Back When It Was All Terribly, Terribly Glamorous

"When Yves and Betty and Loulou got dressed up and went out on the town, it was all terribly, terribly glamorous.  Back then, there was liberté, beauté and lots of glamour.  Now there are stock options."

Overheard at the premiere of the film, Saint Laurent, at the Centre Pompidou in Paris

xo, Juliana

A Yves Saint Laurent Story of Life

A Yves Saint Laurent rive gauche blouse with a peplum and a skirt in a whimsical Cecil Beaton-ish feather print started its life in Paris.  A spark in the mind of a genius.  It moved to New York and was adored and worn.  Rested comfortably in a closet until it came to RARE vintage where it was loved and from there went to its new home with the beautiful blonde, Stepahnie and ended up back in Paris during the haute couture... once again loved and adored...

Stephanie in vintage YSL rive gauche...

Stephanie founder of The Collecte in our RARE vintage (well, now hers : ) YSL.  

love and kisses, Juliana

Joyeux Anniversaire Yves Saint Laurent

Today would have been Yves Saint Laurent's birthday.  I don't like to think of these photos as a look back because Yves Saint Laurent is so much a part of our today and most likely, our tomorrow.  I have discovered, buying for RARE vintage, that the one designer women are most reluctant to part with, is YSL - and it is because they are still wearing it - and feel as passionate and excited by their YSL as they did all of those years ago when they first bought it...

Happy Birthday Yves Saint Laurent!

love and kisses, Juliana

Extreme Elegance: Yves Saint Laurent

I always love to find images of pieces I have acquired for RARE vintage from back in their day - years ago when I went to see the Giorgio Armani show at the Guggenheim, I thought the show lacked (and needed) context because it did not show anything around the clothes, the life like it was then, why women wore and desperately wanted those softly deconstructed pant suits...  

So when I find pieces we have, like a yellow silk Loris Azzaro ball gown in a Vogue from 1977 with the model's sleek blonde hair windswept and with glossy lips or a Givenchy haute couture gown in stark black and white from 1968 in Harpers Bazaar, I find it very exciting because it puts back some of the past into the present life of these pieces.

We have two Yves Saint Laurent rive gauche leopard print cossack-style hats at RARE vintage and I knew they were pretty fab but when I saw this image of the great and talented Loulou de la Falaise in le look totale, I did not realize the extreme elegance of it all.  Seriously, wouldn't you love to be that woman in that outfit for one day?  You know something exciting is going to happen!

Loulou de la Falaise in YSL

YSL rive gauche hat as seen on Loulou de la Falaise available for purchase at RARE vintage

love, kisses and vintage YSL on Loulou de la Falaise and at RARE vintage, Juliana

In a World: Yves Saint Laurent

How excited are we to see the new film, Yves Saint Laurent?  It looks beautiful and quiet and lush so I am hopeful that it will capture the spirit of Saint Laurent.  I love the sound of the pencil as Saint Laurent sketches in the trailer...

Just in: French Chic and YSL

One of my favorite new pieces for RARE vintage is a little black skirt fully scattered with black sequins  with a black silk ribbon around the waist and it is the epitome of French chic by the Master of French chic: Yves Saint Laurent.

Just in:

1990s Yves Saint Laurent rive gauche black sequin and silk skirt,
info@rarevintage.com or 212.581.7273

To wear right now: a pair of sheer black stockings and a bitchy stiletto.  Very Carine Roitfeld:

Carine Roitfeld perfect in sheer black stockings

or to wear for the summer: a little tank and a flat sandal.

C'est parfait!

love, bizous and vintage, Juliana

Sweet Heart: Yves Saint Laurent

Love to Love you baby!  Happy Valentine's Day and I hope you are getting something lovely and thoughtful from all of the loves in your life! 

Just in at RARE vintage and from, a man who celebrated love, Yves Saint Laurent, a red grosgrain 'Heart' clutch in pristine condition.  Circa 1980s.   I don't know about you but I love a whimsical bag. Street style photographers, get your cameras ready!

I can't help, falling in love with you...

Yves Saint Laurent rive gauche red 'Heart' clutch.  Circa 1980s.  Pristine and available for purchase at RARE vintage.

love, kisses and vintage, 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

Yves Saint Laurent, The Lalanne(s) and the Crocodile

"I have a passion for objects depicitng birds and snakes but in real life these animals scare me."

"Some nights its a little unsettling."

Yves Saint Laurent

In 1969 Yves Saint Laurent commissioned the Lalanne(s) to create bronzed body jewelry for the fall collection.  The breast plates worn over cerulean blue silk dresses were poetic, beautiful, tribal and slightly surreal.

Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé collected Francois-Xavier and Claude Lalanne pieces too for their homes.  A flock of sheep so YSL could feel as if he was on a farm in Normandy, a vineyard of vines for the Paris apartment...

Fashion imitates Art, Art imitates Life...

I was absolutely thrilled to acquire this 1986 limited edition 20th anniversary Goosens for Yves Saint Laurent crocodile gilt cuff for RARE vintage

YSL gilt crocodile cuff.  Available to purchase at RARE vintage.  

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

in pristine condition and so Lalanne Fauteil-Crocodile, 1987...

The Beautiful Bride: Malgosia Bela in RARE vintage!

Malgoisa Bela was married to Jean-Yves Le Fur on Li Galli this past weekend in a white Azzedine Alaia dress from RARE vintage and she looked absolutely stunning!  Her wedding epitomized the glamour of barefoot and bohemian chic in a beautiful setting.  She also wore a flowing lime colored Yves Saint Laurent caftan dress the following day (also from RARE vintage : ) with natural barely there makeup and her hair in soft waves.  So gorgeous!  Congratulations Malgosia!

Some photos courtesy of Purple Diary and were photographed by Olivier Zahm.