A Style Icon of a Different Sort: Georgia O'Keefe

Happy 2015!  I thought it would be nice to bring in 2015 on the RARE vintage blog with a style icon of a different sort: Georgia O'Keeffe.  Maybe it is a reaction to way too much of the Kardashian family in 2014 but I love and crave the simplicity and quietness of Georgia O'Keeffe's life at her Ghost Ranch in New Mexico...

These John Loengard are absolutely beautiful...

Georgia O'Keeffe.  Photo by John Loengard

Georgia O'Keeffe.  Photo by John Loengard

Georgia O'Keeffe.  Photo by John Loengard

Georgia O'Keeffe.  Photo by John Loengard

Georgia O'Keeffe wearing a Calder brooch.

And her home is timeless...

The Noguchi lantern is particularly striking against the natural wood ceiling and beams.

xo, Juliana

She Dresses for Men, Likes Slacks and Spends $10,000: Slim Hawks

When I was writing the post on Lauren Bacall, it got me me remembering Slim (Hawks) Keith.  She was my first Style Icon crush - it was a combination of her chunky blonde streak (I eventually brought a photo of Slim Keith into Brad Johns and asked him to do it in my hair in the mid 90s), her amazing and sure sense of style, her marriage to Howard Hawks, her friendship with Hemingway and her book, Slim: Memories of a Rich and Imperfect Life.  You can still buy the book here.

Slim Hawks was voted best dressed woman in 1946 and here is what she had to say to LIFE magazine about it...

After two weeks as America's best dressed woman, "Slim" Hawks says wearily, "Now I have to be fixed up all of the time.  It will probably force me into a life of seclusion; I may go to Honolulu, rent a few palm fronds and never be seen again."

This proposal would probably save Mr. Hawks some $10,000 a year in clothes allowance, not counting jewelry and furs and her maid's salary. At the moment, Slim's glass-door wardrobe contains considerably more than two palm fronds:

9 fur coats

24 suits

47 dresses

35 evening gowns

10 negligees

23 pairs of slacks

46 blouses

21 pairs of shorts

12 girdles

14 slips

35 bags

120 pairs of shoes.

Of model proportions (5ft 8 1/2") Mrs. Hawks wears from a size 12 to a 16 dress.  Her blonde hair is pulled back by a solid gold barrette she had copied from a 10 cent store model, has a bleached streak across the front which she says is "half God, half me".  She changes her clothes twice a day but unlike most women, does it in jig time.  She spends most of her time in shorts or slacks.

Mrs. Hawks has no set rules for chic but advises women to develop their own sense of style.  "If you know crab doesn't agree with you," she advises metaphorically, "just don't eat it."  Mrs. Hawks suggests: never dress for other women, dress for men, don't follow fads and always be mysterious.  Her pet hates are white fox and lucite bags, the latter because by revelaing their contents, make the observer feel like they are in a woman's bathroom.

Excerpted from LIFE magazine, 1946

For me, my style crush on Slim Keith started with this photo:

Slim Hawks.  Photo by John  Engstead, 1945

Sorry it is so small but it is the only one I could find but how great does she look?!  I love the sandals, the rolled up pant, the cigarette holder... too chic.  And so timeless too.

By the way, her $10,000 a year clothing 'allowance' is about $128,000 in today's money.  And hey!  I would like a clothing allowance too!  Is my husband listening?  Anyone?  Helloooo??!  (cue, sound of crickets... : )

Here is Slim in an Adrian dress from LIFE magazine -which she did not buy.  It was $300 ($3800 today)

I love the black jersey top with the pink silk trouser shorts...

xo, Juliana

Growing Old Disgracefully: Jerry Hall

Jerry Hall said she is growing old disgracefully.

"I smoke, I drink, I like wine, I love sun tanning, I drink coffee... I am doing all sorts of things I shouldn't do."
Jerry Hall

I never really thought about growing old gracefully but growing old disgracefully sounds like so much more fun : )

love and kisses, Juliana

Style Icon: Gloria Guiness

I was looking at my Assouline book, Swans: Legends of the Jet Society, when I came across this small image of Gloria Guinness:

And I was really struck by how chic she looked.  And I wondered why is she so perfect in this photo?  It is a simple white top and a plain white skirt.  I think it is the black accents: the white and black polka dotted head scarf, the sunglasses, the black bag that just gives it that slippery something that is STYLE.

