Berkshires - Fashion

Flowing chiffon floral gown in fuchsia and navy print featuring a deep V neckline front and back, a high waistline, and sheer, raglan balloon sleeves. The skirt falls from soft pleat...

A rare find, this wedding dress and jacket from the 1930s is made of ivory lace and is in excellent condition. The bias-cut dress has a V-neck and empire bo...

While John Galliano was creating haute-couture in Paris for French Maison Christian Dior as its artistic director beginning in the late 1990s, he designed this "Made In France" black stretch-lace-and-net low-back boned corset featuring a bold halter neck, padded underwire bustier with a rounded bustline silhouette, and cinched waist with a lettuce-edged ruffle. Along with leading couture-fashion designers Jean-Paul Gaultier and the late Vivienne Westwood, Thierry Mugler and Gianni Versace, Galliano is closely associated with the popularity of the contemporary corset, which was the focus of his most recent couture show in 2024 as the creative director of Paris-based Maison Margiela for the past decade. Notably, a Galliano corset from his turn-of-the-century Christian Dior collection--with like tags and similar low back with bustier--can be viewed online among the collections of the Underpinnings Museum, which is dedicated to the most outstanding lingerie. In addition to the tags noting "Christian Dior Made In France" along with the size, Galliano added subtle logo embroidery to the cleavage that reads "DIOR". There is no tag noting the materials of the multiple laces, tulle mesh, bones and additional padding or strap fabrics, which seem primarily synthetic for desirable stretch-to-fit. Instead, care-instruction symbols can be found on the back of the size tag. The neck straps for this B-cup French-size 85 or U.S.-size 34 can be adjusted to one of the three tiers of hooks that suits the wearer, while the corset has two tiers of hooks to cinch the waist. As worn by our small-size mannequin, the top will flatter even an A-cup breast size. As noted in our listing sidebar, the buyer will receive the corset packed in its original Christian Dior silver shoebox-size cardboard packaging, while the lingerie will be wrapped in the original logo tissue paper. The box and paper are in good condition without rips or perforation, while the lingerie is in like-new excellent condition as if it had only been tried on and not worn for an event. For price comparison, a later dated Galliano/Dior bustier corset top--with like tags but strapless--recently sold on 1stDibs for $6,200. The previous sole owner of our top recalled making their purchase as new lingerie in 2001. This French ready-to-wear complex-structure garment should not be confused with international lingerie lines with different but similar labels--"Christian Dior Intimates...

One of Victor Costa's best designs, this strapless cocktail/evening dress is fashioned of white satin and black velvet alternating horizontal stripes with fitted bodice leading to an...

In the sexy sleek skin-tight style that Texan Tom Ford introduced as the former artistic director at Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche while the French esteemed eponymous designer was r...

A prime example of understated luxury, this vintage sable jacket in a shade of medium brown is hip length and features a shawl collar and wrist-length sleeves. The jacket is construc...

Lauded for his innovative couture-like construction with atypical ready-to-wear luxurious fabrics tailored to perfection in the 2000s, French-born Nicholas Ghesqueire designed for Ba...

With the finest fabric and tailoring--the base expectation for all progressive minimalist luxurious fashions designed for powerful women by German Jil Sander before the Prada-buyout ...

With Belgian former couture-fashion designer Martin Margiela's original blank-white textural-cotton corner-sewn label from the early 1990s visible above the prominent circular knit h...

Over 20 years ago, the late Roberto Cavalli who recently died in 2024 designed this silk-and-cotton top-and-jeans set showcasing his signature mix of animal prints with luxurious emb...

Convertible clutch in faux tortoise shell features a textured goldtone clasp and gold chain. The chain folds away to convert to a clutch. Fabric interior with side compartment. Made ...

Yves Saint Laurent rive gauche charcoal gray velvet jacket, c. late 1970s-early 1980s, trimmed on all edges in black braid. The collarless jacket is cropped and features narrow sleev...

Saint Laurent rive gauche blouse crafted of a small, geometric, vertically oriented silk print in predominantly green coloration with dark blue, orange, and ivory contrasts. The blo...

