A Fine Vintage #2: Nicolas Ghesquiere for Balenciaga Spring 2002

Do you remember the most coveted fashion item for Spring 2002?  Let me jog your memory...

That is the former model, muse, now shoe designer, Tabitha Simmons wearing the hottest pants of 2002.  Everyone wanted those slouchy army green cargo pants and they still look good.  I loved this collection because it was such a cool and relaxed silhouette.  Of course, there was a little fashion drama and scandale when Ghesquiere was called out for a very direct inspiration of an obscure San Francisco designer, Kaisik Wong's 1973 patchwork vest.  But all is fair in love and fashion and I loved the vest and perhaps it brought some attention to the work of Wong (who died of Aids related leukemia in 1990.

I wish Ghesquiere would revisit this silhouette for Louis Vuitton where everything has been very trim and fitted.

Anyhoo, here is a fine vintage by Nicolas Ghesquiere for Balenciaga from Spring 2002.  Enjoy!

p.s. I am always looking for Ghesquiere for Balenciaga runway pieces, so if you have any Balenciaga hanging in your closet and you are ready to part with, please get in touch with us at info@rarevintage.com!

xo, Juliana

Summer Falls Flat

Mornings are for Instagram.  And this morning I saw three lovelies from Nicolas Ghesquiere's Instagram all wearing black dresses and FLAT sandals!  I have never been a bathing suit and heels kind of woman - thankfully!  I love a summer dress with a summer flat and have pretty much been addicted to my Saint Laurent sandals from last summer which I lovingly had protection put on last fall because I intend to wear those puppies for years!

love and kisses, Juliana

Pre-Fall 2014 Favorites: Louis Vuitton

Sniff, sniff... Marc Jacobs has left the house of Louis Vuitton to focus on his namesake line.  I have always been a Louis Vuitton girl.  I found the quality of the pieces they produced to be demi couture and the production small.  As much as I love Celine, you see rows and rows of it in every store you go but with Louis Vuitton, its just a few pieces, in a few stores.  And not many people are buying it.  LV is more about the bags.  I have a very nice collection of Marc Jacobs LV tucked away in my closet and I know I will continue to wear them and my daughter will look forward to raiding my closet one of these days too soon.

So now we are in transition time; waiting to see what Nicolas Ghesquiere will do for his first collection in March - and I have no doubt that the LV ready to wear woman will continue to have special, beautiful, beautifully made pieces to choose from.  The one thing I worry about is that the collection will get even more expensive.  You may remember just how expensive the runway NG's Balenciaga pieces were...

In the meantime, Louis Vuitton presented its 2014 pre fall collection here in NY yesterday and it is just what I love about Vuitton but this collection was particularly wearable.  Is wearability a new trend?  

Hello Gorgeous!  Can I wear you every day?!

You are gorgeous too.  Are those net socks?  Part of the shoe??  Style.com, where are the detail photos??

Day to night...

and for skiing in St Moritz and having a Bretzel at Hanselmann apres ski...

and for when you are feeling a little 1960s Balenciaga...

Louis Vuitton Pre-Fall 2014.  Photos from Style.com

love, kisses and vintage,  Juliana

It was a Belle Epoque: Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuittton

The Louis Vuitton Spring 2014 show was a dark, romantic, tattered version of the Belle Epoque with jet embroidered jackets, some tasseled and a mise-en-scene reminiscent of a dreamscape Folies-Bergere.

It was also the last collection to be designed by Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton.

I have always been a Louis Vuitton girl.  I love the small production, the little brown cards that came with each piece often noting the fragility, the handwork, recommendations to hang your LV piece on a padded hanger or folded in a drawer, fringing made by hand...

Will Nicolas Ghesquiere go to LV?  I think he could be the perfect choice to carry on the dress making for the Louis Vuitton girl...

Belle de Jour: Cate Blanchett in Balenciaga

On Monday night Cate Blanchett  wore a stunningly unusual red carpet dress for the premiere of her new film, Blue Jasmine and I just want to say, you go gurl!  Not only did Cate say "No" to the mermaid dress, she said yes to Balenciaga.

