HAUTE COUTURE

Mouna Ayoub in Chanel

As I mentioned a few posts back… Eleanor Lambert was spending her summer away from New York and when she got to Paris, she met up with her friend Mouna Ayoub. They attended the haute couture shows that summer – which was the summer of 1995.

I remember Mouna proclaiming her love of Chanel during one of her visits to New York. In fact, Mouna Ayoub has owned the largest private collection of haute couture in the world since the 1980s. Her incredible collection is composed of more than 10,000 items, which she continues to add to each season.

I remember Miss Lambert checking in with the office from Paris at the end of couture week and telling us that Mouna bought every single piece from the Chanel couture show that season!

After the couture, Miss Lambert was off… she did not have time to hang around Paris for long, it was only July and she had a busy summer ahead…

COUTURE!

YSL Couture, July 1995

YSL archives

I thought this image was so incredible... that it could completely stand alone.

Miss Lambert was in Paris to attend the Couture shows taking place in July.

More to come on the Paris Couture... including Miss Lambert's new friend who joined her in Paris...

THEY CAME FROM INDIANA... PART 2 BLASS

Bill Blass

Cover Girl Ad featuring Bill Blass, early 1970s

Marissa Berenson in Bill Blass 1966, Vogue

Bill Blass and model, Vogue, early 1960s

Bill Blass was also from Indiana… making his way to New York from Fort Wayne.

Bill Blass was known for his tailoring and his innovative combinations of fabric texures and patterns. He is the recipient of many fashion awards, including seven Coty Awards and the Fashion Institute of Technology’s (FIT) Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.

Blass began his New York career in 1946 working for Baron de Gunzburg, who was a client of Eleanor Lambert. It was not too long before Miss Lambert added Bill Blass to her roster of clients and was promoting his work. At the beginning of his career he was an in-house designer working for clothing manufacturers. He eventually bought Maurice Rentner which he had joined in 1959, and renamed it Bill Blass Limited. Over the next 30 years he expanded his line to include swimwear, furs, luggage, perfume, and chocolate.

The thing I personally remember was how impressive a Bill Blass fashion show was. The Bill Blass shows I attended were in the tents in Bryant Park and I will never forget the crowd... editors and ALL the society ladies arriving - one after the other - creating complete towncar gridlock outside the tents and the presentations themselves being incredible season after season.

"Bill Blass took American sportswear to its highest level…giving it a clean modern, impeccable style… He, probably more than any designer knew his customer and understood her.”

- Ellin Saltzman, The New York Times