGS!

Dianna Agron from Glee Wearing RARE vintage at the SAG Awards!

Looking gorgeous!!

Feeling Audrey

Hubert de Givenchy joked that Audrey Hepburn would be elegant in a potato sack.  And she probably would have  been.  Her own innate sense of style met its equal in the talents of Givenchy. They complimented one another.  So when I discovered this dress from the garde robe of a well known couture client, I knew immediately that this was Givenchy at his most beautiful, most elegant, most alluring.  He understood the woman should wear the dress and not the dreaded other way around.  

This Givenchy haute couture dress in a fluid soft velvet has clusters of gold organically shaped sequins trimmed in patent leather.  The front is simple and classic and the back dips suggestively low.  

It is very Audrey Hepburn.

Early 1980s Givenchy haute couture black gown with gold sequin details.  Size 4.

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