Lace & Coco Chanel

Coco Chanel by Horst

Chanel black lace, via Conde Nast store

"I consider lace to be one of the prettiest imitations ever made of the fantasy of nature; lace always evokes for me those incomparable designs which the branches and leaves of trees embroider across the sky, and I do not think that any invention of the human spirit could have a more graceful or precise origin."
Coco Chanel, April 29, 1939

We found this lovely quote from Coco Chanel, and wanted to share it with you. We figure that if you love luxury lingerie, odds are you appreciate the beauty of fine lace. Also, we simply love Coco Chanel and her influence in fashion as we know it!

Lace Lessons

model Louise Pedersen

When we mention brands like Carine Gilson and ID Sarrieri, usually it follows with a description of a product that has handmade lace or lace that is hand-stitched. It wasn't until recently, with the prompting of one of our very good customers, that we began to wonder exactly what goes into creating a 'handmade lace' as opposed to the lace we see on less expensive products that are mass produced (say, for instance, the lace we see at one of those chain lingerie stores in the mall). Is lace actually handmade?
We know that Chantilly lace (or any handmade lace) makes a product considerably more costly to produce and sell, and we figure it must be a labor-intensive process to create it, but we wanted to learn the nitty gritty details of the process.

After doing a bit of research (and coming across too many listings about the Big Bopper hit of the same name), we found some interesting details. For instance, 80% of the lace used for fine lingerie is likely made in the French town of Calais or Caudry. In Calais, there are about 700 looms employing 3,000 workers. The two town's lace factories export about 3/4 of their output to 140 countries (Source: www.theotherside.co.uk).

courtesy of www.thelacemuseum.org

Rather than just re-post what's already been written, we suggest that you check out the following sites for some incredible information about the history of lace, and the art of making lace by hand:
http://www.slowtrav.com/france/notes/mellen_lace.htm
http://www.theotherside.co.uk/tm-heritage/background/lace.htm#louis14

Because handmade lace is produced with infinite care and a great amount of time, it will always be expensive. Brands such as Carine Gilson create exclusive lace patterns for their products, which makes the lingerie that much more valuable. There are many different grades of these laces that vary in value according to the fineness of their structure. This variance provides a variety of price ranges to chose from when buying a product with lace detailing, and therefore explains why one lace-trim bra can cost $300 and another can be $90. example of Carine Gilson's lace; all of which is handmade and hand-stitched

Vannina Vesperini - she's back!

We couldn't have been happier when we received the news that Vannina Vesperini was back in business...and she's just as wonderful as ever! We met with Vannina and her assistant Sabrina in a gorgeous apartment/studio in Paris not too far from the Champs-Elysees, which made our travels well worth it! We had a stunning model (who kind of looked like the designer) present the collection to us, while all of us sat back on plush suede sofas and sipped warm tea served in antique cups and nibbled on pound cake...
Though we have promised to keep the details of her new collection confidential, we can share that the new pieces are high-fashion luxury, with a variety of robes and gowns that are to die for! The collection will arrive at our boutique in July, and we can't wait.
Vannina has chosen to keep her distribution to a select few boutiques around the world, so we are proud to be in the mix.
We did notice that some of the pieces are inspired by some of Vannina's more 'classic' styles from her previous designs, but with new colors and patterns. Typically we tend to shy away from purchasing items with prints/patterns, but her choices were subtle and sweet, and are sure to wow our customers. What's new to her designs are her removable logo pearl-encrusted brooches that make great accessories for some of her gowns.
Welcome back Vannina!
(NOTE: photo shown is from an older collection).