Soignée: A Pierre Balmain Gown

Soignée is the perfect word to describe this Pierre Balmain gown from 1947.  He apprenticed with Captain Edward Molyneux before working for Lucien Lelong with Christian Dior.  Balmain opened his own house in 1945 and became known for his lush and elegant designs.  His clients were the Duchess of Windsor, The Queen of Belgium, film stars, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas - excuse me?

Well, so Gertrude Stein may not be our idea of soigné but she did like her couture and was great friends with Pierre Balmain. 

This dress is signature Balmain with its extravagant use of lace and beading and slender and elegant lines.  It is also quite the siren gown with its soft lace wrapping itself around the body.  There is a sense of whimsy with the fuchsia taffeta that wraps over the bust and trails in the back.

You can see how incredible the lace and embroidery with tiny silver beads, tiny white sequins and rhinestones scattered throughout are.

A beautiful dress for a very lucky size 2!

1947 Pierre Balmain haute couture gown with fuchsia sash.  Size 2.

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RARE vintage's Multiple Personalities

I don't know about you but one day I could be feeling very floaty bohemian, one day it is all about the glamour, another day it could be Mad Max tribal futurisim or  maybe Mad Men era sultry stylishness.  Really Christina Hendricks body is just amazing to look at.  Maybe it is her voluptuousness that inspired the buxom beauties on the Louis Vuitton runway for fall 2010?  

So yes, I have to admit that RARE vintage has DID: dissociative identity disorder.  Think Sybil but only with better personalities and better clothes!

Today we are channeling the 1980s.  Madonna is singing Like a Virgin on MTV, Back to the Future is the summer blockbuster film and Fiorucci is the trendy store to shop at. 

Maripol who was Madonna's stylist during her Like a Virgin Days is busy photographing Debbie Harry, Andy Warhol and Grace Jones with her polaroid camera.  She is also creating disc dresses for Fiorucci in a variety of colors.  

You can lengthen and shorten the dresses according to your level of patience.   I admit to having no patience.  When I bought the dress it was in two pieces and I quickly assigned my husband the duty of putting it back together.  (One of my personalities can be Big Boss Lady) (but then again, don't men love to tinker??)  

So what to wear to the Boom Boom Room when you are feeling very Madonna dating Jelly Bean Benitez dancing at Funhouse wearing Maripol's iconic black rubber bracelets that were recently recreated for the Marc Jacobs store? (Whew!) A silver disc Maripol for Fiorucci dress of course!  (I would loose the rubber bracelets and just wear a great pair of high strappy sandals.)

Tomorrow our heroine suffering from DID will be channeling 1940s Paris haute couture.  Stay tuned! 

 1980s Maripol Disc dress.  Size 4/6. $950.

 

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The Life Eclectic

Where will your Bon Voyage take you this summer?  Will you be eating lobster in Nantucket, will you be drinking Limoncello in Sardegna, or will you be buying sandals from Les Rondini in St Tropez or maybe hanging out with Jade Jagger in Ibiza or maybe even with Mick in Mustique?  (well, probably not with Mick but wouldn't it be nice?!) What will you wear for trotting the globe or staying close to home?  

Something that no one else has but everyone will desperately want.  A floaty bohemian frock that transports you to your perfect vacation spot with a pair of great flat gold sandals.  

John Bates who designed under the name Jean Varon may be most well known for creating Diana Rigg's character Emma Peel in The Avengers.  Leather catsuit anyone?   Speaking of catsuts, I will be posting very soon what I think is the ultimate catsuit.  Sleek and uber glamorous!

This incredible dress in a synthetic jersey in a vivid ombre in shades of blues, purples, greens and yellow has a fitted bodice and narrow sleeves adorned with an amazing and exaggerated kimono-esque draping at the end of the sleeve.  Perfect for a summer party and the jet setting gypsy girl!

 1970s Jean Varon gown.  Size 4/6. $1,100

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Gone Gaga!

I was very fortunate to see and dance to Lady Gaga performing at the Met gala earlier this month and then a week later saw her again at Trudie Styler's Rainforest Benefit.   Which by the way was an incredible concert at Carnegie Hall, with Sting of course, Elton John, Debbie Harry, Dame Shirley Bassey and Bruce Springsteen.  The entire night was amazing but I did especially love Elton John singing Madonna's song Like a Virgin with nearly naked boys leaping around him.  

Lady Gaga was introduced by Elton John and the crowd basically went crazy.  Elton John's introduction for her was wonderful.  He said that she is an incredible performer and can really do it all.  She can play the piano, she can sing, she can dance and she can write.  

Here is Lady Gaga at the World Music Awards wininng multiple times in a Norma Kamali studded swimsuit that she found at RARE vintage!

