In the canon of 20th century fashion photographers, Erwin Blumenfeld ranks at the top alongside contemporaries like Cecil Beaton. The German-born photographer's work is the subject of a new exhibit at Somerset House, "Blumenfield Studio: New York, 1941-1960," tracing the latter part of his career after he fled occupied Paris in 1941 for the Big Apple- and flourished shooting editorial,
...
Read more >
Following Levi's 140th Birthday on May 20th last week, we thought we'd share some denim delights from the archive for Beyond Retro's latest weekly edit.
There are few areas of vintage clothing that inspire such levels of intense enthusiasm and obsessive passion as denim. Add to this the legacy that supports Levi's as the original innovator of the riveted blue jean,
...
Read more >
Recently disembarked from the May edition of the thrice-yearly vintage wonderland known as Brimfield Antique Show, the Vintage Vault is busy unpacking a trove of treasures and editing hundreds of photos for the upcoming report...and swooning over the street shots we snapped amongst the fields cluttered with clothing, textiles, furniture and ephemera.
Three times a year designers, product developers, prop stylists, eccentric antique-lovers
...
Read more >
Costumes from Baz luhrmann's The Great Gatsby by Miuccia Prada & Catherine Martin, currently on display at Prada's Soho store in New York City.
In this new weekly blog series, London-based Vintage Archive Beyond Retro guest-curates a post on the Vintage Vault. For this inaugural post, Archive Manager Joseph O'Brien looks at The Great Gatsby influences sure to hit fashion in
...
Read more >
London's 2013 Tweed Run took place last weekend, and the author/editor of this blog was on hand to participate both as a race marshal and a photographer- from the back of a tandem . Described as "a metropolitan ride with a bit of style," the Tweed Run began in London in 2009 as a charitable event uniting cycling- and tweed-
...
Read more >
Lilly Pulitzer Advertisement, 1971
Much has been written about the socialite-cum-designer Lilly Pulitzer in the week since her passing on Sunday, 7 April 2013. About her unlikely foray into fashion that began with a juice stand in Palm Beach, Florida, circa 1959. About all the glamorous women she dressed throughout the 1960s and 70s, including a Kennedy or two. About her
...
Read more >
Emilio Pucci by Vanessa Friedman, Alessandra Arezzi Boza, and Armando Chitolina; Taschen 2013.
The unlimited edition of Vanessa Friedman's chef-d'oeuvre on Emilio Pucci, 20th century fashion's indisputable Prince of Prints, is coming soon from Taschen following the 2011 release of the limited Vintage art edition . Anecdotes from the Italian royal's personal life feature throughout alongside his enduring design legacy, which began
...
Read more >
Day dress by Madeleine Vionnet, 3 February 1931, Photo © Archives de Paris, DU12U10 642
For anyone who has studied 30s-era couture, the lookbook-esque photos that feature in the Musée Galliera's latest* hors-des-murs exhibition will seem familiar; the actual reasoning behind them, perhaps not. 1931: Face-Dos-Profil, hosted at the Crédit Municipal de Paris in the heart of the Marais, features a selection
...
Read more >
The Museum of the City of New York recently unveiled its latest exhibition, “When Fashion Danced,” an homage to designer Stephen Burrows and his colorful, exuberant fashions that perfectly captured the Studio 54 zeitgeist of 70s New York.
Featuring original sketches, photographs, video and over 50 garments, the exhibit ranges from his first fashion line to the groundbreaking designs that defined
...
Read more >
Exhibition view of Paris Haute Couture at the city's Hôtel de Ville, curated by Olivier Saillard/Musée Galliera. Photo via Dazed Digital.
The Musée Galliera's maverick director, Olivier Saillard, has spun yet another historical thread of fashion magic into a show-stopping exhibition with his latest and greatest: Paris Haute Couture, both a study in high craft and an exaltation of the masters
...
Read more >
