Presentworth

Handmade in England in 2004 by recent-Louvre-museum-exhibited British Duro Olowu for the debut of his eponymous brand, this mixed-print silk kimono-sleeve empire-waist mini dress fea...

This Comme des Garcons black flared-hip fitted-shirt-cum-open-jacket, which features a unique feminine bustle-like applique hand-stitched around the inner hem, was designed by Japane...

Handmade in the 1970s by the museum-collected U.S. milliner known as "the mad hatter of the Midwest", Chicago-based Raymond Hudd (1924-2011, nee Huddlestu...

Made in Italy in garnet thick stretch wool for a soft tight fit that remarkably drapes, Romeo Gigli designed this off-shoulder pullover knit top long-sleeve blouse in the 1990s. The ...

Featuring his characteristic couture-a-porter innovative craftsmanship, Ermanno Scervino designed this guipure white viscose crochet knit mini dress for a resort-wear collection. Sti...

This unique reversible handmade black soft leather aviator cap with a mint-condition cotton velvet interior and leather strap is most likely from the 1950s when actor Marlon Brando s...

Handmade in England in 2004 by recent-Louvre-museum-exhibited Nigerian-born British Duro Olowu for the debut of his eponymous brand, this mixed-print silk-trimmed kimono-sleeve empir...

This Valentino Made In Italy semi-transparent 100% silk charmeuse pink fuchsia raspberry sleeveless pullover top features a low scoop neck in front with wide shoulders and darts for ...

Embodying Yohji Yamamoto's unique mix of Japanese classic fashion draping and construction with Savile-Row menswear-tailoring for women, this convertible wool white-pinstripe grey re...

Among the Greek-goddess-like Delphos-draped mini dresses that Alexander McQueen (1969-2010) designed for his first haute-couture Givenchy collection i...

With his signature beige color and elegant minimalist bodycon style, Italian Giorgio Armani (1934-2025) designed this semi-transparent 100%-silk pointelle-knit sleeveless fit-and-fla...

As an example of her characteristically luxurious feminine fitted sweaters with colorful stripes, the late Parisian Sonia Rykiel (1930-2016) designed this made-in-Italy soft merino w...

While today's fashion collectors are more familiar with his daughter Simone Rocha who leads her eponymous brand, U.K.-based John Rocha in the early 1990s designed this plush 'teddy b...

Offered at its original late-1990s price with the iconic marijuana-camoflage-skull graphic, this rare Lucien Pellat-Finet (1945-2024) finely-knit black 100%-cotton long-sleeve pullov...

Signed FRM, these Art-Deco style mixed-metal drop earrings feature four bezel-and-prong-set faceted red garnets along with 16 hand-wired beaded thin chains. The 32 dangling teardrop-...

This unique Jugendstil Art-Nouveau period early-20th-Century intricate sterling pendant with celestial-motif openwork recalling shape-shifting bats in flight by master silversmith Ge...

With grosgrain bows and ribbon appliques distinctly designed by Italian Valentino Garavani (1932-2026) to feminize a textile pattern and shape associated with traditional mens or mil...

This Dolce & Gabbana grey soft virgin-wool fine-knit sleeveless strapped V-neck evening-cocktail dress, which was made in Italy for a mid-2000s Fall/Winter collection, features a...

This couture French silk-chiffon flower hat-pin brooch accented by emu feathers was painted, cut and appliqued by hand to appear like a large rose. It was acquired in France in Janua...

With intricately hand-embroidered pink-tone ombre reflective rose flowers and 20-inch hand-knotted tassel fringe on all sides, this museum-quality antique 85-inch-square ballet-pink ...

Encrusted with enameled turbo shells shaped like miniature mollusks and mixed with iridescent crystals, this elaborately ornamented and intricately textured unsigned pair of yellow-g...

Made with stunning cut-velvet silk lame of metallic gold and shimmering black threads woven in a floral pattern on black silk chiffon, Cuban-American Adolfo designed this billowy lin...

With couture embroidered black lace elements made in Italy in the 1980s mixed with a distinct painterly abstract-art print by Christian Lacroix, this embellished cocktail dress for t...

Handmade by legendary New York Times fashion-scene photographer and prior mid-century couture milliner Bill J. Cunningham (1929-2016), this rare asymmetrical supple black leather hat...

