Party Like Its 1965

Tonight I have a date with Marcello

Photo by John Phillips and available here

He smokes but so what?!  It's Marcello Mastroiani people!

I am doing my make up

Dressed in my slip

My chic little black dress by Gigliola Curiel is waiting undone on a chair

This is the look I give Marcello when he comes in unannounced into my bedroom

"Ma Marcello, tesoro, aspetta..." I say.  "Il mio vestito..."

Afterwards

As you can see, I have a very active imagination : )  but that is the fun and the fantasy of fashion.  By simply donning a little black dress by the Milanese designer, Gigliola Curiel from circa 1965, you can be transported to a time where Marcello M could have been your date and you could have looked like Sophia Loren.  Dream a little dream...

Circa 1965 Gigliola Curiel little black dress beautifully made with a corseted bodice, weighted hem and hand finished details.  In the mid 1960s Gigliola Curiel entered into an exclusive agreement with Bergdorf Goodman bring her brand of Milanese Alta Moda to New York.  Size 4.

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

Movie Stars and Christian Dior

Stars in Dior: From the screen to the streets is a new show at the out of the way Christian Dior Museum in Granville France. 

From the wonderful blog, The Cherry Blossom Girl, here are some photos from the opening:

All photos above courtesy of The Cherry Blossom Girl

Here is a look back at some stars and some Dior...

Marlene Dietrch at a Dior show in 1951:

The gorgeous Lauren Bacall with Bogie at a Dior show in 1952:

The heavenly Sophia Loren in Dior.  Look at that back!  that behind!  those eyes!  those lips!  I love this dress by Marc Bohan for Christian Dior 1967:

and the beautiful Marilyn Monroe looking ethereal and a vision in black with long black gloves and her almost white/blonde hair in Dior 1962:

and Charlize Theron in Dior at the Oscars 2005:

and, of course, you know I had to include, Natalie Portman in Christian Dior haute couture from 1954 (and from RARE vintage : ) at the 2012 Academy Awards:

If you can't make it to the Christian Dior Museum in Granville for the show, you can pre-order the book, Stars in Dior here.

Stars and Dior: From the screen to the streets

The Christian Dior Museum

May 12 - September 23, 21012

Granville, France 

Weekend Reading 17: Italian Films in the 1960s by John Phillips

Weekend Reading for you from RARE vintage... Read on...

My husband's grandfather, John Phillips, was a LIFE Photographer back in the day and by the day, I mean The Day.  Back when LIFE magazine was founded in the 1930s.  John Phillips apprenticed with Man Ray, was there for the scandalous abdication of King Edward the VIII so he could marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson, befriended Antoine de Saint Exupery and was the last photographer to document Saint Exupery's final flight before he disappeared.  He photographed Cecil Beaton, Elsa Schiaparelli, Coco Chanel, the entire Italian Royal Family before scandal struck and they were forced out of Italy.   He spent time with Lee Miller during World War II and Tito in Yuogslavia, King Farouk of Egypt as well as photographing the siege of Jerusalem in 1948.

In the early 1960s, post LIFE magazine, John Phillips spent time in Rome photographing the film stars, directors and writers who would revolutionize as well as reinvigorate post war Italian Cinema.

Italian Films by John Phillips

Sophia Loren:

Vittorio de Sica who made the classic films 'Bicycle Thief' and 'Umberto D' also made one of the episodes in one of my favorite Italian films, 'Bocaccio 70'.  Sophia Loren stars as a maid in a small hotel who holds a lottery.  The winner of the lottery gets to go bed with her - so you can just imagine how many tickets were sold!  

Photos courtesy of the John and Anna Maria Phillips Foundation

John Phillips: To add to the reality, De Sica chose as Loren's leading man a sturdy young man from the village.  After the shooting I asked Za (De Sica) about the man's future, since he obviously had none in films.  "Can he ever get over having had Sophia Loren in his arms?" I asked.  Za pointed out with local pride that the young man was Emilian.  All the girls in the village would assume he had an affair with Loren.  All will go to bed with him and he will be very happy.  Intrigued, I asked what if he had been a Roman?  'He would boast all over town that he had slept with Loren' Za replied.  He added if he had been a Neopolitan he'd photgraph his sister naked, put Loren's head on the body and sell the postcards and if he was a Sicilian, Za replied, completing his characterization of the Italian male, 'He would never get over it.'

Italian Films by John Phillips at the New York Design Center Gallery.

200 Lexington Avenue

Through September 10th 2011