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

Sheer Madness!

One of my favorite dresses from the Fall 2013 haute couture shows was a Giambattista Valli bustled ballgown with a Luigi Scialanga sculpted metal ribbon belt:

but one of the things that made it light, lovely and modern was its sheer embroidered skirt.

There is something very sexy about being covered and yet uncovered at the same time...  One of my favorite new gowns at RARE vintage is this circa 1990 Vicky Tiel black jersey gown - very fitted through the bodice - with a dramatic open back and a long sheer black lace skirt. The lace is subtly embroidered with beading for  a bit of opulent glamour...

Circa 1990 Vicky Tiel black jersey gown with a sheer lace skirt.  Size 4/6.  

Only available at RARE vintage

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

Glamorous Halston: The Evening Collection. Part One. 1970s. A Single Owner Collection

Well, I have posted some really great pieces of Halston for day: a hooded cashmere sweater and skirt - so perfect for a chilly day like today in New York! An electric blue jersey dress that could take you from the office to cocktails, an ultrasuede coat with a silk bias cut ensemble underneath - so chic and minimalist and a few of Elsa Peretti's for Halston perennially cool belts and now finally, I am ready for a little Glamour!

It's time to party like its 1977 and your best friends are Bianca, Mick, Marissa, Andy, Liz and Liza.  

Let's get this party started!  

Let's start with Liza in black sequins and matte jersey.  How gorgeous is her outfit?!

Liza's sequin jacket looks a lot like this simple tank dress with its matching cardigan that we have.

Shiny black sequins are sewn onto silk chiffon.  So fabulous, you can wear it with the tank dress or like La Liza, wear the sequin jacket with matte jersey.  I am thinking a black jumpsuit would be amazing!

So it is about 15 degrees here in sunny New York and if you have an event tonight (the temperature is suppose to be 11 degrees!) and want to look glamorous and be nice and toasty then I would suggest wearing this beautiful yellow cashmere long gown and cardigan like Pat Cleveland back in the day.  It's a sweater and it's slinky...  

 The reason why Halston's cashmeres are so sexy is because they are cut close to the body.

We also have, one of my favorites, this super beautiful silk charmeuse wrap dress with an angled hem.

One of the most iconic and glamourous of Halston's looks for evening is the plunging halter neck gown.

We have a coral matte jersey plunging halter neck gown which you can wear with its matching jersey cardigan - or without.  Halston loved a very matching look and probably would have shown this gown with a coral strappy sandal.

 More to come... to be continued...

Shop our 1970s Halston collection here.

Very RARE vintage Christmas Guide #6: A Finely Feathered Frock by Valentino

13 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...

Birds of a feather...

flock together...

I can't help falling in love... Santa Baby, slip a little something Valentino under the tree for me...

Fall Winter 2001 Valentino red gown, backless with red feather decoration... hello gorgeous!

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

Naughty and Nice: Tom Ford for Gucci

Leather, lace and the allusion of nudity.  Tom Ford feeling naughty and nice for this spectacular gown for Gucci Fall 1999.

The Antidote: Gianni Versace Couture

What is the antidote for a bad case of the closet blahs?  You know, that infectious sea of black in your closet which is highly contagious and will make its dark appearance at every party this holiday season.  

The antidote to a world of noir and oblivion in your closet is this pink to green ombre Gianni Versace Couture gown.

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.  

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"Finally at Twenty-Four, I Opened My Own House"

“Finally at the age of twenty-four I opened my own house.” Hubert de Givenchy 

 Un petit histoire de Monsieur Givenchy...

Jackie Kennedy leaving Givenchy's couture salon after a fitting.

Givenchy apprenticed with Jacques Fath, who amazingly showed up to work in a full length wolf coat, and Robert Piguet, who spent most of the day in his office with a light outside his office that either said “Wait!” or “Enter!”. From Piguet, Givenchy went to work for Lucien Lelong whose atelier numbered  1,500 employees.  At Lelong Givenchy had to go before a sort of tribunal where Lelong, his daughter and the directrice of the salon would pick and choose the designs they liked.

A model in Givenchy couture in the salon of Givenchy's Paris home.

Givenchy became Elsa Schiaparelli’s assistant in 1947. And it was here he said that he discovered “true elegance”.  Schiaparelli had just returned from the United States and reopened her salon in the Place Vendome.  In the storeroom were metres and metres of fabrics printed with surrealist motifs: silks with mouths, lips, stars and newsprint.  He asked what he was to do with these leftovers?  “Use it up.” was the reply and he was given free reign to do what he wanted.  Givenchy created for Schiaparelli his first separates: little blouses and skirts in Schiaparelli’s whimsical prints. It was also at Schiaparelli that Givenchy met some of the uber chic ladies who would later become his clients: Daisy Fellowes and Babe  Paley.

From Givenchy's first collection in 1952: a dress of smoke grey organza and a cape of cotton shirting.

“Fabric is where it all begins”

For Givenchy fabric was the be all and end all.  A collection began with the “feel of a velvet, the crackle of a duchesse satin, the sheen of a faille, the iridescence of a shot taffeta, the strength of a brocade.”  In his quest for the best, Givenchy worked with the  houses that produced the most exquisite fabrics in the world: Suzy Gandini, Madame Broissen de Méré, and Gustave Zumsteg.

 Minidress in Taroni's black tulle printed with white dots.  Worn with a lily of the valley boater.