Donna Karan vintage ensemble, c.1990s, incorporating her signature designs - the bodysuit and the simple black shape. Here the bodysuit is a romantic white blouse featuring a large p...

In the 1930s when French couturier Jeanne Lanvin (1867-1946) was creating decorative bias-cut silk tulle overlays for her feminine full-skirted sleeveless "robes de style", she designed this black semi-transparent tulle formal jacket featuring diagonally-striped topstitched silk-crepe appliques throughout the bias-cut panels. This sheer geometric-patterned cape-like jacket has a skirt that drapes from an open waistline and a top-fastening bodice with gathered rounded 3/4-length sleeves that each have two arm seams and shirred embroidered cuffs. It could have been the first "swing coat" design that was given that name around 1935, when Lanvin was the "uncontested leader in the haute-couture field" according to the French Palais Galliera that has collected and exhibited similar garments at its fashion museum in Paris. TheMet collected a House of Lanvin black evening coat with a similar shape that also features dramatic linear appliques, but in a white starburst, which it dates to Spring/Summer 1927. The unprecedented modern look of this Art-Deco women's jacket, which was inspired by 18th-Century French and Spanish topcoats for aristocratic court dresses, may have been good cause for Maison Lanvin to custom-make some close reproductions of a one-of-a-kind couture original for additional clients in Paris, which is implied by the remaining French brand-label noting "Adaptation Jean Lanvin...

As the key element of runway finale Looks 57 and 60 in Rei Kawakubo's collection for Comme Des Garcons Spring/Summer 1999 (see our photos of the Vogue coverage), this layered overdye...

For his first collection for Yves Saint Laurent Paris/Rive Gauche while also creative director at Gucci, American Tom Ford designed this Spring/Summer 2001 black formal evening gown ...

Quintessential Sonia Rykiel ensemble consisting of a pullover sweater and slim skirt in ivory wool knit, c.1980s. On top, the sweater is distnguished by a button opening in front and...

This vintage amusing enameled silver pendant adjustable-chain unsigned necklace, belt or novel interior decoration features heart-shaped two-inch-long links painted in six colors of ...

In the early 1990s, Paris-based Azzedine Alaia (1935-2017) designed this knit pullover chemise-style sleeveless lavender violet viscose dress that features bias panels in back define...

C. 1960s Ted Lapidus dress fashioned of black devoré velvet on a chiffon ground, the floral-design velvet enhanced with black sparkles that catch the light. Stylewise, the dress feat...

While at Balenciaga in late 2007, Nicolas Ghesquiere designed this 100%-silk bias-cut paneled dress that explodes with a grey and pale-yellow flower print and features unique technic...

From one of the last fashion collections by legendary Belgian artist Martin Margiela, this asymmetrical plunging V-neck black jersey pullover that he designed for Spring/Summer 2008 ...

Sonia Rykiel c.1990s suit crafted of plum double knit wool featuring an elongated jacket and mid-calf length skirt. The simple cut of the oversized jacket is distinguished by a sing...

1980s oversized cut in this hip-length sheared fur jacket, possibly opossum or raccoon. The fur is lush and cut in flat, broad pieces throughout the...

Kenzo, c.1980s, large-scale red paisley dress of wool and cotton challis fabric featuring interesting shape and design details. The loose, semi-cocoon shaped body has a three-button ...

Around 1970 when he introduced his eponymous brand after becoming a leading couture fashion designer among New York City society, American Bill Blass created this sleek tuxedo-like e...

Acquired from the French flagship Christian Dior Boutique in Paris when John Galliano was its artistic director of both haute couture and ready-to-wear, he designed this hip-accentua...

1960s evening dress by Malcolm Starr in pale pink satin with beaded emellishment throughout. This consists of primarily silver beads in various shapes and sizes, the body covered wit...

The late Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace near the end of his life--cut short by his murder in July 1997--designed this couture heavily-embroidered semi-transparent silk chiff...

c.1970 Victor Costa for Romantica long dress combining a black sequin bodice juxtaposed with a large-scale taffeta plaid for the full ankle-length skirt and short puffed sleeves, a n...

