Emilio Pucci - 1963

I don't think I've ever seen a beaded piece by Emilio Pucci, but there they are.  It was Stanley Marcus who encouraged Pucci to begin using his prints for clothing in the 1950s.  His print blouses were paired with solid color silk pants, and they were an instant hit here in the US.  The sets shown above are from 1963. The printed silk blouses are covered in beads, sequins and embroidery. The blouses are paired with silk pants on the left and a long silk wrap skirt on the right.

New at Couture Allure - Vintage Dresses

New at Couture Allure over the last couple of weeks are some wonderful vintage dresses for daytime and night.  Be sure to check our What's New pages to see all the latest listings! 

1950s cotton dress with poodle print.

1960s Mod dress with eyelet cutouts in skirt.

1960s Mod graphic stripe dress.

1960s cocktail dress with floating drapes.

1960s Bergdorf Goodman silk brocade cocktail coat.

1960s orange silk cocktail dress.

Weekend Eye Candy - Molyneux Wedding Gown, 1936

The second of our June brides this year wears a pleated crepe gown by Molyneux from 1936.

Guess The Designer

Time for another guessing game!  Who is the designer of these beaded tops?  Answer on Monday!

Sally Victor Hat - 1955

This is an ad from 1955 for Revlon's "Love-Pat" powder/foundation compact.  But that's not what I want to talk about.  It's the hat.  That wonderful hat.  It's an arrangement of white silk petals that form a cap so it appears the model has a flower molded to the top of her head.  Do you love it as much as I do?  Sally Victor is the designer.  Now that I've seen it, I'll be on the hunt for this beauty.  Oh yes, I will!

IN OTHER NEWS:  The offending website that was copying my content has been take down.  Yay!  Thank you everyone for your support and help!

Pierre Balmain's Voluminous Sleeves - 1950

For the Spring of 1950, Pierre Balmain showed many blouses with huge voluminous sleeves.  I love this look, and wore sleeves like this often when they became popular again in the 1970s.  But there was always the problem of bunching and twisting when you tried to wear a blouse like this under a coat or jacket with slim sleeves.  Take a look at how Balmain solved this problem.

Here, the designer has shortened the sleeves of the tunic to 3/4 length, given them a slight flare and added a slit at the outside edge of the cuff.  The big white cotton sleeves of the blouse billow out below the tunic.

Balmain uses the same short flared sleeves on this suit jacket.  The white lace sleeves puff out below the jacket in a most feminine way.

Please note: This blog post is copyright of the Couture Allure Vintage Fashion Blog.  If you are reading this information anywhere but at http://coutureallure.blogspot.com/, the content has been stolen and posted without permission from the Couture Allure Blog or the Couture Allure Website.

Couture Allure Blog Content Being Stolen

My name is Jody.  I am the owner of Couture Allure Vintage Fashion and the author of the Couture Allure Blog.  It has come to my attention that the content of my blog is being "scraped" and stolen on a daily basis by a site called (name removed as site has been shut down.)  Look up in the address bar of your browser.  If the URL does not begin with http://coutureallure.blogspot.com then you are looking at my original writing and content. That content has been stolen and posted without permission from the Couture Allure Blog.   Not only is (name removed as site has been shut down) stealing content from my blog, but they are stealing ALL of the content they claim copyright to from many high profile vintage blogs across the world.

Normally, this would be a simple matter of filing a DMCA report with the web host of the offending blog.  However, this site is very cleverly using a European host that is not subject to US copyright laws and has a poor record of responding to complaints of abuse.  I have tried writing to that web host to no avail.  And I cannot write the owner of the offending blog because there is no contact information on their site.  If you can offer any advice about dealing with this issue, I will gladly welcome it.  And if you are the owner of (name removed as site has been shut down), please remove my content from your blog and I will be happy to remove your name from this post.

UPDATE:  As of this morning, June 7, the offending website has been taken down.   Thank you for all your support, dear readers!

For now, I will be forced to add this copyright notice to all the posts on my blog.  Please note: This blog post is copyright of the Couture Allure Vintage Fashion Blog.  If you are reading this information anywhere but at http://coutureallure.blogspot.com/, the content has been stolen and posted without permission from the Couture Allure Blog or the Couture Allure Website.

Photo of Mary Astor by Edward Steichen, 1933.

Be Stylish in the Rain

I shouldn't have done it.  I definitely shouldn't have done it.  After a weekend of rain and then waking up to another gray and wet morning, I looked at today's weather forecast which called for rain and wind all day.  And then, I made the mistake.  Thinking the rain can't last too much longer, I clicked on the 10 day forecast.  Rain, rain, clouds, showers, gloom, and more rain for the next 10 days.  It seems all the rainy days we should have had in March, April and May are being crammed into June.  Sigh....

If we must deal with rain, at least let's look stylish while doing it.  OK, ducks?

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Weekend Eye Candy - Jacqueline Kennedy's Wedding Dress

Every year in June I devote my Weekend Eye Candy posts to wedding dresses and brides.  I going to start this month with one of the best known wedding gowns of all time.

On September 12, 1953, Jacqueline Bouvier married then congressman John F. Kennedy.  Her gown was made by Ann Lowe, an African-American couturier working out of New York.  It is said that Jackie would have preferred a simpler gown with clean, straight lines to complement her figure, but she bowed to the wishes of the Kennedy family in wearing this one with a huge bouffant skirt.

