1stDibs-ing "haute" style

Someone has been buying up all the haute couture listed on 1st Dibs.  This makes me both curious (is it one person buying everything in sight, are there a handful of savvy stylists out there scouring the internet?  Is some billionaire hoarding it all in a personal museum somewhere?) and very envious.

For example, I feel that I should have these:



Balenciaga hat
And I quote: "Created by Cristobal Balenciaga for a New York lady who was a member of the International Best Dressed List this hat is simply stunning. Perched at a jaunty angle the hat is composed of overlapping sheer black petals with a padded flower head at the back." 




Dior haute couture gown, circa 1968
"An important provenience [sic], revealed upon purchase."  Ooooh the mystery....



Christian Dior ivory silk cloche day dress, 1965

Christian Dior haute couture black gown with cape, c.1973

2-piece Givenchy bodysuit
"This Haute Couture Givenchy maxi-skirt in vibrant red broad tail with a black crochet bodysuit was custom made for Countess Claudia Osborne of Madrid. A perfect holiday party outfit!
Note: Givenchy label not intact but with a strong provenance as noted in the Preface of the book "Balenciaga and His Legacy" by Myra Walker". 
Well, in that case.... 

Chanel, 1980s haute couture silk dress

Christian Dior 1954 spring/summer haute couture gown

Chanel haute couture georgette dress, May 2004

Valentino haute couture ostrich and zebra sequin coat, 1965

Balenciaga evening dress and coat, 1950's
Somebody owns this now.

Christian Dior Russian Broadtail and Mink Bolero

Yves St. Laurent gabardine wrap dress

Walk like an...

This has got to be the best music video ever.  I can't decide which is my favourite part, although Lady Di at 1:00 is up there.

Room

Playing with a room idea.

Ralph Lauren Home

vintage suzani pillow

raffia wallcovering



silk



upholstery



Derrick Tower table lamp, Elte



occasional table by Brent Comber



butterfly tray, Jayson H&G

armchair, Jayson H&G

table, Snob

Forecasting

A few years ago, I was walking across the square in front of the cathedral in Milan when a girl stopped to ask if she could take my photo, explaining that she was a "fashion forecaster" and "liked what I was wearing" (dress, trenchcoat and - because my hair was driving me crazy - a turban).
As soon as she walked away I was overcome by the paranoid conviction that it was a cruel hoax and that I would find my photo all over the internet with captions like "what not to wear" and "how to look insane in public without actually muttering to yourself and yelling at dogs". 

That is, until I spotted this the other day and realized that the girl with the camera was a fashion forecaster from 1944 who had time-travelled into the future. Which probably makes me personally responsible for the great turban craze of the 1940's.

Raoul Dufy

Tellingly, Raoul Dufy's most grandiose work was an homage to electricity created for the 1937 Exposition Internationale in Paris.  To electricity. 
Dufy's paintings are endearingly ebullient.  I suppose endearingly so for those who wish to see the world and all its polo ponies and Monte Carlo yachts through rose-coloured glasses, which I generally do (and as Dufy himself explicitly did).

What a feast!  As Gertrude Stein wrote: ‘Raoul Dufy est plaisir’.

Dufy also did these incredible fashion illustrations for the Gazette du Bon Ton and Paul Poiret.

Oh to be a man of leisure in Paris of the mid-thirties hobnobbing with Gertrude Stein and wearing white under the trees in July...

Slogan

I should be busy with other things, but I found this fun slogan generator online. 

The Anna-Lyssa Goes Straight to your Head.

Enter a word for your own slogan:

Generated by the Advertising Slogan Generator. Get more anna-lyssa slogans.

(Fortunately, since nobody actually reads this blog, I'll be able to delete this post as soon as I'm sufficiently embarrassed by the fact that I spent more than two seconds using this slogan generator - and it will be as though it never happened. Obscurity has its benefits.)

Ann Sacks has a special place in my heart

Ann Sacks ads are so ... adorable.