Valentino jacket in soft wool plaid, the small check ground primarily in tan, ivory and olive green punctuated by horizontal bands in brown and red and thin vertical bands in brown a...

Made in France in 1960 by the late leading futurist fashion designer Pierre Cardin (1922-2020), this "Creation Paris" (all capitals including brand) couture pair of supple kidskin le...

Recognized as "one of the world's most radical and important milliners" according to the British V&A Museum, English Stephen Jones (b. 1957) made London the mecca for fashionable hat...

This antique ArtDeco-period bespoke British wool and satin black tuxedo button-decorated open-breasted tailcoat fits a women's U.S.-size 6 so well that we think it was custom-made fo...

Unique cocktail dress by J. Mendel intricately constructed of charcoal wool and black faille and featuring a silver fox border which peeks out of the flounced hem. While the main bod...

For a formal special event, this 1980s maxi dress sleeveless gown by American designer Victor Costa features glamorous glossy red satin that is gathered, ruched and topstitched in bo...

This timeless quintessential corseted, shirred, ruched and topstitched "little black dress" produced by Victor Costa in the 1980s was made for the high standards of New York's trendsetting Bergdorf Goodman when it was the first U.S. luxury department store to order exclusive special-occasion dresses from this Texas designer and subsequently to give him a namesake in-store boutique. He soon became associated with the feminine glamorous gowns worn by "PYT" (Costa-speak for pretty young things) on the Dallas-based television-series "Dynasty", which idealized a status-conscious Texas woman mostly via fashion. With a strapless curvaceous sweetheart neckline (spared from '80s shoulder pads!), narrow sinuous folds of crepe silk-blend jersey cross diagonally below the decollete, while contrasting vertical ruching defines the seven bones of the invisible corset structure that is fully lined on the interior. Under the bust in front below the empire-like peaked high waist, the fitted tucked underlay of the cocktail dress wraps around the back to end as an overlay in front, where the opening on the left side extends to the bodice like a discreet slit. The freely hanging bias-cut overlay in front is gathered underneath each breast for a forgiving central drape that adds additional curves to make the wearer's torso underneath appear in sleek condition despite a potentially less than ideal figure. The dress closes with a concealed zipper in the center of the back, with exterior hook-and-eye fastening to narrow the waist. There is a second concealed hook-and-eye fastener at the top of the zipper. Although the only remaining tag is the Costa/Bergdorf label, it is a contemporary U.S.-size 8, which will also suit a large-busted size 6 or a svelte size 10. Now 88 years old, Victor Costa (b.1935) became widely known by the 1980s in The States for perfecting affordable luxurious gowns that could be mistaken for one-of-a-kind flamboyant designs by foreign couturiers Christian Lacroix, Arnold Scaasi, Oscar de la Renta or Valentino Garavani. Early on, the avid female sketcher...

Karl Lagerfeld classic platform pumps in vivid red suede with oval vamp and rounded toe. The shaped heel has an indentation near the top. Black lining with Karl Lagerfeld script labe...

Uniquely designed as couture by French Jean Charles de Castelbajac in the 1980s, this oversized soft cashmere-viscose-wool bias-cut Italian-knit black sweater with made-in-France tux...

Black plush wool maxi coat features double-breasted styling and self sash. The coat buttons up to the pointed collar. Set-in sleeves with two buttons at each wrist and shoulder epaul...

As lingerie-like runway Look 23 for her Spring/Summer 2003 collection from which we acquired this unreproduced hand-finished one-off prototype, British Stella McCartney debuted these...

Yves Saint Laurent hard-to-find vintage 1979s cape from the designer’s Moroccan collection. Crafted of black wool, the simply cut long cape features a pointed hood and burgundy braid...

In the 1960s the futurist Paris-based revolutionary haute-couture designers included Andre Courreges, Pierre Cardin and Paco Rabanne, who was the last to died in the 21st Century in ...

