Just in: Swans in Schon. A Fine and Exceptional Mila Schon Beaded Dress. Part Two.

In 1966 Women's Wear Daily voted Lee Radziwill and Marella Agnelli Best Dressed.  It was the year of Truman Capote's famed Black and White Ball and Radziwill and Agnelli, Capote's swans, wore beaded dresses by Mila Schon.

Lee Radziwill wore a black and white undulating stripe beaded gown and Marella Agnelli wore a beaded caftan.  One of the hallmarks of a Mila Schon dress from the 1960s is that she preferred not to line her pieces but to duplicate the exterior on the interior.  Thus this silver metal thread short dress with glass beads and clear bugle beads, the interior is as beautiful as the exterior.  The beading is done in a geometric pattern most likely inspired by the modern art Schon collected.

And it is fabulous!  Very Twiggy and very beautiful!  One of the hallmarks of vintage is when someone comes in to RARE vintage and exclaims, "they don't make 'em like this anymore!" and this is a perfect example with the spectacular silver lame fabric run with metal thread and the glass beading.

Just in!

Late 1960s Mila Schon beaded silver metal thread mini dress.  Available for purchase at RARE vintage.
info@rarevintage.com or phone 212.581.7273

and a look back at Lee Radziwill's dress from Truman Capote's black and white ball...

1960s Mila Schon evening dress and coat.  Collection V & A Museum.  Gift of Princess Stanislaus Radziwill. 

love, baci and vintage Schon, Juliana

Swans in Schon: Lee Radziwill and Marella Agnelli

"If they were both in Tiffany's window, Marella would be more expensive."
Truman Capote musing on Babe Paley versus Marella Agnelli

In 1966 Truman Capote threw the party to end all parties: his famed Black and White ball.  

It is often invoked as a source of inspiration for new parties here and there but it can never be repeated because those days of impossibly glamorous people, glamorously dressed are just simply gone.

Who, What, Wear on The Swans at Truman Capote's black and white ball. 1966.

Princess Donna Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto (aka Signora Giovanni Agnelli) in a beaded Mila Schon with her very handsome date, Gianni Agnelli:

Marella Agnelli in Mila Schon

and Princess Lee Radziwill in a beaded Mila Schon:

Lee Radziwill in Mila Schon

and soon to be seen at the V & A museum in the upcoming exhibit, The Glamour of Italian Fashion:

love, kisses and vintage, Juliana

Halloween: A Remembrance of Things Past

Almost half of New York is without power, flooded, damaged, RARE vintage is closed and many people are homeless.  My family included.  We were comfortably waiting out the storm in our apartment when we heard a loud boom!  It was the crane on One 57th Street.  A short time later, a fireman banged on our door and were evacuated.  We were fortunate that the London Hotel took us and our two dogs in.  Many people were unable to find a hotel and wandered the streets rolling small suitcases.

For the first time in its 39 year history the annual Halloween Parade in the Village had been cancelled.  Heidi Klum cancelled her Halloween party.  My daughter is desperate because she has been practicing her make up all week for her zombie/bride of Dracula costume.  Her twin brother was planning on being a cyclops monster. When kids turn ten out go the adorable princess and Star Wars costumes and in come the monsters.  But they are still pretty cute monsters (just don't tell them that!)

So amid uncertainy a remembrance of a costume ball past...

Truman Capote in Black and White

Candice Bergen at Truman Capote's Black and White Ball.  Photo by Elliot Erwit

Lee Radziwell adjusting her mask.  Photo by Bettman

Penelope Tree

Oscar de la Renta and his first wife Francoise

Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra

Truman Capote

I had never seen this photo before from Magnum - the photographer must be Elliot Erwit. LOVE the guy with the paper plate mask!

Happy Halloween!!!

Weekend Reading 11: Her Hair was Paler than Dom Pérignon: C.Z. Guest

As Raymond Chandler remarked of his femme fatale in The Long Goodbye: "There are blondes, and then there are blondes." Truman Capote on C.Z. Guest

C.Z. Guest photographed by Cecil Beaton.  1953

Weekend Reading for you from RARE vintage.  Read on...

I first saw C.Z. Guest when she was giving a talk on Long Island's Gold Coast about gardening.  You know, it is funny, but I can't remember what she was wearing.  It was what she was saying that was so interesting.  She said that her favorite garden was Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania.  She had just published her third book, Garden Talk: Ask me anything.  And it did seem you could quite literally ask her anything and she knew the answer.  She published her first book, First Garden, in 1976. The illustrations were by Cecil Beaton and the introduction was by Truman Capote.  All too fabulous don't you think?!

C.Z. Guest by Cecil Beaton 

'The first time I saw Mrs. Guest was during an entr'acte on the opening night of MY Fair Lady.  Mrs. Guest was shimmering in the blue smoky light (people probably smoked during the performance too back then!).  Her hair, parted in the middle and paler then Dom Pérignon, was but a shade darker then the dress she was wearing, a Main Bocher column of white crepe de chine.  No jewelry, not much make up; just blanc de blanc perfection.'   Truman Capote.

