Yves Saint Laurent 1971, la Collection du 'Scandale' at Fondation Pierre Bergé

The Fondation Pierre Bergé has announced that their next exhibit will be, Yves Saint Laurent 1971, la collection du scandale opening March 19th and running through July 19th.  Of course now it is hard to understand why the spring/summer haute couture collection titled, Liberation (The Forties),  would cause such a big scandale but at the time it certainly caused a ruckus.  The Guardian called it the "tour de force of bad taste" and hardly anyone ordered pieces other then Bianca Jagger and Nan Kempner.

When I was looking through the photos on French Vogue, I saw a woman at the show looking terribly chic.  I have no idea who she is (but would love to know).

Do you see her there to the right of the model?  Her hair pulled back in a neat chignon, a scarf tied around her neck, looks like some gold jewelry, a cigarette and knee high boots.  So reminiscent of the seventies revival at Saint Laurent now, spring/summer Gucci and the Louis Vuitton pre-fall collection.  Will have to dig through my seventies YSL for a similar look minus the cigarette : )

xo, Juliana

And all that Jazz: Yves Saint Laurent Jazz Earrings

One of the most iconic of Yves Saint Laurent's designs is the Mondrian jersey dress from 1965. Mondrian was introduced to jazz by African American soldiers after World War 1. 

"Jazz, above all, creates the bar's open rhythm. It annihilates... this frees rhythm from form... a haven is created for those who would be free of for." Piet Mondrian

I can imagine Saint Laurent, a designer but also a collector, in the 1960s, seeking just that haven, freedom and inspiration in the work of Mondrian but interpreted in his own métier.

A smoky nightclub, a rhythm, a mood, YSL... and all that jazz...

For more information or to purchase, please email info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7272

A Short History of the Bolero and a YSL Jeweled Bolero

The matador bolero has seen by bulls, spectators, Hemingway and Diana Vreeland in Spain:

a pink bolero as worn by Pauline de Rothschild in the pink of a matador's stockings:

a black Balenciaga bolero as desired by me:

and a black suede jeweled and beaded bolero by Yves Saint Laurent rive gauche circa early 1990s available at RARE vintage...

Yves Saint Laurent YSL jeweled bolero at RARE vintage NYC

Oversized pailettes make a delicious soft sound as they rustle...

                      To purchase or for more information, 
please email info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7273

YSL Rocks Some Heavy Metal 80s Style

What to wear with delicate lace, a wisp of chiffon, a Rag and Bone tee, a ball gown, a LBD, a cozy sweater in Aspen, a strapless dress in the Turks and Caicos?

Yves Saint Laurent understood the mix - the mix of masculine/feminine, peasant/luxe, vintage/modern, tough/fragile...

I love this  bold, oversized stud necklace from YSL circa 1980s.  Mix it up.  And rock some heavy metal!

For more information or to purchase, please email info@rarevintage.com 
or phone 212.581.7273

You can see more of our YSL collection here and here. We have much, much more to post!  

Toujours l' Amour: YSL

I have only just begun posting a wonderful collection of Yves Saint Laurent jewelry from the 1980s and early 1990s.  If you missed the first pieces, you can see the sea anenome brooch here and the Lalanne inspired alligator cuff here.  

I adore these flirtatious earrings with black velvet bows and a faceted jet heart.  Love and the emblem of love, the heart, was an important paint of Saint Laurent's iconography.  And these would be so great for holiday parties!

For more information or to purchase, please email info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7273

YSL and The Deep Blue Sea

I had no idea when I held this small striped SAINT LAURENT rive gauche box,

that when I opened it, I would be staring deep down into an undulating sea...

Video taken at the Musée Océanographique by me

Saint Laurent was inspired by the books he read, the people he met, the art he saw.  He lived in a sensory world and that world filtered through 5 avenue Marceau.

I adore this jeweled sea anemone YSL brooch which looks as beautiful as the ones in the video above that my children took this summer at the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco.

It too undulates with its articulated tentacles.  And the blue is the color of the sea...

Circa 1980s Yves Saint Laurent rive gauche sea anemone brooch.  

Available at RARE vintage.  

For more info or to purchase, please email info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7273

It's Friday and I'm in LOVE #1: A 1970s YSL Bag

A new segment for our RARE vintage blog... 

It's Friday and I'm in LOVE with a 1970s studded suede Yves Saint Laurent rive gauche bag which can also be worn cross body with an amazing heart.  LOVE!

1970s Yves Saint Laurent rive gauche studded crossbody 'Heart' bag.

Available at RARE vintage.

and Friday music...

