Celebrity Vintage Spot - Vanessa Hudgens

After what seemed like a blight on celebrities wearing vintage last year (is there a correlation between the economy and wearing vintage do you think??) they seem to be jumping back into the "I want to be the only girl wearing this" attitude instead of "I want to be wearing the newest thing off the runway"

That makes me a happy girl. I love when celebrities wear vintage. Mainly because it gives all of us vintage loving girls top notch styling tips.  But also because it demonstrates that really great vintage lasts. A gorgeous dress is a gorgeous dress. Period. Old or new. Older just happens to usually be more interesting and better made then today's -good for one season only- pieces.

I love Ossie Clark. There is something about the drape, the cut, the fabrics, the colors - he was just in his own groove. It's not that he re-invented the wheel, he just made it sexy. Every time I see an Ossie I think of a line I read years and years ago that went along the lines of "a girl just can't have a bad time when she wears an Ossie Clark". I have to tell you - so far that line has been the gospel truth for me. Silly, but I like to think of my Ossie's like magic charms. A girl is prettier, sexier, longer, leaner and more alluring in one - even a girl like me who is only super model height in her own mind.

Vanessa Hudgen wore a black wrap moss crepe Ossie Clark for Quorum at a premiere recently. It's one of his earliest pieces which makes is roughly 46 or 47 years old. Double the age of her almost. She knocked it out of the park. It looks as young and fresh as if it was indeed,  the newest thing off the runway.

Hard to argue the theory of "a girl just can't have a bad time when she wears an Ossie Clark" when you see these pictures. There is no way a girl who looks like this in that dress had a bad night.

Insider Vintage Spot - Carine Rotfeld

Carine looked stunning in the vintage Valentino gown. I found this vintage spot especially interesting as Carine is known for her rock chic, black eyeliner, edgy look. So in choosing this admittedly romantic lace confection she gives a nod to her softer side but stays true to her inner rock goddess because its black and she carries it with the same aplomb as her edgiest of ensembles.

A Royal Vintage Spot

The vintage bug has even penetrated the newly minted royal.
The suit Kate Middleton wears is reportedly vintage Amanda Wakely!
Suddenly I am a fan 

 

Photo: Getty through Red Carpet Fashion Awards

Celebrity Vintage Spot - Eva Mendes

Looks smoking in her Roland Mouret dress that she paired with a big dramatic YSL vintage necklace. Rachel Zoe styles Eva - wanna bet this is a loaner - it has that RZ look to me!

Photo: Getty via red carpet fashion awards

Celebrating the Style of a Shrimpton Couture Client - Michelle Harper

Michelle is one of those girls that you notice no matter what. Whether you love her style or not, you cannot help but admire it. She takes risks. Dresses for herself. Is eccentric and truly glamorous. She is intelligent and articulate. She has created a live where she can, and does, dress to the extreme - if she feels like it. She loves vintage and is an avid collector. When she first contacted me to buy the Galanos outfit she wears in the first picture below I had no idea who she was. But I had an inkling based on her selection that she must be someone special. I was right.

It is fun to do outfit posts when clients send me pictures but in Michelle's case I went on-line and grabbed other pictures for you to see too. I want you to really get the scope of how daring this girl can be. These are just a few. This is a girl who dresses like this every day.

This 1970s Galanos outfit will always be one of my favorite pieces to have had in the shop. So happy it went to Michelle! The under piece is actually a jumpsuit with balloon pants that end at the knee. A floating silk skirt wraps over it. Amazing and Michelle looks fantastic in it paired with her lust worthy Oliver Goldsmith sunglasses - a vintage fashion holy grail.

Full on ball gown moment

Love this photo - its timeless, futuristic, and vintage all at the same time. Trying hitting that combination the next time you dress.

Those fantastic Oliver Goldsmith sunglasses again - these are the butterfly version - there are very few of these out there. The coat is 1960s marabou  and that fan in most likely antique. There is a subtle play on a theme here - wings and feathers.....

 This twenties flapper dress makes my breathe stop. Literally. The work, the cut. It is really something I am glad I have not seen on person. I would probably be reduced to a small pile of begging, weeping pitiful, greedy lusting girlness. Then I would grab it and try to make a run for it.

Just being honest.

Dior hat& Balenciaga opera coat. The tonality against her skin...the bangs just peeking out..the kitsch of the doll mixed with the highest of couture. Lovely moment.

I snagged this pic immediately as it really shows that those chiffon thirties dresses that we all love and drool over are actually very modern and wearable. Mere mortal girls may want to pair theirs with nude slips but Michelle's more daring choice...well for some reason does not seem so daring for her, does it?

At an event in her grandmother's custom lynx fur from the early 1950s.

