RARE vintage Weekend Style and Inspiration: Coco's Monkey

Dinner with Coco Chanel and her monkey.  So chic.  Don't you wish that other plate was for you?!  I know I do.

Coco Chanel photographed at her apartment in Paris by Horst.  1963

Quote of the Day #3: Coco Chanel

"I'm enchanted by small boutiques, haberdashers, second-hand boutiques, middlemen, clothes dealers.  I love antique shops that look like those in Dickens or Balzac's Peau de Chagrin."  Coco Chanel

Coco's Pearls. Pearls of Wisdom. Part Two.

More pearls of wisdom from Coco Chanel.  (Translation below)

Only truth has no limits.

Disgust is often the rear guard of pleasure and, often, the avant grade.

"Good Taste" ruins some of the spirit's real values: like plain taste for example.

There is a moment when you can not touch an opus any more: it's when its at its worst.

One may be lead to cheat for an excess of delicacy.

Fashion is a Queen and sometimes a slave.

Your face is a mirror reflecting the ongoings of inner life: take good care of it.

Because it's a given that eyes are the soul's mirror, why not admit that the mouth could be the heart's interpreter.

The only beautiful eyes are those watching us tenderly.

The ear's delicacy is not always related to the hearts.

Through "coquetry" even women's course of time stops.

There are gestures of love and tenderness which originate only in devotion.

Our houses are our prisons; let's find our freedom in the way we decorate them.

One can get use to ugliness, never to neglect.

It is typical of a weak spirit to boast about qualities that only chance can dispense.

from a 1930s Vogue or Bazaar.  Sorry can not remember which one.  Will update when I know.

Coco's Pearls. Pearls of Wisdom.

Happy Birthday Coco!  Pearls of wisdom from Coco Chanel... (translation below)

Women can give everything with a smile and with a tear take it all back.

Fashion is always a reflection of the time, but is forgotten if it is silly.

To disguise oneself is charming; to be disguised is sad.

Feigning to be naive makes you look more stupid then confessing your ignorance.

Vanity is a spiritual conquest over the senses.

Lucky finds are made to be lost.

Kindness is love; generosity, a form of passion.

Nature gives you your face of twenty years; life models your face of thirty; but that of fifty years is the face you deserve.

True generosity is accepting ingratitude.

If you were born wingless don't do anything to forbid them to grow.

Ornament, what a science!  Beauty, what a weapon!  Modesty, what elegance!

Avaricious wealth, pretentious ostentation, sordid liberality are the surest weapons for good fortune's suicide.

They may love you in spite of your great shortcomings, but hate you for real qualities and virtues.

You can only open those barriers you have created.

Failed innovation is painful, reconstitution is sinister.

For a woman cheating has only one sense: exactly that of the senses.

PURCHASE

INQUIRY

In a Field of Lavender High Above Monte Carlo

"La Pausa, in a field of lavender high above Monte Carlo."  This was my introduction to Coco Chanel's villa, La Pausa, in Roquebrune as remembered in the wonderful book In My Fashion by former Vogue editor, Bettina Ballard.  Ballard remembers the house as being beige, beige, beige - even with a beige piano.  She remembers a quiet leisurely house in the morning with thermos filled with coffee and hot milk.  Mornings were spent in bed or having a driver take you into town for shopping or to the beach for a swim.  Lunch was a raucous affair filled with gossip and in the evenings Misia Sert played piano and everyone sat in front of the fire.

I have often tried to imagine these visits Bettina Ballard took to La Pausa and I was happily surprised to see a post on Little Augury with lots and lots of photographs of La Pausa.  Little Augury never fails to delight and surprise and inspire me and I think you will be as equally delighted, surprised and inspired with her blog - if you are not already!

Read Little Augury's La Pausa here and enjoy!  

This is my favorite photo of La Pausa's garden.  A perfect place to while away an afternoon with Chanel don't you think?!

Photo courtesy of Little Augury.  Thank you!

The Allure of Chanel

Very few people have the confidence to be certain that they are right and anyone who questions them is wrong. Coco Chanel was one of those people and, of course, she WAS right. All of the elements that she introduced have endured and have been well interpreted and modernized by Karl Lagerfeld.

We are always searching for exceptional early Chanel pieces and our quest for the holy grail: the perfect and classic Chanel haute couture suit has been elusive up to now. We had three of these suits, two of which have already sold. One sold before we had the opportunity to photograph it but it was as perfect as these two and just as chic.

Chanel suits are not obviously sexy but somehow the soft fabrics follow the body and the snug little cardigan jackets make us think of Romy Schneider in Boccaccio '70: her elegance and ennui, a burning cigarette, her beauty and stunning suits.

This is a late 1950s/early 1960s Chanel haute couture suit. The quilted silk lining, the iconic use of striped jersey, the flat gilt chain that edges the jacket, the gilt double cc buttons, the tweed suit in a delicious shade of peach and the fabric! They don't make 'em like this anymore! This is a wonderful piece for a collection and even more wonderful to wear.

Late 1950s/early 1960s Chanel haute couture tweed suit with striped jersey. Size 4.

Late 1950s/early 1960s loosely woven Chanel haute couture suit with gilt buttons.

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