WE LOVE LEE!

Recently I was sitting back, having a chat with my girlfriends about our current muses and it seems that the one name on the tip of all our tongues was Lee Bontecou. Bontecou, a sculptor, was a Fulbright scholar in the fifties who showed her wares at the famed Leo Castelli gallery in New York in the sixties (whose walls incidentally were also hung with the likes of Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol). After a period of relative obscurity in the eighties and nineties, a retrospective held in 2003 at Los Angeles' Hammer Museum brought Bontecou's creations back into the left coast zeitgeist.

Inspired by Bontecou's early work, which consisted of welded steel, wire and fabric in geomteric patterns, I've chosen this Lanvin handbag as the handbag to carry for Fall. Crafted in a mud-colored thick textured leather, this handbag features lucite handles and steel hardware and is reminiscent of Bontecou's natural palate molded into futuristic shapes. Here's to Lee. And Lanvin! Priced at $1000. Please contact: thegang@decadestwo.com for further information or to purchase.

Lanvin Summer 2007 Cropped Trench Coat s38

Well, we can't get you Jeanne Lanvin's bedroom (though how freakin' chic is that?!? Our new favorite flower is cornflower blue, fo' sho'!) but we can still offer you something stylish from the Lanvin house instead. Like this white crinkled viscose/paper (that's right, mama--PAPER) A-line cut & cropped trench from the 2007 summer collection. New With Tags, Originally retailed for $2370 and in pristine condition! In a size 38 and priced at Decadestwo for $900. For further information or to purchase, please contact: thegang@decadestwo.com

Lanvin Winter 2004 Dress w Floral Details

We sometimes wonder if Tom Ford doesn't kick himself a teensy weensy bit for dismissing Alber Elbaz from the head design post at YSL, when the Gucci group bought the house in 1999. How can you just not love Alber? And let me just say for the record, I love a man in a ginormous purple bow-tie. Oh well, it's all worked out for Elbaz, the Israeli citizen from humble beginnings in North Africa, now that he's the head of fashion's oldest extant house, Lanvin. In fact, Elbaz appears on Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the WORLD in 2007. Probably for displaying the type of design genius that we see in this Winter 2004 draping masterpiece. Comprised of a black signature Elbaz silk charmeuse, this apron dress is crafted using one piece of fabric with one seam. Simplicity at its most elegant and refined. Accented with antiqued gemstones, floral silk details, raw edging and cream colored apron beneath the overlay, this dress is the living end of chic. In a size 36, New With Tags and originally retailed for $2120. A steal at d2 for $1000. For further information or to purchase, please contact: thegang@decadestwo.com

Lanvin Spring 2007 Jacket

We're not quite sure how we feel about this whole electro clash, post punk, too jaded for even the Chelsea hotel, everyone-slept-with-the-New York Dolls-and-watched-television-with Richard Hell retro-momento. First we'd like to know who to blame. So, if you have to sport the look--our real question is this. Why, oh, why, in the name of all things holy, would you go back to members only . . . . . . when you could sport this little Lanvin number? I mean really. If you're going to do the bomber meets windbreaker jacket, then this is CLEARLY the only acceptable one. Crafted with a tan silk, this Spring 2007 jacket also features a gemstone encrusted collar. Originally Retailed for $2750 and is available at D2 for $1200. For further information or to purchase, please contact: thegang@decadestwo.com

Lanvin Spring 2005 Pleated Silk Dress

Let's follow the history of the pleat, shall we? Come along on a trip through sound, time, and fabric. A Pleat: a type of fold formed by doubling fabric back on itself and the pressing the fold or securing the crease in place. Pleated garments have had a rich history--noted for their abilily to combine luxury with practicality for a pleated garment does not "crinkle" or ruin during travel.



At the turn of the contury, it was Mariano "Master Pleat" Fortuny who was the consumate pleater--reknowned for his diaphonous greco-roman inspired pleated gowns. Fortuny has served as the inspiration for many contemporary avant-garde contemporary designers who manufacture collections that promote technological fabric maniupaltions, most specifically Issey Miyake, who by 1999 had turned over all design responsibilities to Naoki Takizawa to focus entirely on research. In fact, Fortuny's pleating processes are still secret and not fully understood to this day (Below we have Mrs. Conde Nast in one of Fortuny's famous tea gowns). In the seventies and eighties, pleating was picked up by Mary McFadden, who used the travel-worthy pleating to win over her wealthy jet-setty clientele. McFadden updated Fortuny's luxurious pleated draping with quilting, macrame, grosgrain binding and metallic lame'. McFadden herself was one of the orginal 54 glammazons and we hear is engaged (for the 12th time--take that Elizabeth Taylor!)

No stranger to re-interpretation, below is Alber Elbaz's take on the pleat. From the Spring 2005 collection, this saucy black silk pleated number retains the integrity of Fortuny's neo-classical lines but is modernized with brass grommets, dusty rose satin ribbon rear closure, and signature Lanvin. In a size 38 and available for $1000. It's as if Ms. Conde Nast came back to life, want dancing at the disco, fell down the stairs, got up, grabbed a cocktail, took a walk through the old MOMA garden's with the Picasso sculptures, and kissed a movie star under the Water Lillies. Hey, stranger things . . .