In excellent like-new condition since they were custom-made in the late 20th Century, these Bally luxurious shearling-lined leather Vasano-model shoes that are equivalent to a U.S.-size wide 7 1/2 are a dark brown classic Oxford-style slip-on stacked-heel low pump. Ideal for inclement weather or thicker socks, this pragmatic durable pair has non-slip soles in perfect condition below the leather insole, which is branded like the interior tag to indicate they were "Made In Switzerland". For nearly a century, the Swiss company designed made-to-measure shoes such as this pair, including hiking shoes...

Vintage fox jacket featuring vertical skins joined by leather strips by renowned Saga company. The straight cut jacket boasts a shawl collar and hid...

Patricia Clyne yellow plaid jacket features a unique double-pocket design. The lower patch pocket, which sits just above the hem, has as its flap an integral and floating bottom to t...

1980s red knit cardigan elaborately embellished at the shoulders with appliquéd yarn, beads, and sequins. The sweater features an oversized cut, a deep V neckline with coordinating b...

Evoking late-1980s couture with complex construction showcasing a wide variety of sewing techniques and French lace, this like-new "Christian Lacroix Paris Made In France" fuchsia-la...

What a find! Manolo Blahnik flat boots in black satin embellished with western-style suede bands around the ankle and double-circle rhinestone ornaments under the junction of the ban...

This antique Italian couture semi-transparent black silk-organza long-balloon-sleeved peplum blouse from the Victorian Edwardian period features decorative cut-work with topstitched ...

Elegant 1930s black velvet clutch featuring an Art Deco clasp of rectangular form, complementing the softly rounded upper edge of the bag. The clasp is composed of marcasite in an op...

Featuring a dramatic never-worn zipper skirt from Alaia's iconic Spring/Summer 1986 collection--which dominated the Vanity Fair published preview of the French Foundation Azzedine Al...

As unique vintage handcrafted textile art including a 20th-Century tag with its artist signature, Vienna-Austria origin and stuffing content, this multi-color "clown" teddy bear has ...

This antique ArtDeco-period Steuben mostly purple glass vase designed by its co-founder Frederick Carder is a colorless-crystal-cased "Transparent Amethyst Bubbly" type with colorless crystal decoration including a rare cut lip-wrap with thick undulating application that adds up to a 3.5-inch-diameter flat rim, along with a smooth casing over a rare see-through twisted linear air-trap pattern with a wider 4-inch hip near the footless bottom. Weighing 625 grams, the short heavy vase is a hybrid matching Steuben shape-numbers 7273 with its variety of colorless cut-crystal lip-wrap decoration and 7036 with its colorless cut-crystal casing. These like forms were produced in multiple colors/shading and patterns with or without a foot and/or decoration in a wide variety of hybrid techniques that are characteristic of the designs by Carder. The 7000 series was among the last produced by Carder before his 30 years as artistic director since 1903 came to an end based on the board decision of Steuben parent-company Corning Glass Works to abandon color by 1933 and move forward using only progressive optical glass with colorless brilliance. The Carder Steuben Glass Association has published for its online shape-index a handful of approximately 10-inch-tall 7273/7036 versions, along with similar shorter shapes like the 8.25-inch 7083 vase and 7 5/8-inch 7206 "Bubbly" vase, along with the much earlier 1153 salt-and-pepper shakers of about half that size but of unlimited dimensions in a vague line drawing. A photo of one 1153-variation shows them with perforated metal caps at 3.5-inches tall in "Transparent Amethyst" like our vase, but with optic ribs instead of air-trapping. Despite the early line drawing, it is most likely that our vase was made in the late 1920s to early 1930s when Carder designed air-trap pieces with coarser glass particles and heavier crystal casing and applications. In the 1974-published book featuring only museum-quality glass works, Steuben: Seventy Years of American Glass Making, its pages 42-43 highlight a similar unmarked photographed Cluthra vase...

Golden mink jacket, c.1970s, featuring double-breasted styling and a leather sash belt that passes through the side seams to tie in front and leave the bac...

With an exotic black fishskin exterior this Made In France brimmed denim-lined fedora hat handcrafted by the acclaimed late French milliner Jacques Le Corre...

For his first collection for Yves Saint Laurent/Rive Gauche for Spring/Summer 2001, American Tom Ford debuted on the Paris runway this tuxedo-style black virgin-wool evening skirt su...