With an elegant tucked front and artful drama on the back, this Gianni Versace Couture S/S 1996 black crepe short-sleeve lined mini dress features peek-a-boo art-like cut-outs as Luc...

Made by a Jean-Paul Gaultier accessory designer during Paris Haute-Couture Fashion Week in January 2004, this custom-made feather headpiece with a black long three-prong hair comb fe...

Distinguished by the tightly coiled style of Georgian-period-inspired cannetille gold wire that decorates the four pieces of this parure, French costume-jewelry designer Lina Baretti...

Remarkably more expressive than iconic phoenix brooches by Jean Schlumberger or Marcel Boucher, this unique Georgian-style three-dimensional bird bar brooch by an artisan silversmith...

This chased 14k-gold almost-abstract whimsical ostrich bird with a shiny textural plume features prong-set round cabochons of turquoise and chalcedony with smaller colorful cut gems ...

Signed "Made in France", this couture poured and lampwork glass flower-like spray brooch has its artisan-wired construction concealed by a decorative gilt filigree scalloped back-pla...

Handmade by New York-based milliner Jennifer Ouellette who custom designs head pieces for couture clients, this 1990s "candy" tweed wide band or draping tiara is intricately decorate...

This unique handmade deconstructed cotton and satin cape that is convertible as a wrap skirt was created in 1998 by radical New York City artist-and-architect collective ORFI. The co...

Made in France, this Balmain Paris vibrant reddish-orange knit mini dress in reflective dense viscose features dozens of spaghetti-laced yellow-gold eyelets that line both seamless s...

With a unique hand-folded, gathered and topstitched square neckline with triangular "lumps", this asymmetrical lightweight-wool long-sleeve pullover loose-fitting blouse was designed...

These deconstructed black balloon pants by Comme des Garcons founder Rei Kawakubo premiered on the Paris Fashion Week runway for her Spring/Summer 2003 collection. Featuring unique c...

Designed by Oscar de la Renta in the 1970s, this poppy-red pointelle knitted long-sleeve sweater with peek-a-boo textural stripes features a dramatic circular ruffle collar that drap...

Made in Italy, this Emanuel Ungaro Paris double-ruffle-trimmed bright red layered baby-doll-style evening-cocktail mini dress features a handpainted-tulip print that has different ef...

Featuring a biomorphic image created by Spain-based renowned multimedia artist Sybilla, this rare billowy bias-cut semi-transparent layered silk crepe sleeveless V-neck midi dress fo...

Signed with the early "Mazer Bros" signature, this Art-Deco period decorative link bracelet was created in the early 1930s while former Cartier designer Marcel Boucher was the design...

With distinct handmade glass by French Maison Gripoix for a faux-amethyst 25mm domed open-back oval cabochon poured into a forged wire ring topped with a serrated-bezel setting, this...

When fuchsia Burmese rubies were among the most expensive gems in the 1930s, Elsa Schiaparelli began to embrace the "shocking pink" color while designing French couture clothing and ...

This antique French chain necklace with three-inch drop pendants features 33 natural citrines including 16 polished-teardrop and 17 faceted-bead golden quartz. It was constructed by ...

These couture Roger Vivier Paris platform stilettos with a heel height of four and a half inches feature dark-chocolate brown fine Italian leather and leopard-print animal hair with ...

This couture 1930s Coco-Chanel-commissioned French Maison Gripoix handcrafted demi-parure features eight flower pendants whose daisy-like metalsmithed petal frames suspend transparen...

French Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel commissioned Parisian Maison Gripoix in the 1930s to fabricate this elegant handmade drop-chain choker necklace for one of her couture clients. In the ...

Featuring stamped-brass findings c1930, this Miriam Haskell collar necklace was made by her first designer Frank Hess in an Art Nouveau style with ornate floral motifs for its 15 dangling bud-shaped or fluted-ball pendants, along with intricate textural patterns on the bands that link the oval rings of the chain choker. Among the festoon of graduating charms, the largest centered pendant is 1.5 inches long and 0.75 inches in diameter. One of our photos show that the surprisingly light-weight pendants are hollow--some with a hole punched at the bottom. The distinct stamped brass, which include a fold-over clasp, are found in more obviously Haskell-Hess pre-WWII jewelry...

From the Spring/Summer 2000 collection that Rei Kawakubo described as "beautiful chaos", this purple-overdyed grey stretch knit short-sleeve pullover top, which is perceived as diffe...

