1930s Yvonne of Cherbourg Black Hand Painted Silk Cropped Jacket

Vivienne Westwood black velvet corseted ensemble, as seen in the Fall/Winter 1995 Vive La Cocotte collection - one of the most iconic shows of her care...

1979 documented Yves Saint Laurent shell print jacket. Saint Laurent was inspired by the work of the artist, Henri Matisse for several notable collections and the jacket really epit...

This stylish early 1990s Yves Saint Laurent cropped bolero jacket is a wonderfully diverse piece and of excellent quality. The jacket is comprised of heavy duty cotton fabric and fea...

This striking Yves Saint Laurent 1990s black double breasted short cropped jacket is of superb quality and in excellent condition. With slick tailoring and a stylish crop cut, the wi...

This is a really good 1930s jacket when floral satin fabrics were the height of fashion and sophistication for dinner and cocktail-wear. This has a really excellent print made up of ...

Late 1880s Victorian gothic style mourning or mantle jacket in absolutely superb antique condition. The glossy black silk jacket has two long front tails, known as lappets, both of w...

Fabulous early 1990's Terry Paris Versace style jacket. Beautiful decorative goldtone medusa head medallions. Lace embellishment. Goldtone button closure a...

Exclusive Yves Saint Laurent Variation black 100% "Fresco" summer wool jacket from the early 90s. Collarless, with large 5 gold dome shaped buttons down center and slash pockets on each hip. Both sleeves have three large dome buttons...

Rare Schiaparelli Haute Couture Mandarin Black Quilted Faille Cape, 1951 Amazingly chic and modern quilted silk faille Haute Couture cape by Elsa Schiaparelli from the 1950's. M...

Schiaparelli Haute Couture Changeant Faille Jacket, 1938-39. "France gave me the inspiration: America gave me the approval" Elsa Schiapa...

"In difficult times, fashion is always outrageous" Elsa Schiaparelli,1930's. "Life has changed so much, A Schiaparelli was never made for the streets." Karl Lagerfeld, 1970's. 2 quotes,2 designers, 4 decades apart. 4 decades later. Although these quotes are highly debatable, especially in the context of today's high-low designer collabs and pop up retailing, iconic fashion endures. Whether now relegated to a museum exhibition, a collector's acid free box or a celebrity one nighter, these fashion artifacts from the french Haute Couture of the 1930's echo a time, pace and culture unrecognizable to most people today. Schiaparelli changed the definition of what it meant to be a designer at an important time in the evolution of the Haute Couture. Rather than simply making beautifully elegant garments (which she also did), she focused on the concepts behind the pieces. For her fashion was a fluid medium and she effortlessly blended fashion, politics and the fine arts. She was one of the most innovative and rebellious designers of the period working against what she considered the stale fashion currents of the day. She was elegant yet untrained. As a protege of Poiret, she gained entry into the world of Parisian fashion. While her rival Chanel was essentially uneducated and a “primitive” in the artistic circles in which she socialized, Schiaparelli’s impeccable social credentials as the daughter of an old and distinguished Roman family gave her a relatively easy entree into Paris society. She was a subversive, a punk, a desecrator, a collaborator, an innovator as well as the ultimate insider whose plans on design domination and creating "la zone rose" for the modern world were cut short by the advent of WWII. She was at the height of her influence and power showing 4 iconic collections in the last years of the decade. Fascinating to consider what the House of Schiaparelli could have brought forth in the following decades had the world not been swept away in turmoil at that moment. In the context of her short prewar career, few remaining masterworks have survived. The rare "moment" she created in the 30's lives on within each art piece, safelocked away within each stitch and sequin. Each design retains her spirit and legacy as a free thinking, modernist rebel who used the avantegarde as her platform in the most creative period of fashion design in the 20th Century. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rare and Important Elsa Schiaparelli Haute Couture...

Insane houndstooth blazer by Junya Watanabe from his 2010 spring collection. Tailored to perfection, this blazer is a work of art! This collection which focused on menswear for wome...