Alexander McQueen: Deliverance Spring/Summer 2004

The Venue: Salle Wagram - a grand nineteenth -century dance hall.

The Collection: Deliverance, Spring/Summer 2004

The Designer: Alexander McQueen

The Inspiration: The 1969 Sydney Pollack film, They Shoot Horses Don't They? based on the book by Horace McCoy

'The marathon dance was held on the amusement park pier at the beach in an enormous old building that had once been a public dance hall.  It was built out over the ocean on pilings, and beneath our feet, beneath the floor, the ocean pounded day and night.  I could feel it surging through the balls of my feet, as if they had been stethoscopes.'

They Shoot Horses Don't They, Horace McCoy

The lights come up on seven couples, each in their own spotlight, dancing to big band music.  The women are in evening gowns, tattered patchworks of silks, sparkling crystals that catch the spotlight, and in feathers that fall to the floor.  

The lights fade and the music dies...

"McQueen's show, offering both emotion and fine clothes, was at the summit of the 2004 collections."

Suzy Menkes

I am so thrilled to be able to offer for sale a rare and exquisitely beautiful Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2004 Deliverance Collection silk dress identical to the one in the runway show.  Available for purchase here.

The dress has torn bits of silk chiffon squares sewn onto the bias of the skirt.  The patch work bodice has inserts of sheer nude silk chiffon and the shoulder straps are twisted.

For the right person, for the right wedding, this could make a dream wedding dress - or for rehearsal dinner dance...

xo, Juliana

That was 1996, This is Now: Gianni Versace Edition

I love finding pieces that we have for sale at RARE vintage in a magazine and in the September issue of Vogue Italia - which is celebrating 50 years of Vogue Italia - they revisit past issues, stories and fashion.  I was thrilled to see this photograph of Alek Wek in our baby blue metal mesh and lace dress.

This was 1996:

Alek Wek in Gianni Versace metal mesh dress in Vogue Italia

and this is now at RARE vintage:

Gianni Versace couture metal mesh Oroton dress at RARE vintage.

Dress is available for purchase here.

xo, Juliana

La Bella Vita di Federico Forquet

I was so happy to see the article on Mr. Federico Forquet in Sunday's NYTimes T magazine.  It offered a small but tantalizing glimpse into the beautiful world of Mr Forquet, a fashion designer who left fashion in 1972 when he no longer felt he could make the kind of clothes he wanted to (haute couture not pret a porter).  Oddly enough 1972 is the same year Cristobal Balenciaga, Forquet's mentor, also decided enough was enough and closed his doors too.

But when one door closes, another door opens and Mr. Forquet found the thousands of the tiny lily of the valley flowers he had once hand sewn onto a dress for the great beauty Allegra Caracciolo Agnelli, not in silk anymore but in a scented garden he designed in the verdant hills of Tuscany.

Mr. Forquet also designed the interiors of his home in Tuscany - as well as homes for friends like the apartment in Rome he recently decorated for Ginevra Elkann, the grandaughter of Marella Agnelli, which was featured in T magazine in February.

I have counted myself very fortunate to have had some very special, very rare, Forquet gowns from the 1960s at RARE vintage too...

A door opens onto the garden from the summer living room at Forquet's home near Cetona, Tuscany .  Note the beautiful gilded table with the ceramic vegetables near the door...

Forquet designed the wicker furniture, the sofa and the folding screen all of which are on a floor of cotto, a type of Italian brick, for the summer living room...

19th century still lifes and garden landscapes over a Neapolitan daybed Forquet inherited.  I love the sage and cream ticking on the daybed, the wicker chair, the simple white bench with a white cushion tied at the legs...

The master bedroom with its vine covered coverlet and a desk where Forquet drew his fashion sketches as a child.  Home and garden seem united, the view from a window or a door always seems to be framed in a shade of green, bringing the garden into the rooms...

The outdoor rooms of the garden...  isn't this terraced garden remarkably beautiful?!  The great Russell Page, suggested paths and walls of tuffo, a stone commonly found in Tuscany...

A pergola covered in roses and fallen petals on the path...

Federico Forquet's home and garden in Tuscany.  All photos from NYTimes.

and that is all of our glimpse into the private world and la bella vita di Federico Forquet...

love and baci, Juliana

The Strong Architecture of Thierry Mugler

We have just received a wonderful collection of Thierry Mugler 80s pieces at RARE vintage and what I find remarkable about the collection is their sense of Frank Gehry architecture - Mugler's designs wrapped a woman's body in torque and sensual curves.  Waists are defined, curves are exaggerated, there are points and seams sharply wrapping and defining jackets, collars, the hips of a dress...  

I will be posting more pieces over the next week but thought I would start with this electric blue mini dress with iconic Mugler exaggerated shoulders, blues snaps, a nipped in waist and a slight curve to the skirt...