I became Gloria Guinness obsessed and started googling images of her and I found this one - which again highlights her simple, je ne sais quoi, chic:

  

It looks to me like Gloria Guinness is wearing a Halston pajama: a silk bias cut tunic and pants .  And some cah-razy jewelry!

"I've never worn costume jewelry in my life.  It's really very self-defeating.  Why should a man buy a woman real jewelry when she wears false pieces?"

Gloria Guinness

love and kisses, Juliana

Style Icon: Tina Chow

Love this photograph of Tina and Michael Chow from 1979...

love, kisses and something fabulous is coming... 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

RARE vintage is on Skorpios with Jackie and Lee

Athina Onassis recently sold Skorpios, the island where Jackie Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis - she is known to have only visited the island once for her mother's ten year memorial.  I 'discovered' Skorios years ago in a book and life on Skorios seemed like the epitome of summer style to me.  RARE vintage is on the beach with Jackie Kennedy on Skorpios...

Ron Galella, the original paparazzo, published the book Jacqueline in 1974 and he writes all about  the challenges of photographing one of the most famous and glamorous women in the world.  Jacqueline Kennedy may or may not have liked Ron Galella tracking her every move but some of the most iconic and wonderful photographs of her are by him and I think his photographs have partially made her the style icon that she is today...

I became really obsessed when I read in Galella's book that "at 11AM I saw two sailors appear and they hosed down the patio and everything.  Getting ready for the Queen, I thought."  Now I wish I had two sailors to hose down our patio but alas I do it myself and it has become a morning ritual at our house on Centre Island - there is something very refreshing about it - and I always think of Jackie on Skorpios.  

Galella continues, "And then a woman in a bikini came down to the shore and started doing exercises.  But it wasn't Queen Jackie.  It was the Princess Lee Radziwill.  Lee looked very good doing her yoga. Then Jackie came down wearing pink Levis."

Have you ever even seen pink Levis?!  But don't they sound fab!

Princess Lee Radziwill doing some morning exercises:

Jackie in cropped pink Levis and her ubiquitous head scarf:

I love the simplicity of the picnic table and the rustic furniture:

Ron Galella did not have an easy time photographing Jackie on Skorpios - she was elusive and there was the presence of the Secret Service, Onassis' staff and the Greek police.  Finally he had a sighting.  "And then I saw her!  She was in the water with her bathing cap on and her sunglasses.  I could hear Ari calling to her: "Don't come her-ahh.  The water is duurrrty."

Galella wanted more photos of Jackie and had a hunch that she would be leaving Skorpios and heading to Capri.  "Crossing the bay of Naples I got sight of the Christina headed towards Capri.  That afternoon after they docked I followed Jackie up to the shopping area of Capri.  Jackie went into a jewelry store but I didn't see her buy anything.  Then she bought four pairs of sandals and then some tomato seeds for the garden on Skorpios.  Then I saw her buy some magazines, including a copy of Gente that had a picture of Ari and Maria Callas kissing on the cover.  I think she was annoyed that I took a picture of that."

Sounds like an idyllic summer doesn't it?  Sun, a swim, a little shopping and gossip magazines...

All photos and quoted text from Jacqueline by Ron Galella

Fashion, Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Love Me, When I'm 64?

And the answer is, Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!

My new Style Icon is Costanza Pascolato.  She is 72 years old.  She wears a leather Miu-Miu Spring 2011 rockabilly-style jacket.  She wears Valentino's studded leather kitten heels.  Her hair is done.  She wears fabulous big black sunglasses.  She does Pilates every day.  She is fashionable.  She is age appropriate.  She is interesting.  She embraces new fashion.  But she knows who she is.  She has worn Christian Dior, Cristobal Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent.  She adores Miuccia Prada's irreverent luxury and kitsch sense of style.

I want to send her a Valentine,

birthday greetings,

a bottle of wine...

The Beatles - When I'm Sixty Four