"I Love a Dying Frenzy" Yves Saint Laurent

"Like F. Scott Fitzgerald, I love a dying frenzy. " 

"Decadence attracts me.  I've seen the afterglow of sumptuous Paris before the war.  The balls of the fifties - Arturo Lopez, Charles de Bestegui.  The youthfulness of the sixties, Talitha and Paul Getty lying on a starlit terrce in Marrakesh, beautiful and the damned, and a whole generation assembled as if for eternity where the curtain of the past seemed to lift before an extraordinary future."   

Yves Saint Laurent

Decadence.  There has always been a feeling of decadence to Saint Laurent: his life, his world, his work.

His clothes have layers of meaning - they are not simply sexy or masculine - and it is not that they are complex but that they capture moments in time, in travel, in memories and in daydreams of the future.  They are timeless and eternal: yesterday, today, tomorrow.

This red lace bustier dress, lined in a nude silk, with the body outlined in navy grosgrain ribbon from Spring Summer 1992 could have been worn by Zelda Fitzgerald to a dance on the Gold Coast of Long Island.  She would have danced and drank to dawn and probably fought with F Scott Fitzgerald the entire time.  But the next morning, she would have studied ballet while Fitzgerald wrote.  This is the woman YSL designed for: complex, interesting, beautiful, decadent, smart and a little world weary.

and from the original runway show:

All the Cool Girls Wear RARE vintage: Camilla Nickerson

I am certain as a die-hard, card carrying member of the fashion obsessed community, you watched on HBO the documentary, In Vogue: The Editors Eye this past weekend.  Maybe like me you watched the documentary and you are reading the book!

It was fascinating and fun and I was delighted to see the uber talented, Camilla Nickerson, wearing a vintage YSL silk blouse that she bought at RARE vintage.  

Camilla Nickerson In Vogue: The Editor's Eye wearing YSL from RARE vintage.

She wore it exactly the way I love a YSL silk blouse: sexy and casual with the sleeves rolled up and the scarf tie left undone.  I feel that the YSL woman is always the most chic when she is a little deshabillé.

Very RARE vintage Christmas Guide #5: Falling In LOVE with YSL

14 days and counting until Christmas.  No need to panic - yet.  RARE vintage has your vintage gifting wrapped and ready to go.  21 days.  21 wonderful gifts...

Have you fallen in love with Yves Saint Laurent yet?  Yes, I know me too.  We love the clothes, we love the jewelry, we love the bags, we love the houses, we love the man.  And Yves Saint Laurent loved us back.  This Christmas share the love.

In love with a red grosgrain Yves Saint Laurent rive gauche belt with a dangling heart charm.  On one side is written "Love" and the other side has Saint Laurent's signature.

For more information or to purchase please call 212.581.7273 or email info@rarevintage.com

RARE vintage for Resort: YSL's Plumes and Peplum

Yves Saint Laurent transforms a whimsical feather print and a peplumed top into a Forties-style ensemble for the modern girl.

Dream a Little Dream: YSL

I have dreamed of this YSL coat since I first saw the photo of Jackie Kennedy wearing it in Ron Galella's book, Jacqueline.  (Which, by the way, is a must have for your library - I know, he was a bit of a stalker but the photos are fantastic - and I have a feeling that Jackie Kennedy probably eventually appreciated this visual diary.  I saw that it is still available on Amazon and you can order it here).

The dream:

So, years ago I dreamed a little dream that I would one day find this jacket.  And much to my extreme delight on this trip that dream became a reality.  It is not the coat but instead a small fitted jacket - with the same amazing Cassandre designed YSL logo in thick, gold metal embroidery.  And I am just as happy as if I had found the coat.  I am sure my eyes were as big as saucers when I was shown the jacket!

Now, don't get too excited because, alas, I am being the evil vintage store owner and I am keeping this piece for my personal collection : )  or is it : ( 

But I still dream another little dream that I will find the coat... and maybe, just maybe, it will find its way into RARE vintage... or my closet!  I am not making any promises...

Love Yves

It was just announced that the YSL company will be abandoning the name Yves Saint Laurent for Saint Laurent Paris.  And my first reaction was why loose the Y?  The Y is bigger then the man Yves and Saint Laurent is also bigger then the man Yves.  But then I read that it is a return to the early days of Saint Laurent rive gauche and I felt a little better.  But I do think YSL is forever...

and Jackie Kennedy in one of my all time favorite looks... Y?  It is YSL!!  And she said it loud and she said it proud!  One of the early YSL logo branded pieces.  Too too fabulous!

to be continued...