In one of her many fantastic vintage hats.
 

And this dear readers is a piece I can safely bet most of you have never seen, nor knew existed. It is a gold lame flapper wig. Exceedingly rare, exceedingly valuable and exceedingly beautiful. It is, like the girl who wears it - a work of art.


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pictures from various sources - tales of endearment, style.com, contactmusic.com & others.
I apologize if I missed giving credit - email me and I will add it if a pic is yours.

Gorgeous Client Post - Kelly Framel

Not only is this a fan-tab-ulous client spot featuring of one of our very own past collaborators - Kelly Framel - designer extraordinaire of The Glamourai - but even the New York Times took note!

Kelly looked stunning in her Shrimpton Couture 1970s Bill Blass frock at the Parson's Gala and was featured in the NYT write up on the event!

Stunning!

Gorgeous Client Post - Rosalind

Rosalind (don't you love her name?) Bought one of the Simone's Rose pieces to wear to the Met when she jaunted off on a New York trip. She swore to me that she would send a picture and I am so happy that she did!

Michelle (the designer behind the SR label) is genius at taking vintage kimono fabrics and using them to make an entirely new and original design. I love this concept and the fabrics are so much better then fabrics of today - its really the best of both worlds. Rosalind agrees and even posed so that we could get the full effect of the part of the frock with the most of the fantastic design showing.

I love how she kept it bare at the top but added tights and pretty pumps (I am sure it was still pretty chilly in NYC). Simple gold hoops and a beautiful cuff on the arm that is more bare adds the perfect touches.

What a gorgeous girl!

Shop Michelle's collection in our reconstructed boutique here. There are not many pieces left but more are on the way!! (and the maxi versions you will see that are still left - those are to DIE in person!)

Gorgeous Client Post - Dagmar

I am just back from Europe. I spent a glorious week tromping about Switzerland and Italy buying lovely pieces for all of you!! I will be sharing pictures and posts from there in the upcoming weeks - I hope you enjoy!

In the meantime, I am the happiest girl because I have a SLEW of gorgeous clients in Shrimpton Couture pieces to share with you! I am actually a little behind so expect a ton of posts!!

Today I want to share gorgeous Dagmar with you, who took full advantage of the Featured Closet event we have underway with Judy of Atlantis Home and Jane of Sea of Shoes. (more stuff is coming soon from them too btw - just in case you missed out!). Dagmar scooped a few lovely pieces and shared them with me and her readers of her stellar blog Beauty Country! I love how she took these pieces and made them utterly and completely her own - she has a quirky sense of style and it is a real treat seeing how she mixed these pieces up! Enjoy

This 1980s Diane Freis got the hippie chic treatment

Then it's a take on old hollywood glamour - this crazy 1960s lame piece goes sleek polished glam on Dagmar

I loved seeing this one - these eighties huge shouldered pieces can be a challenge for girls to style - Dagmar belted and made hers in a tunic! Brilliant

And this one is super - we get to see it styled two ways - first on Judy with a classic twist and then the Dagmar way with her unique, colorful, happy twist!

Did you just die over those shoes? They are Fam Irvoll - I cracked up when I saw them - and for the oddest reason they actually work!! Love it!

xxoCherie

{should have been vintage} at the met

this dress made me automatically think of the amazing applique & embroidered daisy gown that I just listed recently. yes my dress' skirt is almost as full, but, it needs to be on a real girl to really get the full effect. they certainly do share some similarities don't you agree?

dakota fanning's version is not vintage - it's valentino resort 2011. it is easy at first glance to think it might be vintage. now, the house of valentino does not deliberately design pieces to appear as if they are vintage like some designers do ........ no, their designs are just so classic and timeless that they have become part of the very basis of what we think of as a vintage look.

no matter what year a gown by valentino was actually designed and made in, you often will look at a valentino piece and be a bit stumped - old or new?

people will sometimes question what makes a designer great - just add the above thought into your answer.......

photos: redcarpet-fashionawards.com, justjared.com
info on the 1970s applique daisy dress here

vintage at the met {part one} nicole richie

nicole wore a fantastic cream 30s gown with amazing cut out sleeves. the girl she is with is a model wearing customs winter kate - nicole's own line. really wonderful gown, eagle eye watchers were all attributing it to a variety of modern designers. got you! vintage rules and girls like nicole know it. love this look

Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images North America)

inspiration is where you find it

i am in full tilt interior design mode with my ongoing design quest for our condo. i have the great joy (and sometimes stress) of being able to start from scratch. a condo is very very different from doing the interior of a house - it's open concept for one thing - so every piece is pretty much in full view at all times and everything is close to each other so you are trying to fill separate rooms that are not separate - they all have to work together.

it's like the ultimate dress-up - you choose the dress (the couch and dining table) then you add the shoes (chairs & small furniture) and then the jewels and baubles (lighting and accessories)

I am only halfway in pulling on my dress.