Unlike anything else from the 1990s, Comme des Garcons founder Rei Kawakubo (b. 1942) designed in 1999 for her Spring/Summer 2000 collection this pink-overdyed pullover soft stretch-...

British Stella McCartney for her eponymous brand's second collection for Fall/Winter 2002 designed this airy layered silk-chiffon empire-waist cap-sleeve rose-color pullover blouse, ...

About a decade ago Brunello Cucinelli debuted these impeccably-tailored 100%-virgin-wool grey shorts whose back is completely concealed by tuxedo tails fashioned from a curvilinear-c...

Appearing in several versions on the Stella McCartney Spring/Summer 2003 collection runway with silk oversized long bell sleeves (see our photos of the gold and white versions beginn...

Trimmed with 40 rose-cut diamond-like stones and marked "deposee" on the Swiss clasp like antique European couture jewelry, this Art-Deco period unique Bucherer luxury snake-chain dr...

Marked "Made In France" on their antique brass back-plates like the initial unbranded couture costume-jewelry commissioned by Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel since 1924, these painterly earl...

Given the stenciled "YSL" logo that had been created in 1961 while the founding fashion designer was only producing haute couture, paired with the French-blue bordered "Yves Saint La...

Designed by U.S.-based Oscar de la Renta (1932-2014) for his 1975 Resort collection, this deeply-draping two-layer empire-waist gown maxi dress is handpainted on white silk in a blue...

Oscar de la Renta (1932-2014) for his S/S 1982 collection created a number of styles of bold vibrant uniquely handpainted crepe-de-chine caftans that helped define his five-decade fa...

Demonstrating the epitome of miniature decorative art by Renaissance European goldsmiths who fashioned quatrefoil and cruciform jewelry with heraldry or religious symbols, this centu...

Distinguishing these couture Christian Dior Spring/Summer 1956 "Western Germany"-stamped silver earrings featuring the first Swarovski gold-foi...

This couture lingerie-like spaghetti-strapped black silk-satin apron vest--with extraordinary graphic cutwork featuring a heavily hand-beaded breastplate and appliques--was custom made by a young designer for a New York City female...

Between the first ad campaign that legendary fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973) commissioned from internationally-admired Paris-based Hungarian-born multimedia artist Marcel Vertes (1895-1961) for her blockbuster perfume "Shocking" in 1937, and in 1940 when they left France after launching her perfume "Sleeping" shortly before the Nazi occupation during WWII, the illustrator-cum-ceramist distinctly handmade--while traditional materials for couture costume-jewelry were scarce in Paris--this whimsical red-glazed ceramic brooch depicting a duck holding a "wet" umbrella dripped with dashes of turquoise and black glaze. Significantly, the trombone clasp of the brooch pin, the long-pronged gilt frame, and the text stamped on its back plate "Made In France" match a similarly sized glazed-ceramic brooch of a decoratively-chained bear that was published in the book Bijoux (page 146). The author Deanna Farenti Cera dated that likewise unbranded unsigned brooch to 1938 when it was commissioned for one of Schiaparelli's themed fashion shows "Circus". The invitation to that show, which was illustrated with circus characters and performing animals by Vertes' Parisian peer Christian Berard, included a domesticated white duck--notably not holding nor wearing a fashion accessory. Unusually, Schiaparelli had commissioned couture umbrellas from other artisans in the 1930s--a couple of which were acquired by TheMet museum. Another relevant Met acquisition of the designer's couture evening gown, which it dates to Summer 1940, features three large glazed-ceramic fasteners in a contrasting color matching our brooch. The like findings, materials, construction, text, object and palette aside, accessory-adorned ducks were among the figurative animals commissioned by Schiaparelli for that last collection before the Germans dominated Paris by June 1940, which is evidenced by the photo of the dated gilt hatpin depicting a bejeweled bird head with a bill that appears in the book by Patrick Mauries about another Schiaparelli-associated French parurier Lina Baretti (pages 124-125). See our other listing for one of Baretti's uniquely feathered designs, which likewise has a pronged gilt frame with trombone clasp like ours, but whose partridge subject best suits an earlier Schiaparelli collection for Fall 1938 titled "Pagan". For us, distinguishing our brooch from other one-of-a-kind ceramic pieces created for Schiaparelli couture...