In Alexander Wang for Balenciaga:

The original Cristobal Balenciaga:

and as interpreted by Nicolas Ghesquiere for Balenciaga:

On the Collectibility of Nicolas Ghesquiere for Balenciaga

"he was the source of a true renaissance, possibly the greatest talent we have ever had." Olivier Saillard

Let's not be too past tense about Nicolas Ghesquiere - he is still alive after all.  But we can mourn his passing at the house of Balenciaga.  His creativity on the runway may have interfered with the  commercial aspects that the owners of Balenciaga were more focused on.  

In an interview in System magazine, excerpted on the Buisness of Fashion,  Ghesquiere said "The strongest pieces that we made for the catwalk got ignored by the business people.  They forgot that in order to get to that easily sellable biker jacket, it had to go via  a technically mastered piece that had been shown on the catwalk.  I started to become unhappy when I realized that there was no esteem, interest, or recognition for the research I had done; they only cared about what the merchandisable result would look like.  This accelerated desire meant they ignored the fact that all of the pieces that remain the most popular today are from collections we made ten years ago.  They have become classics and will carry on being so."

It seems those comments have gotten Ghesquiere into trouble with the powers that be at his former company and they are suing him.  Where there is fashion, there is drama.  

The fashion drama I love at RARE vintage is seeing an actual runway piece by Ghesquiere for Balenciaga.  Now that is some major drama!  The runway pieces were like couture - beautifully and amazingly crafted - technically intricate - and you really do see the research and how Ghesquiere challenged himself to create something that was fashion in its purest form.  I am going to drop the A word here: Art.  Fashion is an art form but instead of hanging it on a wall we hang it on our bodies.

Fashion for collectors.  Nicolas Ghesquiere for Balenciaga.  Fall 2007.  I wish everyone could see how crazy beautiful this piece is.  The work is astonishing and it really makes you gasp.  Available now at RARE vintage...

The bright yellow mink is detachable on the collar and the cuffs but I don't know why you would detach it because it is so fabulous with it on.

You can't really tell from the photos but this is a quilted silk appliqué on the back of the jacket:

The Grand Hotel: Balenciaga at the Hotel de Ville

"People come, people go.  Nothing ever changes."  Dr Otternschlag.  From the 1932 film Grand Hotel.

But in fashion, people do come and people do go.  Ghesquiere, the admired designer for the house of Balenciaga suddenly left after an extremely successful Spring 2013 show and there was much shock when Alexander Wang, the Amercian designer of the perfect, cool slouchy t shirt, was given the position just vacated by Ghesquiere.

I personally adored Nicholas Ghesquiere and regard him as one of the few creative geniuses working in fashion design today.  A few of my favorites:

Who can forget?  The loose cargo pants, the patchwork vest?  Every girl was obsessed!  And still looks so modern and cool.

Balenciaga Spring 2002

The jellyfish dress in seafoam green:

Balenciaga Fall 2003

The chain entwined dress:

Balenciaga Fall 2004

Another slouchy pant.  Another must have.  I remember I snagged mine at Barneys away from Lindsay Lohan when she was still a promising ingenue.

I loved this and was a tad shocked to discover that the retail price was over $30,000 : (

Alexander Wang's debut for the house of Balenciaga was called a prelude.  It was a prelude with a past.  Wang referenced wanted to reference "the codes of the house while translating them into a full functioning wardrobe".  I am not entirely without hope...

Alexander Wang for Balenciaga Fall 2013

Alexander Wang for Fall 2013

And amidst people coming, people going, pieces by the original Master, Crisobal Balenciaga, are on view at L'Hotel de Ville in Paris in Olivier Saillard's exhibit Paris Haute Couture:

Paris Haute Couture

March 2nd 2013 - July 6th 2013

Hotel de Ville

My Heart Goes Boom Boom Boom. Paris Fashion Week. Part IV. The Intelligent Ruffle. Balenciaga

"A ruffle must be intelligent." Cristobal Balenciaga

Combining intelligence and sexiness, Nicholas Ghesquiere gave us a ruffle with brains and a bod for sin for Spring 2013.

The ruffles were based on a detail from an original Cristobal Balenciaga dress.

1960s Balenciaga gown

Ghesquiere's ruffles were lined in pink

and lined in white

There were ruffles worn with a cropped sort of ecclesiastical looking top for that sexy, flamenco nun look.  You know, I have been waiting forever for someone to do a sexy flamenco nun look : )

 

There were also these super gorgeous, metal bands sprouting branches worn at the back of the head.  Very beautiful.