The couch was found almost immediately but the table has been an elusive search for almost a year. we think we have finally found it but we will see - for such a solid item it's damn slippery to pin down. (and i will post pictures but have promised to let it be photoed by a publication - eventually and if they don't tire of waiting for me to finish - so until then can only offer a glimpse here and there as I go)

even though i am completely table focused i still keep a keen eye out for all things glamorous that might work down the road. i have been hunting for a desk chair to go behind my 1970s horn table for a while and have been fixated on this one  (it's gone by the way - judy, of the atlantis home blog and current featured closet collaborator on shrimpton couture, who originally posted the picture of this chair, helped me, via her designer friend, to track down the store it came from - but to no avail - long snatched up it was). i still love it and have been on the hunt for its twin ever since.

however i happened across this picture today of penelope cruz from the movie 'blow', and was memorized.

first - this to me is the epitome of the elusive look i would like to achieve for just one day before i die - its that 'i just swept up my hair in a bun and slicked on gloss and look effortlessly beautiful in that 70s diva kind of way'. (ok so she is doing drugs and is an addict in this scene and those fingernails are horrid - just horrid horrid horrid, but damn the girl looks good still)

second - i think i have the twin of this dress' (1970s dior) so i automatically feel like its a sign from the universe that i was meant to see this picture and know that i need to own this chair!

do you die? is it not a gilded, engraved, shell backed, dragon armed, over the top, completely non-essential, ridiculously unnecessary piece of golden gloriouseness?

if i could find this chair, i could wear my dior twin of this dress and sit in that chair and pretend that i am, just for one moment a

'i just swept up my hair in a bun and slicked on gloss and look effortlessly beautiful in that 70s diva kind of way' goddess of a girl

drug free of course - though i could look fervently over my shoulder for a moment just to feel the full drama of the moment ......

come on you know you would too - how could you resist not doing that??

boy what a chair

its a sign don't you think?

when jil sanders vicariously met garance dore, stacey kimel & anna dello russo

this photo was shot by garance dore for the feb vogue nippon. there is such an old world, sixties feel to it (with a modern twist) that i had to share with you

the dress is jil sanders spring 2011.

on the runway it was shown with a cropped jacket on top - it's an interesting play on proportions. it's a classic example of how much hair and make-up and styling can affect the look of a piece. it's an important thing to keep in mind for girls new to vintage. its easy to underestimate what an impact taking a vintage piece and pairing it with your own modern girl look and accessories will make. and how much your own styling instincts can change the look of a piece - even a strong piece like this dress gets a totally different feel by changing where the balance and emphasis of where you look is - hair and earrings in garance's version, through the bodice and hips on the runway look. small tweaks with a big impact on the feel of the piece.

jil sanders knocked it out of the park this year. making that full, voluminous silhouette work, and managing to make it be attractive to a modern girl takes some doing and she killed it. i see tons of young girls working this silhouette now in the blogosphere and expect that it will trickle down to the more fashion forward of the masses this season (fingers crossed). i am a full on, full length, love me a maxi dress kind of girl anyway so my fingers are crossed that perhaps people won't act like i am from mars when i stroll into the grocery store in mine for a change.

and you can bet that i will be posting tons of vintage versions over the next few weeks too.

in the meantime - check out some of my other favorites from the spring jil sanders runway..........

update:

i can't resist showing you one of the runway pieces in action. i came across this photo of one of my favorite girls - one of toronto's most stunning fashionista and a shrimpton couture client too-  stacey kimel. she stepped out at a recent fete wearing this jil sanders skirt from the runway

stacey kept true to the runway feel but subbed the simple T for a slightly lighter feeling tank. i like it and it is another great example of how a small change around one base piece - that tangerine floor length skirt in this case - makes for a lot of punch

stacey was at the recent party held at the room at the bay for the when tommy met anna event so i would be remiss not to post a shot of her with anna dello russo. it also gives you a chance to see the whole ensemble. i love love love that women are wearing full length dresses again.

isn't that a gorgeous shot? I love anna's over the top full 50s inspired skirt contrasted with stacey's trailing, sleek maxi. the colors work perfectly - i love when a quick snapshot at an event looks one step away from a styled shot, don't you? The man in the shot looking debonair while doing tux-in-the-city is the room's creative director, nicholas mellamphy.

photos: style.com & toronto life fashion

Flashback

Spotted in this month Harper's Bazaar Espana -  a fantastic shot c.1978 Chanel