Vintage Trends: The Long Gown and the Chiffon Cape

Stavropoulos was born in Greece, the seventh child of an eventual nine and his father ran a tobacco processing plant.  He opened his own custom salon in Athens in 1949 and moved to New York where he became known for his floating dresses: layers of chiffon that floated around the body while not being extremely revealing.  His clients were comfortable in his dresses (imagine that!  you could breathe, you could move and you could look glamorous - all at the same time!).  His clients, like Princess Elizabeth of Yogoslavia and Elizabeth Taylor, were also attracted by a dress that could be worn more then one way.  In fact, this gown has its two original scarves - one in all chiffon and one with thin strips of panne velvet.  It also has its original and uber glamorous chiffon cape.  It is in a beautiful shade of pomegranate red.

You might remember seeing Princess Charlotte Casiraghi (channeling her grandmother, Grace Kelly, in To Catch a Thief) in an ice-blue  gown with a long chiffon cape from Giambattista Valli Couture that she wore to Prince Albert's wedding.

Pomegranate red chiffon and panne velvet gown with matching chiffon cape and two belts.  

Size 6/8

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Thoroughly Modern Giambattista

Couture is dead.  Couture isn't relevant.  Yawn.  Every couture season, we hear the same old same old about the haute couture collections.  It does not seem to be about what the designers are doing but why they are doing it.  They are doing it because they can.  And sometimes they do it magnificently.

Giambattista Valli was unanimously voted into the exclusive Chambre Syndicale de la Mode and showed his first haute couture collection on Monday.  We had already had a sneak peek of what the collection might look like over the weekend when Charlotte Casiraghi wore a "Princess Grace blue" chiffon gown with a long cape over her shoulders and a jeweled belt at the waist.   

Photo: Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images

But it still did not prepare me for just how beautiful, modern and relevant Valli's first full fledged couture show would be.  It was not a performance with costume-y make up and unnecessary theatrics.  It was a show of totally gorgeous, wearable pieces.  I was enchanted from the first look which was inspired by the blouse de cabine, the white smock worn by the atelier workers (and worn by Christian Dior and Hubert de Givenchy).  Valli pulled it down into a monogrammed skirt with a black bow, a simple black sweater and Giambattista Valli's trademark pearls.

There was a lot of minimalist black and white but with fluffy and yet still restrained details.

Then a burst of red and one of those pretty, feminine frothy dresses that Valli excels at.  

And then there was some grrrr in the couture.

There is that long cape again.  Makes me regret not buying the long black chiffon cape that was on sale at Celine :(

And the jewelry was great as well and made me wonder if he had been inspired by the Madame Gres show at the Musée Bourdelle.  

This is what couture should look like.  I look forward to seeing more from Giambattista Valli.  Perhaps at Christian Dior?  Just a thought...

Daisy Fellowes in Christian Dior at the Beistegui Ball which reminded me a little bit of Giambattista Valli's leopard print gown.

Fun fact: Giambattista Valli worked for Roberto Capucci