JUST IN...

love, kisses and be strong, be beautiful in Mugler, Juliana

What to Wear with Sea-Salt Hair

For years I went to Sardinia every summer and I still think, despite the crowds and the cruise ships hauling in masses of tourists,  it remains one of the most beautiful places in the world.  

Luxe, calme et volupté...

After a day on the Spiaggia Bianca or an afternoon on a boat, and having done nothing but spritzed some Keratase sun protection spray in my hair, somehow I always ended up with the perfect sea-salt hair, no frizz, soft waves... I've tried the sea-salt hair sprays that are suppose to replicate that look but alas they have never worked - at least for me - so we just need to spend all of our summer in Sardinia on a beach for perfect hair - doesn't sound so bad does it : ) 

So, you have perfect sea-salt hair, you have a soft glow from your day at the beach and now you are ready for something a little glamorous but still easy for the evening.  I love this Leonard dress with its beautiful Japonisme print of silvery moonlit Koi floating on a mediterranean blue, softly crinkled silk.  It is light, effortless but totally gorgeous. And best of all, you can wear it with a silver birkenstock or if your lover protests a flat sandal or a high heel...

Leonard dress available for purchase at RARE vintage

love, kisses and moonlit koi on a summer's eve, Juliana

A Balenciaga Cocktail Dress. Provenance: Mrs. Rachel Bunny Mellon

One of my favorite pieces at RARE vintage is a very rare, mossy greens silk Balenciaga cocktail dress, scattered with pink and poppy red dahlias that had belonged to Mrs. Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon.  

1962 Bunny Mellon Provenance Balenciaga cocktail dress.  Available for purchase at RARE vintage. 

Clothing to me, is imbued with the spirit of the person who originally fell in love with it.  Sometimes, I think people believe that I want to hear "this was never worn", when it is actually quite the opposite.  I prefer to know that the dress I am buying, even if it was just for one night, had a grand time and created a memory.

But back to our Balenciaga cocktail dress.  It is symbolic not just because Bunny Mellon was a great client of Balenciaga, a couturier who, like Mrs. Mellon, desired privacy and avoided journalists, but the dress, with its painterly flowers, is also a reflection of Mrs. Mellon's passionate interest in gardening and her extraordinary Oak Springs Garden Library.

A Style Icon of a Different Sort: Mrs. Rachel Bunny Mellon

Bunny Mellon was not as beautiful as Babe Paley.  She was well known for being a client of Balenciaga but unlike another famous client of Balenciaga, there are no portraits of her in black and white posing for Cecil Beaton in a robe déshabillé in a grand room at the Hotel Lambert in Paris.  Like Barbara Hutton she was born into great wealth but she did not squander her money nor waste her time with princes and playboys.

Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon was a woman in full.  Nothing was too small to escape her notice but it was not a dress to impress mentality, it was about collecting pieces she loved, whether in art, garden seeds or fashion.  And really, if you could have someone make, not only your cocktail dresses, but your entire wardrobe from your gardening hats to your staff's uniforms wouldn't you want it to be Balenciaga or Hubert de Givenchy too?

"This garden is made of love.  And details." Bunny Mellon told Vanity Fair in a rare interview in 2010.  And I think the feeling of love and details that extended from her wardrobe to her homes and to her gardens is what made her a true icon of Style.

There have been few but tantalizing peeks into the secret world of Bunny Mellon and what is so remarkable when you see the interiors and the gardens that she created is how timeless they are.  Everything is just so but nothing appears too precious, too showy.  So often I see a house in a magazine overly decorated, a Marilyn Minter or Murakami painting placed too prominently, or everything looks like it was purchased by the decorator and nothing by the home owner.  But Mrs. Mellon was a woman with passionate interests and ideas.  Mrs. Mellon described wandering into Mark Rothko's studio one day near her former home on 70th street in New York and quickly purchasing 13 of his paintings, including the serenely beautiful 'Yellow Expanse'.

"Nothing should be noticed.  Nothing should be noticed." said Mrs. Mellon to Sarah Booth Conroy in a rare interview to the New York Times in 1969.  "Nothing should stand out.  It all should give the feeling of calm, you should only remember the peace."  

The extraordinary gardening room at Oak Springs in Upperville Virgina:

A detail from the Fernand Renard trompe l'oeil painted room:

Notice the simple teak stools with the soft curve, the beehive shaped basket - the Bunny is in the details...

I love the Jane Canfield bunny who looks like he got caught with a bag of vegetables and herbs from the garden...

I don't mean to gush but gush I must.  Bunny Mellon had an incredible eye for color.  