"The Hepburn style had been born and it lives on today." Hubert de Givenchy

In 1954 Givenchy created the clothes for the Billy Wilder film Sabrina.  Sabrina was played by Audrey Hepburn.  Givenchy said "Her chic, her youth, her bearing and her silhouette grew ever more celebrated, enveloping me in a kind of of aura or radiance that I could never have hoped for."  

 

Audrey Hepburn in Givenchy at an awards ceremony.

Givenchy haute couture at RARE vintage 

I recently acquired a wonderful Givenchy couture gown for RARE vintage from the 1980s.  It is opulently representative of the luxe and dramatic 80s.  And it is ideally representative of Givenchy seeking the most beautiful fabrics, the most gorgeous embroidery. 

Silk taffeta striped Hubert de Givenchy haute couture gown.  Labeled, signed and numbered.  Gown is slightly bustled and gathered with a raised hemline in the front.

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The Mystery of the Black Balenciaga

Last Friday I went to see an auction preview and at this auction there was a beautiful and dreamy black 1955 Balenciaga tulle gown.  As I was reading about the gown, I saw that it was from the Schenectady Museum.  Schenectady Museum??  A Balenciaga in Schenectady, New York?  And not only a Balenciaga but also a Christian Dior cocktail dress from 1958.  So feeling very Agatha Christie, very Miss Marple, I determined to discover how this Balenciaga ended up in Schenectady.

A Balenciaga in Schenectady: A Miss Marple Mystery (well, sort of - not really but in the spirit of Miss Marple I set off to do some sleuthing)

The Schenectady Museum and Suits-Bueche Planetarium was founded in 1934.  (Hello!  Where have I been?!  Obviously not in Schenectady.)  And they do indeed have a Costume and Textile department.  I spoke with the Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, Chris Hunter, who generously gave me a bit of his day to talk to me about the costume and textile department at the museum.

In 1963, Marjorie Foote, the wife of a General Electrics engineer began work as a volunteer curator at  the Schenectady Museum and she helped to develop a high fashion collection at the museum.  Not too much is known about her background - she may have had some training or had worked at the Costume Institute at the Met here in New York before moving to Schenectady.  Marjorie Foote it seems was determined to form this collection and she wasn't afraid to call up designers and ask them to donate a piece for the collection.  (I didn't know Mrs. Foote of course but I love her fashion determination!)

In 1968 Mrs. Foote became Curator of Costume at the museum.  The collection numbered about 50 pieces then and eventually increased to over 500 pieces including work by Dior, Fortuny and Balenciaga.

The costume collection was displayed in numerous exhibitions through the 1960s and 1980s.  Marjorie Foote died in 1979.

In 2004 with a bequest from Marjorie and William Foote, a wing was named in their honor and the museum held a number of lectures on one of my favorite topics: fashion and design.

All photos courtesy of Charles A. Whitaker Auction House

Oh and did I mention that the black tulle Balenciaga came from a woman in Garrison-on-Hudson who was living at a "lodge".  Now, there is another mystery to be solved!

I am entirely and gratefully indebted to Chris Hunter for really being my Sherlock Holmes who enabled me to crack this case.  The Schenectady Museum and Suits-Bueche Planetarium is known as "Schenectady's Smithsonian"and recently acquired over 10,000 objects and 1.5million photographs from General Electric.  The museum's focus is the story of science and technology and they will be retaining a costume collection that also focuses on technological aspects of fashion design and items that relate to the community.

To find out more visit Schenectady Museum

L'histoire de Hubert de Givenchy

In 1944 Hubert de Givenchy went to work for Jacques Fath.  In the mornings he worked with Fath and in the afternoons he studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts.  Eventually Givenchy left Fath to work with Robert Piguet and then at Lucien Lelong (where both Dior and Balmain launched their careers) before working with the great Elsa Sciaparelli.   In 1952 Givenchy opened his own house under his own name.

His PR was handled by the former model for Jacques Fath, Bettina Graziani.  

Bettina Graziani in a 1957 Givenchy hat. Photo by Frank Horvat.

Givenchy named one of his earliest and most popular designs after her, The Bettina Blouse.  Crisp white cotton and with Bishop sleeves ruffled in black and white broderie anglaise.

Photo from Life magazine

In 1955 Givenchy met his idol, Cristobal Balenciaga.  Givenchy said that Balenciaga taught him "it isn't necessary to add a button where it does not belong, or to add a flower to make a dress beautiful.  It is beautiful of itself."

I really adore this admiration Givenchy had and devotion to singular designers like Balenciaga.  Mr. Givenchy has been responsible in large part for the opening of the Balenciaga museum in Guetaria Spain - personally donating over 100 pieces to the museum.  I also noticed that the beautiful and heartbreaking last dress that Madame Gres designed and gave to Givenchy shortly after she retired in the incredible exhibit, Madame Gres, at the Musée Galliera this past summer.

Mr Givenchy said of the dress that an old and fragile woman was waiting to see him in his atelier.  It was Madame Gres.  She gave him the last dress she designed as a thank you for supporting her work.  Stunning.  Beautiful.  Sad.

Photo by Andrea Cairone for RARE vintage.

Givenchy designs became increasingly simple and striking and were often worn by his muse Audrey Hepburn.  He dressed her for Funny Face, Breakfast at Tiffany's, How to Steal a Million and live Happily Ever After and Charade.

I am so thrilled whenever I come across a beautiful piece by Givenchy (a personal favorite of mine) and this Givenchy couture sample with its beautifully embroidered bodice is so elegant.  I thought it was the perfect piece to end our week of 'pretty' on.  Striking.  Simple.  Glorious and glamorous.  Late 1960s Givenchy Couture.

1960s Givenchy Couture Gown.  Size 2/4

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