Kate Moss in RARE vintage in the December British Vogue!

"Tomorrow she packs, her hopes as fragile as an early morning dew drop in that ethereal light you only see in St. Petersburg on a white night.  I want to weep when I see Miss Moss in character..."

John Galliano, British Vogue, December 2013

Fashion is a place, a journey, a mystery, a longing... Fashion is for dreamers, for lovers... Fashion is a buttonhole, a pink ostrich plume, a cut on the bias, a piece of origami cut in cloth, it is Glory, it is Demise... Fashion is feeding your chickens in a satin Balmain gown, a faded, crumbling farmhouse in East Hampton, a palace in St. Petersburg, a painting by Ingres ...  Fashion is grand.  Fashion is folly...

I wanted to cry with joy when I saw Kate Moss wearing an early John Galliano silk teddy, brilliantly pieced together, and an oversized origami kimono from John Galliano for Dior from RARE vintage in the December issue of British Vogue this morning.  RARE vintage!  My collection!!  In Vogue!!!  On Kate Moss!!!!  With John Galliano!!!!!

I was married in John Galliano for Givenchy.  I did not know that I ever really wanted to get married but being a girl and unable to escape girlish thoughts of wedding dresses, the one thing I did know, if I were to be married, I would wear John Galliano and Manolo Blahnik shoes.  It is funny how life works out: we did decide to get married, I did wear John Galliano and my shoes were Manolo Blahnik.

One of the reasons I was drawn to fashion, was the romance of it all, the feeling that you could be anyone, go anywhere.  Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in a black gown trimmed in Venetian guipure lace?  Why not?  Or a 70s rock chick in cut off jean shorts and a mongolian lamb vest?  Why not?

So not only do I love the photos of Miss Moss wearing pieces from RARE vintage (hello!  let me just say that again: Miss Moss wearing pieces from RARE vintage : )) with Mr. Galliano but I adore what Galliano wrote.  Below is an excerpt and you can read the complete article in the December British Vogue.

"I tell her a little story about Olga Khokhlova, Picasso's first wife and a magnetic and powerful force.  Visions of her playing Russian roulette with a dining knife, blithely stabbing away with staccato speed in between her fingers while gazing away.  She tilts her head backwards to a degree she feels and knows so well, every muscle held within that beautiful frame is working, projecting, living, feeling and breathing Olga.  She is Olga.  My Olga."
John Galliano

Photos by Tim Walker.  British Vogue.  December 2013

High & Mighty: The Beehive is Back! In Vogue! And on Moi!

I can not believe that the Met Gala, Punk: Chaos to Couture, is almost here - thankfully still a month and a half away - because, frankly my dears, I don't have a thing to wear!  I have been so busy finding dresses for our RARE vintage clients, I have not had a moment to think about me.  Anyway, I trust that the vintage fashion Gods will bestow something wonderful...  hopefully soon : )

In the March issue of Vogue, Contributing Editor to Vogue, Marina Rust, tried out the beehive.  She called the beehive "very flirty hair, a conversation starter, and it makes you easier to find!"

And, honey, ain't that the truth!  Last year, the fabulously talented John D'Orazio, created a larger then life beehive for me to wear to the Met gala.  We festooned it with beautiful colorful bugs and butterflies from Evolution (inspired by Elsa Schiaparelli's 1938 metal insect and synthetic necklace that was worn by Millicent Rogers and is in the collection of the Costume Institute at the Met).

So in the March issue of Vogue,

Marina Rust's editor sent her to John D'Orazio because he did a "wild, over-the-top beehive for one of the guests at the Met gala". 

John recalling my do said, "it was decorated with beetles in honor of the Schiaparelli exhibit, which called for something exotic, for glamour."

And, yes, it was a real conversation starter!  

My hair:

in Vogue:

In Vogue!

While I was away on vacation and checking my email, I had a huge surprise from a client who sent a note that I was in the July issue of Vogue.  Vogue!  Me!

I should say that as a little girl, I was completely crazy for fashion (not much has changed : ) and Vogue was my obsession.  As soon as I learned to read I was buying (or making my parents buy) Vogue - and even before I could read, I am certain I was looking at the photos.  Through the pages of Vogue, I traveled in excitement to a dream world where I was surrounded by the most beautiful haute couture from Paris, Milan and New York.  It was always a thrilling journey and the photography in Vogue captured mesmerizing dresses in silks, incredible embroidery skillfully done by hand and enough shoes and handbags to start a lifelong passion for accessories - amongst other sartorial obsessions!  

So in the pages where Diana Vreeland suggested that we tie black tulle bows on our wrists, where the Duchess of Windsor was photographed at the Chateau de Candé by Cecil Beaton in her wedding trousseau Schiaparelli printed with a lobster, where Natalia Vodianova was a sullen Alice in Wonderland in the most ravishing blue Lacroix Haute Couture, where Vionnet's dresses floated, where Alix became Madame Gres and her classically inspired dresses draped the pages, where Pierre Cardin's futurism became the present in the 1960s and then a part of our past in the Vogue archives- in other word: so many of my idols have been in Vogue.

It was a huge honor for me to be mentioned in the article on this year's Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations Met Gala.  Here is the article and a few photos of the hair do and the insects that adorned it.

