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

Merci Mlle Chanel, Chanel 1996 Haute Couture

One of my favorite necklaces is a 1996 Chanel haute couture necklace.  Originally I had three but I kept only one and now I wish I had been very greedy and kept them all because I just found this Irving Penn image from 1996 Vogue and it actually describes how the necklaces were made and they look absolutely divine and stunning.

1996 Chanel haute couture.  Photo by Irving Penn

"Caviar pearls decorate the top of this updated version of a Coco design while triangular panels of black caviar pearls cover the skirt.  The same embroiderers strung the matching necklace before it was passed onto the jewelry maker."

Now, the other sad part is that I had the daisy brooch too... well, of course, I am happy for my clients ; )

One of the necklaces I sold...

1996 Chanel haute couture caviar pearl and filigree necklace

love. kisses and caviar pearls, Juliana

One Frickin Day with Elettra Wiedemann

One Frickin Day is a charity cofounded by model and eco-activist Elettra Wiedemann and James Marshall.  Elettra was last seen looking beautiful on the red carpet of the Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum's 'Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty' in a Gattinoni gown which had belonged to her grandmother, Ingrid Bergman and was reworked by Prabal Gurung. 

Elettra Wiedemann in Gattinoni in Vogue

We all have so many demands on our time and the idea behind the charity, is that though it may not seem like much or even enough, just One Frickin Day of our time, One Frickin Day of service, One Frickin Day of our annual salary can affect the rest of someone's life. 

Top models were asked to donate a dress they wore one night on the red carpet to be sold to buy solar panels for clinics in Haiti and Rwanda.  I will be posting dresses worn by Iman,  Elle Macpherson,  Isabella Rossini, Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum and other amazing women.  

OFD has partnered with Solar Electric Light Fund and Partners in Health.   I was thrilled when Elettra asked me to be a part of this project that will help bring solar power to remote health clinics in developing countries and provide much needed power to enable lifesaving care after dark and to operate medical equipment.  Just goes to show that you can have style and substance.

Now onto the style!  And the drama!  This first piece, donated by Shalom Harlow is all about the drama!  It is a billowing black taffeta domino designed by Bob Mackie in the 1980s.  It is for a modern day Countess Mona Bismarck (you of course remember Mona Bismarck in a fabulous Balenciaga  in her equally fabulous Hotel Lambert in Paris photographed by the very fabulous Cecil Beaton).  Balenciaga was a skilled tailor and was able to create sculptural drama in silk.

Shalom's Bob Mackie also reminded me of this Alexander McQueen in the Savage Beauty show at the Met.

Alexander McQueen ensemble from The Girl Who Lived in the Tree Collection.  2008.  Sarah Burton said that he wanted regality but also a sense of lightness.

Bob Mackie did not do small.  Did not do minimalist.  He did spectacular.  He did beads.  He did feathers and he did Glamour (note the capital G!).  But this domino in black taffeta while still wildly glamorous is also restrained.   And speaking of beading, when Shalom Harlow wore this to the Party of the Year at the Met two years ago, she wore a black beaded Olivier Theyskens catsuit underneath it.  

Bob Mackie black silk taffeta domino.  Donated by Shalom Harlow.  $5,000.00

50 percent of the proceeds will be going directly to the charity, One Frickin Day.

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