The Bright Side

Sometimes a dress comes to us by someone we have never heard of.  Sometimes a dress comes to us unlike anything else we have ever seen.  Sometimes - and very often - a piece of vintage clothing  comes to us waiting to telling its story. 

I can confidently say that this is the very first time I have ever seen a dress with window blinds used  as a decorative element.  The client who owned this dress said that the designer, Mary Bright, had a store on the lower East Side of New York in the 1980s.  I was very curious about the designer who used actual window blinds on a dress and started a little research.  I was saddened to discover that she died quite young of lung cancer.  But I was fascinated to learn that she was educated at a convent in Edinburgh,  studied fine arts in London, millinery in Leeds and apprenticed at the house of Lanvin before relocating to New York to design hats and clothing before creating curtains from unorthodox and unexpected materials for Ellen Barkin, Calvin Klein, Rupert Murdoch, Lauren Bacall and the Museum of Modern Art. 

I have always coveted the idea of an extraordinary curtain since seeing a photograph of Mona Bismarck's dining room at  Il Fortino with its shimmering glass bead curtains.  The Mary Bright studio still exists and is run by her husband David Paskin and her former assistant Erik Bruce.  So I am contemplating a commission that will bring the sea inside at my Long Island home a la Il Fortino.  David Paskin said that they are the ones who can do it...  Every dress tells a story.

1980s Mary Bright 'Window Blind" Dress.  $950

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Knit One, Pearl Two: Chanel

This is a companion piece to our gorgeously beautiful handcrafted Chanel couture necklaces.  Tiny faux pearls are embroidered on a soft frame wrapped in gold thread with a large central pearl set in filigree.  Of course, this brooch would look perfect on a Chanel jacket new or old but I think it would look amazing on a white mini dress or a floaty chiffon dress.  

1980s Chanel couture brooch.  Price available upon request.

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Ashley Olsen in RARE vintage

Ashley Olsen was in one of my favorite looks at last year's Costume Institute gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a long sleeved white gown from The Row unadorned except for a plunging back which she accessorized with an incredible lizard necklace draped down her bare back.  She was covered and bare at the same time and wore something completely unique from what everyone else was wearing.  

 

Women with incredible and enviable style always do and wear what they want and this is what makes them trendsetters and is one of the reasons there are so few women with truly great style.

At the preview at the Brooklyn Museum for American High Style: Fashioning a National Collection there are wonderful clothes by the great Elsa Schiaparelli worn by the great woman of style and jeweler, Millicent Rogers.  One of the most impressive things about the Brooklyn's Schiaparelli collection is that of the nearly 250 pieces nearly three-quarters belonged to Millicent Rogers.  And what impressed me the most was that it was noted that she had the confidence to wear some of the most extreme examples of Schiaparelli. 

 

 

Shiaparelli Pagan necklace gift of Millicent Rogers to the Brooklyn Museum.

 

So in celebrating individual style here is a photo of Ashley Olsen in vintage Comme des Garcons  at The Art of Elysium from RARE vintage!  Hmmm Ashley Olsen and Millicent Rogers seem to have an affinity for crawly things in common!

Best of the Best: Chanel Haute Couture Necklaces

I had an "Ahhhhhhh!" moment when I was shown these Chanel haute couture necklaces because they were so stunning and beautiful.  The chain link is of course a recurring motif in the designs of Coco Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld for the House of Chanel.  In fact, in the recent Saint Tropez show there is a new version of a design similar to this necklace.

(you can probably tell that I really liked this collection)  

But these are not cruise collection, they are runway pieces from a 1996 couture show.  The chain links are actually soft and embroidered with tiny faux pearls, gold thread and tiny sequins.  Two of the necklaces are nearly the same and a third has gold filigree pierced links.  The necklaces hook in the back with flat gold chains and rhinestones.

How perfect would they look with a t shirt (as Cecil Vyse in Room with a View said, the classes should mix because he believed in democracy.  So let's democratize our haute couture!  Chanel couture with Gap cotton!  Actually my favorite t shirts are The Row - so not entirely democratic but that is the freedom of choice.  Choose your cotton and wear it with Chanel haute couture!  or some little divine chiffon number!  Or with nothing at all for someone special in your life!

1996 Chanel haute couture necklace with tiny faux pearls and gold filigree links.  Price available upon request.  Total length: 

1996 Chanel haute couture faux tiny beaded necklace.  Price available upon request.  

Total length:  

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By the Sea, by the Beautiful Sea

Have you seen the Chanel 2011 Cruise Collection that was shown in Saint-Tropez?  Everything was beautiful and easy just as a resort collection should be.  I don't know about you but when I am in St Tropez or out on Long Island, I don't want fussy and complicated.  I don't want (gasp!) high heels with shorts.  The girls were mostly barefoot during the show, carrying great, strappy gold sandals with a slightly chunky low heel.  It is too bad the clothes, shoes and accessories will not be available until November.