The fabulous hair was created by the masterful John D'Orazio who made it even bigger then I could have imagined possible.  In the photo below my giant hair meets the little insects...  John was so focused he was not even a little bit squeamish.

Almost ready to go.  The hair was so big I basically had to crawl in and out of the car!  The insects are real and there were butterflies in the front.  

My hair in the great Vogue video from the Met Gala which you can see in its entirety here

Thank you Vogue!

Schiaparelli 1938

Elsa Schiaparelli as Ringmaster.  And all of Paris followed her folly and her circus...

In Vogue.  1938.

In the Philadelphia Museum:

Naif drawings of circus animals on silk crepe.

Collection of the Philadelphia Museum

In the V & A:

Detail from a 1938 Schiaparelli Circus Collection silk twill jacket with prancing horses and gold metallic thread saddles and plumes.  The buttons are handmade cast metal acrobats:

Collection V & A

Brown wool jacket with cast metal circus horses buttons:

Collection V & A

Vogue and The Ritz

Have you seen the layout with the perennially great Kate Moss in beautiful couture dress after beautiful couture dress in the April issue of Vogue?   The photographs were taken at The Ritz in Paris which will be closing for two years of restoration.  Vogue looked back into its own pages for its many fashion shoots at the hotel where Marcel Proust was a regular, where Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald partied, where Hemingway drank and what became the home of Coco Chanel . 

Vogue 1927:

Vogue 1936:

Vogue 1984:

Kim Williams in Sonia Rykiel.  (Doesn't that oversize silhouette look so Fall 2012?!)  Photographed by Arthuer Elgort.

Vogue 1993:

Shalom Harlow in a Gianni Versace beaded tulle wedding dress with Carla Bruni (that is Madame Sarkozy), Christy Turlington and Meghan Douglas in Chanel.  Photographed by Ellen Von Unwerth.

Vogue 1999:

Audrey Marnay in a devoré chiffon flower print dress by Emmanuel Ungaro Haute Couture jumping on a bed (I guess someone's Mother never told her not to jump on the bed!) in the Suite Duc de Windsor.

Vogue 1999:

Audrey Marnay in Josephus Timister's frothy layers of tulle couture dress in front of a mirror in the Suite Duc de Windsor.

Vogue 2004:

Eugenia Volodina in Chanel Haute Couture navy tulle and feather dress, Julia Steigner in a Chanel tweed jacket and embroidered lace dress and Caroline Trentini in a Chanel lilac tweed jacket with lace sleeves and sheer camellia-print mousse line dress.  Photographed My Mario Testino.

Vogue 2009:

Karlie Kloss in Christian Dior Haute Couture déshabillé:  blush satin bra, lemon mousse silk-tulle skirt embroidered with rhinestones, silk taffeta belt and strass jewelry.  Photographed by Arthur Elgort.

And one of my favorites:  Amanda Harlech at her home away from home in Paris: The Ritz with her personal wardrobe.  Dream a little dream : )

Natalie Portman Vogue's 10 Best Dressed!

Okay.  This will be the last one but you know, it's Vogue!  Natalie Portman was one of the 10 best dressed at the Academy Awards (of course ; )

Fashion, Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Love Me, When I'm 62? Part Two.

Fashion, will you still love me when I'm 62? Hell yes!  Just take a look at the January issue of Vogue.  Meryl Streep.  Master thespian.  Can have an affair with her ex husband who left her for a hot bodied twenty something in "It's Complicated'.  Can speak with innumerable foreign accents.  And has been nominated, I lost count, for how many Academy Awards.  Meryl Streep.  62.  Major actress.  Major still working in starring roles actress.  And Vogue cover girl.

Icon Week: Friday Christian Lacroix

I am still feeling incredible sadness about the loss of Alexander McQueen.  I have been remembering some great pieces that are in my personal collection.  There is even Alexander McQueen from the early 1990s when he was with Onward Kashiyama.  There may have been less money to produce the exceptionally crafted  couture pieces but the unique talent and vision was already very evident.  It is a tragedy.

It is also sad, in a completely different way of course, about Christian Lacroix not showing at the recent couture shows in Paris.   But on a much happier note - even an ecstatic note!  I am very excited to be able to offer a true fashion icon piece from one of our great iconic fashion designers, Christian Lacroix.  I wrote a little while back on the blog about the very famous Vogue cover that began the Anna Wintour period of Vogue and also the remarkable cover image of the smiling Michaela Bercu wearing an extraordinary couture jeweled t-shirt (worth $10,000 at the time) with easy hair and a pair of low slung jeans.

It took all of the preciousness out of couture and made it modern and accessible.  Couture, really you have to treat it like dirt for it to lose its aura of unrealness and make it real.  Well, not really like dirt but I am sure you know what I mean.  If I was buying my own couture I would probably not even let anyone look at it!  Step away from the couture - don't even look at it! I stared and stared at that cover for hours.  Literally.    

Here is The Icon:

Price available upon request

Fashion's Night Out at RARE vintage September 10th!

RARE vintage is thrilled to be a part of the CDFA and Vogue sponsored Fashion's Night Out on September 10th! We will be giving our blog readers sneak peeks of the very special gift we will have at the store and the very special vintage pieces will be putting out for the first time on September 10th.  So if you want that - oops, we are not going to say just yet what we will be putting out, but trust us, you are going to want everything!  We are excited already!

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