A classic photo of C.Z. Guest in Mainbocher in her apartment on Sutton Place.

'TIME magazine published an extensive article on the upper-plateaus of American "aristocracy"; and Mrs. Guest appeared on the cover in a very formal riding habit.  Cold.  Soignée.  The Ice-Cream Lady.  Maybe so.  At horse shows. Or riding to the hounds somewhere in Virginia.  But usually observed galloping across the countryside, she is wearing cowboy chaps and a man's shirt with rolled up sleeves.'  Truman Capote

The second time I saw C.Z. Guest was by chance at Bergdorf Goodman.  She was there promoting her candles made by Slatkin.  I remember the packaging was wonderful and, of course, very chic.  The candle was poured into a cream ceramic pot with a wax C.Z. seal and when the candle was gone, there were little seeds to plant in the pot.  She also did a bug spray.  "Bugs love me," she said.  "This way they can die a happy death".  (Not sure if bugs really thought, if I had to go, at least it was by the ever so chic C.Z. Guest bug spray... but you know...)

The third and last time I saw C.Z. Guest was at Met Gala for the Costume Institute in 2003.  She was wearing a cream and gold Oscar de la Renta gown.  She had that shimmering look Truman Capote had written about.  It was her voice on the audio tour for the exhibit, 'Goddess'.  "I began, Hello this is C.Z. Guest".

Hamish Bowles wrote one of my all time favorite stories on C.Z. Guest in the 2002 Age Issue of Vogue.  Which, by the way is one of THE best issues of Vogue ever and a must have.

C.Z. Guest photographed by Cecil Beaton for Vogue 

in vintage Mainbocher from her closet under the loggia of her Old Westbury home, Templeton.

C.Z. Guest has spent her life in the pursuit of excellence and quality from around the world: linens from Mme Porthault in Paris (don't you just love the Porthault sheets with the pink hearts?  Porthault's Les Coeurs were designed for the Duchess of Windsor in 1960.  I bought them first for my daughter's bed and then feeling rather envious, for my bed at our beach house.  Not very masculine but thats what happens when the wife buys the linens: he gets to sleep on little pink hearts♡), riding coats made by Huntsman on London's Saville Row; saddlery from Pariani in Milan -"the Balenciaga of the tack world!"- and the trim, chic clothes of Valentino.  "How he could sew and how he could fit and how he could put in a sleeve!"as well as boutique clothes from Givenchy and Yves Saint Laurent.  "I never had time for fittings when I was in Paris."

Winston Frederick Churchill Guest, the distinguished scion of the Phipps family and a supremely dashing, six-foot-four, ten-goal polo star was the love of C.Z.'s life.  "I was absolutely crazy about him.  My God, he was devastating.

Winston Guest 1930.

As a young wife, C.Z. continued to pursue her interests, riding and racing Thoroughbreds, and limited her shopping to biannual pilgrimages to her favored Manhattan dressmakers.  She also busied herself decorating residences in Long Island, Palm Beach and Manhattan.  She collaborated with Stéphane Boudin, the highly distinguished decorator from the French firm Jansen.

Templeton, Old Westbury New York now the De Seversky Center.

Winston and C.Z. Guest's penthouse apartment at 1 Sutton Place was 6,400 square feet.  The 17 room, full floor apartment had four maids' rooms, a servants hall and an additional 6,000 feet of wraparound terrace.  There were two ballrooms.  C.Z. Guest said that the apartment was "the most magnificent in New York City," but added: "It was not an apartment for a normal family.  We lived on one side, and my son, Alexander, lived with Nanny on the other side.  The New York Times

C.Z. Guest photographed by Cecil Beaton for Vogue

C.Z.'s effortless all-Amercian style was something of a revolution in her Francophile circle.  John Fairchild wrote in The Fashionable Savages, "She looks best wearing something so simple another lady wouldn't dare.  Many women make their grand entrance at Lincoln Center looking like exotic orchids dipped in diamonds and paint, while Mrs. Guest walks briskly down the aisle in  a pale cream cardigan suit." 

As a young man Oscar de la Renta was dazzled by this understated style when he was invited to old Templeton.  "The Duchess of Windsor was staying and there was Babe Paley and we were having drinks.  Suddenly, C.Z. appeared -with about 25 dogs - wearing a dark, dark grey long satin skirt and a cashmere pullover.  And I had never seen anyone dress that way.  There was the Duchess all in Dior, all gilded and jeweled, but C.Z. was totally natural.  Her life was about her dogs, her horses, her children." Hamish Bowles for Vogue 2002

C.Z. Guest in her linden allé at Templeton with her grandsons.  And wearing her own Capri sandals that she ordered by the dozens in the 1960s and still wears to this day.  

2002.  Photographed by Mario Testino for Vogue.

C.Z. Guest wearing oatmeal tweed Mainbocher in 1952 

"A woman should dress to suit her own looks 

not because something's in fashion"