This is the look I am most obsessed with.  I don't usually do head to toe but for all this I would!

In the meantime, RARE vintage has an amazing and incredible Chanel camellia brooch made from mother of pearl set against shiny black leaves.  The photographs unfortunately do not convey how beautiful this piece is.   It is also quite large and was most likely a runway piece.

Mother of pearl Chanel brooch.  Labeled Chanel on back.

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Say it Loud! Say it Proud! You're Enormous!

It is not too often you can say, "You are huge!" without deeply offending someone but in the case of this Jumbo XL Chanel  2.55 bag you can let it rip because this baby is ENORMOUS!  Classic and coveted!  Get your jumbo quilted Chanel bag NOW or someone else will!

1980s Jumbo XL quilted lambskin leather with iconic chain and leather strap.  $3100
 Height: 9" Width: 13"


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Walk Tall

The original and iconic Vivienne Westwood black patent platform shoe.  I think this shoe speaks for itself.  (Just so you know, I don't want to sound paranoid, but the shoe is taunting me!  It is saying, you really, desperately want me but you can't have me because, Stepsister, your foot is too big!)  

1989 Voyage to Cythera Collection Platform Shoe.  Size 7.5


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You have a much better life if you wear impressive clothes - Vivienne Westwood

I adore Vivienne Westwood because of her amazing and refined design and historical sensibilities mixed with a wicked sense of bodacious naughtiness.  

At one point, I believe that Vivienne Westwood desired the job at Christian Dior that went to John Galliano and I think it is interesting to imagine what she might have done as much as j'adore John Galliano for Dior.  Call me crazy but I see some remarkable similarities in this Anglomania ensemble from 1993 and this Dior haute couture ensemble from Spring 2010.  Hmmm...

So what do you get when you mix a little tartan, a corset that makes your bosoms swell and wonderful draping?  You get an ideal piece from one of London's most influential designers.  But there is more to come!  Stay tuned!

Vivienne Westwood corset top with leather ties.  Size 6.

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Power of the Flower!

The weather in New York has been warm and beautiful.  Perfect for slipping on a light and easy dress.  I always feel sorry for men having to wear a suit when it gets warm.  Women can put on a cool dress and still look pretty, polished and comfortable.  We are pleased to offer two 1960s summer frocks and a shirt from the print master, Ken Scott.  

Ken Scott was born in Indiana but moved to France and Italy to create his flower fabrics in every color imaginable.  I love these Sixties pieces.  Both dresses have their original belts.  The longer dress has a belt that ends in two colored beads.  One is short and sweet.  The other is like a shirt dress in a sexy and soft knit.  The turtle neck is soft and fitted.

They are all ideal for a summer getaway or a stay-cation.

 1960s Ken Scott mini dress.  Size 4.  $275

 1960s Ken Scott knit dress.  Size 4.  $275

 

 1960s Ken Scott Pansy Turtle Neck.  $175.


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The Halstonettes!

Someone called me and said did you see your photo in the New York Times with the Cathy Horyn article?  And I said what are you talking about??  But there is Sarah Jessica Parker twirling in her gold Halston heritage dress and me in my gold Halston from the 1970s (yup!  In the backround!  But hey!)  So, I figure that makes us the Halstonettes of the Met gala!  I am just relieved that we were not in the same Halston which would have been soooo embarrassing!

By the way, the exhibit is amazing!  To see Rita Lydig's shoes!  Tonight is the preview of sister exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum itself.  I will let you know how great it is but great I am sure it will be!

Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston Premiere

I am super excited to be going to the premiere of the documentary "Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston" at the Tribeca Film Festival this evening!  The film is directed by Whitney Sudler-Smith who said of 1970s New York, "You wish it still existed, but it will never happen again."

After the film, Pat Cleveland! Andre Leon Talley! and other special guests will be discussing the legend of Halston.

We have had some amazing and iconic pieces of Halston at RARE and beneath the glitz and glamour of the clothing is a creative genius and perfectionist.  Halston may have captured the 1970s New York party scene in his easy designs that came to represent American Chic and Studio 54 but he also worked with the brilliant couturier, Charles James, and only wanted the very best cashmere and silk chiffon.  He thought nothing of devoting yards of chiffon to a bias cut dress and worked rigorously with his pattern makers to eliminate seams, closures and trim.  

I am wearing an unbelievable Halston to Monday night's Party of the Year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and although it wraps seemingly like a bath towel, I will be lucky if I decipher the intricate way it wraps in time for cocktails!  Stay tuned!  I will let you know how it all works out.  And I hope that you have a chance to the film Ultrasuede soon!!  The idea of the film, said the director,  "is that you come away wanting a glass of champagne".  Cheers!