Two Coats 37 Years Apart

 The moment I saw this.....

....it reminded me of this.  Do you see the similarity?  Or am I just crazy? 

First photo:  Coat by Gianfranco Ferre, 1987
Second photo:  Coat by Balenciaga, 1950

Yves St. Laurent Evening Gown

Yves St. Laurent designs a gown that could have come straight out of his years at Dior in the 1950s.  What's old is always new again......this gown was part of his Spring/Summer Haute Couture collection in 1987.

Geometry in Design - 1987

A look at the use of geometric angles and curves in designs from 1987. What do you think?

Nina Ricci

Pierre Cardin

Givenchy

Serge Lepage

Nina Ricci

Pierre Cardin

Louis Feraud

Copy or Inspiration?

When I came across this Liliane Romi white evening gown in a magazine from 1987, my immediate thought was, "I've seen that dress before." And I knew exactly where. The image at the left, by George Hoyningen-Huene was featured on my blog back in February of 2009. He photographed the white gown for Bergdorf Goodman in 1940.

My question is, where do you draw the line between a design being a copy or simply an inspiration? Romi had to have been staring right at this Hoyningen-Huene image when she designed these gowns in 1987. And, while they're not line for line copies, they surely are close. I wouldn't call her work original.....

....would you?

Weekend Eye Candy - Chanel, 1987

Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, 1987. Black satin and white organza combine in a dress compared to piano keys.

Photo by Beate Hansen.