This One is for Yves Saint Laurent

Natasha Poly walked the red carpet at Cannes in an emerald green Gucci gown with long sleeves (I still get goose bumps when I see girls in long sleeves - anything other then a mermaid gown and anything with a sleeve, my heart goes all aflutter!).  

Now call me crazy but I think I have seen this dress somewhere before and I do not mean the Gucci store on 5th Avenue.  Just off of 5th Avenue in The New York Gallery building, inside RARE vintage, we had two Saint Laurent dresses.  One in black.  One in red.  They both wrapped and showed a slinky amount of leg that would do Angelina Jolie proud. 

The black has sold but we do still have the red.  

PURCHASE

INQUIRY

YSL's Farfalle

Farfalle: A butterfly shaped pasta

Farfalle: Italian word for butterfly.

YSL's Farfalle: Two of my favorite tops from our Yves Saint Laurent rive gauche collection.

YSL Butterfly corset top  

YSL silk butterfly print silk scarf blouse

PURCHASE

INQUIRY

YSL Blouses: My Favorites in Green

I typically only buy things I love for RARE vintage and I love and collect YSL blouses.  They look perfect with a pencil skirt, with shorts in the summer (this is a look I really love - it looks polished and sexy at the same time), with pants, with jeans.  It is the blouse that can go with almost everything.  And what is really amazing is that Saint Laurent made these blouses over and over again - in every color, in lots of patterns and prints, and with subtle differences.   Like ever so slightly different shades of blue, or this blouse buttons all the way down  but this one slips over head and only buttons half way down.  

Everyone copies them and there were tons of YSL inspired silk blouses in the Fall 2012 runway shows but there ain’t nothing like the real thing.  

When you have a 100 blouses it is not easy choosing a few favorites but these are a few of my favorites - in green - which is one of THE colors for Spring.

Emerald Green silk leopard print blouse.  Of course, Saint Laurent is renowned for his use of color, particularly rich jewel tones.  The silk on this blouse is particularly scrumptious and I love, love the big pussy cat bow tied at the neck and, of course, the leopard print.  Size 38.  $350

YSL loved a little gender bending and so do I.  Masculine/Feminine.  This khaki silk blouse and a few others we have - instead of the ribbon or scarf  has an actual mens-style tie.  So you have to know how to knot a tie.  Which I confess, I am not very good at.  Now, how chic would this look with a pair of high waisted pants with a little flair and a nice platform show - maybe a summer fedora from Borsalino.  Very Bianca Jagger!  Size 44.  $350

Kelly green silk blouse.  It is the details at the shoulders that I love in this blouse.  This blouse epitomizes effortless chic.  Size 38.  $250

All blouses available at RARE vintage or on 1stdibs.com

PURCHASE

INQUIRY

Terry Richardson and RARE vintage

Terry Richardson

+ RARE vintage

+ Magdalena Frackowiak

+ Iris Apfel

= Jimmy Choo's Spring 2012 Ad campaign

Magadalena Frackowiak wearing 'The Iris' and our RARE vintage 1970s Yves Saint Laurent rive gauche jersey and gold leather dress.  Shot by Terry Richardson for the Jimmy Choo spring 2012 ad campaign.

Keep Calm and Carry On

So I know you are suppose to have coup de foudre when you see a man - or a woman - and you fall madly, passionately in love with them.  But I have this itsy bitsy problem:  I experience a coup de foudre when I see something like, a shoe or a bag or a dress.  And the thing with coup de foudre is that you get OBSESSED.  Totally obsessed.

You wake up in the middle of the night and it is the first thing that comes to mind.  You wake up in the morning and the first thing you think about is a rendezvous: I will meet my secret lover at Bergdorfs at noon or I will meet my secret lover at RARE vintage in the afternoon (it is terrible thing owning a vintage store because coup de foudre is almost a part of the job description and then you know, you have to sell, what you love and it can get a little uncomfortable when a client buys something and when they leave, you can't let go of the shopping bag.)**

Hello Lover:

Yves Saint Laurent Cardinal Loafer Pump. 

$1,695.00

Say what?!   

Breathe.  Deeply.  Relax.  Take a yoga class.  Do some meditation.  Be Patient.  Be stoic...  Keep calm and carry on.  Until the sales.

**of course, I don't really hold onto client's shopping bags.  How silly!  I mean really!  Whoa!  Wait a minute someone just purchased my favorite YSL silk scarf blouse and this blouse and I - we had a moment - total coup de foudre...  Have to run!  

YSL rive gauche Silk Blouses

Our sale of YSL rive gauche blouses has begun on 1stdibs and you can shop the sale here.  

RARE vintage Yves Saint Laurent rive gauche sale on 1st Dibs