Mark Rothko's Yellow Expanse in the library at Oak Springs:

 the pale seashell pink living room in the Mellon's former Manhattan townhouse with a John Singer Sargent painting above the mantel.  I love the lucite console behind the chintz covered sofa and the mocha upholstered chairs.

the Yves Klein blue crosshatched painted dining room in the Manhattan residence with thyme, rosemary topiaries which Mrs. Mellon became famous for:

in Antigua, a framed museum Mark Rothko museum poster (!) - and of course, this is from a woman who had an absolutely stunning and incredible art collection.

The Oak Spring Garden library which is so beautiful.  I can just imagine the "Mrs" as she was called having her coca cola and looking at the scrapbook Jacqueline Kennedy gave her of the White House Rose Gardens Mrs. Mellon created and in which Jackie Kennedy pressed flowers from the garden...

love, kisses and thoughts on a true style icon, Juliana

Just in at RARE vintage: Azzedine Alaia!

'Shapely' and 'sculpted' are words often attributed to the work of the Tunisian designer, Azzedine Alaia.  Mr. Alaia's every line, every stitch comes from the curve of body, the line of the back, the definition of the waist.  There are no empty seams in his work.  Every line counts.

Just in at RARE vintage is this wonderful denim dress by Azzedine Alaia with detail stitching, defining the body, in a distinct turmeric color.

I love this dress and it is a testament to the craftsmanship of Mr. Alaia that he can take a somewhat stiff material like denim and cut it so precisely that it seems to "flow over a woman's body".

love, kisses and vintage, Juliana

PS Here is a sweet short film on Alaia commissioned by AnOther magazine. Animation by the artist Sarah Beeby. Enjoy!

 

Alaia 1990s denim dress.  Size Medium.  Available for purchase at RARE vintage.
info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7273

In a Tropical Light: Dolce & Gabbana

Labor Day has come and gone but the sun still shines, weekends in the Hamptons will be only more beautiful and less crowded and there is still time to sip a Campari and soda in a tropical print Dolce & Gabbana corset dress...  Think of this as summer's last hurrah or getting a head start on shopping for Resort...  (please note the dress is more of a yellow then it appears in this photo)  I love 1990s Dolce & Gabbana!  The pieces are  so glamorous, sexy and molto Italiano!

1990s Dolce & Gabbana corset dress.  Size 4/6.  Only available at RARE vintage.

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

Black and White and Seen All Over

One of the biggest trends right now is the classic combo of black and white.

It looks cool and modern as you can see by the uber chic sisters, Victoria and Vanessa Traina.

So how is it that a 20+ year old dress can look so on trend?  Because, my vintage sisters and brothers, there ain't nuthin' new under the sun.  Fashion is basically one big flashback tweaked.

One of my favorite new finds for RARE vintage is a 1980s Geoffrey Beene gown in black and white with an open back.  I love the silhouette which is very 1930s movie glamour goddess.  The dress hugs the body, is covered in the front and plunges seductively to the waist in the back.  Timeless, modern, classic and on trend...

1980s Geoffrey Beene black and white gown only available at RARE vintage.  Size 4/6.

Images from Harper's Bazaar and RARE vintage

More Ellsworth Kelly Photos

Photos by my friend, one of the smartest women in the art world I know, Mary Barone:

Doesn't Sharon look gorgeous?!

You can follow Mary on her fab blog Out with Mary here.

Ellsworth Kelly Then (1952) and Now (2013)

Last night I had the great privilege to attend a 90th birthday celebration for the great American artist Ellsworth Kelly.  He reminisced about the creation of Spectrum V, 1969 and it was such a treat!

He also spoke about a dress he had made in 1952 from pieces of a fabric that he had bought in a marché in the South of France.  He was attracted to a bolt of bright red cotton and created a painting 'Red Yellow Blue White' from the fabric that now hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

and the leftover fabric he gave to his friend and fellow artist Ann Weber.  He wanted her to make a dress of equal bands of color and he wanted it hemmed just above the knee.

But Ann had other ideas.  Dior.  Christian Dior.  She wanted the dress to be the "new Dior length".  

Kelly was mad and at some point Ann's mother burned the dress.  Where there is dressmaking there is  drama : )

Fast forward 61 years and Ellsworth Kelly got the dress he dreamed of - well, almost : )  Kelly thought Francisco Costa maybe just maybe made the red band a wee bit larger then the others...

A collaboration was initiated by the Manhathan art advisor, Sharon Coplan Hurowitz, Harold Koda, curator-in-charge of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Mueum of Art and Ellsworth Kelly.  Francisco Costa the designer for Calvin Klein was charged with the task of recreating the dress.  The dress is right above the knee and it is striking.  Of course, I always see clothes as a work of art and it was a great honor to see a true work of art by a great artist.  And Kudos to Francisco Costa for doing such a brilliant job of sculpting the dress and Sharon Coplan Hurowitz for bringing back a 1952 work of art.

Ellsworth Kelly, Francsico Costa and the dress.