The long lace veil was originally worn by Jackie's grandmother.  Her headpiece was made of matching lace circled with wax flowers.  The same was flowers decorated the skirt of the ivory silk taffeta gown.

Here you can see the true color of the gown.  It is on display at the Kennedy Library in Boston.

Tina Leser Designs Using Modern Masters Fabric - 1956

In 1955, Fuller Fabrics worked with several famous artists of the time to create their line of Modern Masters fabrics.  The fabrics were available to the home sewer and were also used by several fashion designers including Tina Leser.  For Spring 1956, Leser created these garments using a Fuller Modern Masters fabric in a print based on a Raoul Dufy painting.  I am unable to identify the Dufy painting that this rayon fabric is from, but it it a pretty yellow and green floral with perhaps some pears or other fruits.  Leser cleverly used cut-outs of the flowers in the print to form the shoulder straps on these pieces.

At left:  Patio ensemble consisting of the swimsuit, full skirt and a yellow sweater (not shown).  Sold in 1956 for $110 (about $930 in today's dollar.)
At right:  Skirted swimsuit with solid yellow side panels.  Sold in 1956 for $25 (about $211 in today's dollar.)

Here, Leser uses the Dufy print fabric for capri length trousers that peek out from the side slits in a solid green dress.  This is called a "shopping dress" in the ad.  Sold in 1956 for $50 (about $423 in today's dollar.)

Want to learn more about the Modern Masters line of fabrics?  Lizzie over at The Vintage Traveler blog has written several posts about garments and fabrics from this line.  She also links to an article from Life magazine about the fabrics.  Check it out!

Meet Stacy!

Meet Stacy and her husband Rick.  Rick bought this gorgeous 1950s dress for Stacy from Couture Allure and she wore it to the Kentucky Derby.  Don't they make a rather dashing couple?  Stacy, you are beautiful and your husband is quite debonair!

1950s cream lace over pink taffeta dress from Couture Allure.

Meet Angela!

Meet Angela!  She and her husband own a 1966 Plymouth Satellite Convertible.  Angela wore this 1960s floral print cotton dress that she purchased at Couture Allure to a Vintage Car Tour in Canada.  Doesn't she look fabulous?  And how about that car!!!

Vintage 1960s dress from Couture Allure.

Yay Peggy!

As Peggy moves on from under Don's wing, all I can say is, "You GO, Girl!"  At a time in history when women struggled to step up the ladder and out of the secretarial pool, Peggy had the guts to do it with integrity and a single-minded sense of purpose.  While I know all will not be roses and sunshine at her new job, Peggy has my utmost respect for her courage to take this leap of faith.  If you haven't watched this week's episode of "Mad Men", be sure to catch it, as it was one of the best ever.

Memorial Day

An impromtu parade celebrates the end of the war in August, 1945.

Today, in the US, we remember and give thanks to to all the brave men and women who have served and given their lives in the Armed Forces.  Thank you.

New at Couture Allure - Vintage Party Dresses

We've added some wonderful vintage party dresses to the site this week!  Be sure to check our What's New pages to see all the latest listings!

1950s Emma Domb strapless chiffon full skirt dress.

1950s strapless cocoa lace party dress.

1950s gold metallic and silk chiffon party dress.

1960s silver metallic beaded party dress.

1960s gold metallic cocktail dress.

Weekend Eye Candy - Norman Hartnell, 1960

From the collection of the Fashion Museum in Bath, UK.  This Norman Hartnell gown from 1960 is fashioned of silk jersey that is embroidered and encrusted with rhinestones.  The matching jacket is trimmed in fox fur.

Another Side of Nina Ricci

Lest you think after yesterday's post that Nina Ricci only excelled at suits, here is a Ricci draped silk jersey wedding gown from 1957.

Vintage Nina Ricci Ensembles

It takes a certain kind of woman to wear vintage Nina Ricci.  My favorite pieces are always those designed by Jules Francois Crahay during his years as the head designer from 1954 - 1963.  His designs feature fabulous tailoring with the addition of wonderful, whimsical details.  Here are some examples of his work.

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I had planned this post in order to feature this Crahay-designed dress and jacket ensemble from Nina Ricci Paris that I listed on my website yesterday.  Not surprisingly, the ensemble sold almost immediately, but you can still enjoy the photos and details of the design by checking out the listing at Couture Allure. 

Givenchy Dress - 1955

Hubert de Givenchy created this haute couture black silk taffeta dress for Spring 1955.  Having learned pattern drafting many years ago, I view this dress from a sewer's standpoint.  I can't look at this photo without wondering how in the world Givenchy made the fabric do what it does here and what do the pattern pieces for that skirt look like?  I'm sure the dress is built upon a stiff foundation so the skirt holds its bell shape.  There appear to be seams between the front buttoned panel and the draped side pieces.  That front panel probably falls straight to the hem and the side panels are pulled around to the front and sewn one on top of the other at the hem  And, even though you can't see them, I am sure those soft folds are held in place with hundreds of tiny invisible hand-worked stitches.  In the end, what looks like a dress with lots of movement and softness is actually just the opposite.  And that is one example of the art of couture.

Larry Aldrich Cocktail Suit - 1949

The cocktail suit - another fashion staple from the past that has disappeared from modern life.  This beauty by Larry Aldrich, from the spring of 1949, has a long slender skirt that hits right above the ankle.  It is fashioned from jacquard twill that has a subtle gleam to it.  A dramatic hat is just the right accessory, don't you think?  Larry Aldrich suit sold for $70 in 1949 (about $677 in today's dollar.)