JUST IN TIME FOR GOOD FRIDAY

Another wonderful Pierre Balmain Haute Couture shift dress arrived, but this time with a coordinating coat in a wonderful woven "wave" pattern of light baby blue silk with hints of white. This is truly a very unique fabric that I wish you all could feel to realize how special it is. Alas you must come visit me in person to get the full Decades experience, but trust me that this is a truly a wonderful addition to your wardrobe as it's totally Lady-like but not Old Lady-like! If you need something for Good Friday, we will be open and ready to dress you! It's been a great week for the Stock Market and maybe you are getting a tax refund, too - so treat yourself!
-Cameron



Pierre Balmain Haute Couture shift dress and matching coat of woven "wave" pattern baby blue and white silk, c. 1960s. Modern size 6 SOLD
For additional information, please email blog@decadesinc.com or call + 1 323 655-0223. You may also visit us in person at Decades 8214 1/2 Melrose Avenue (2nd Floor) at Harper Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Please reference the description above, if calling or emailing. For email requests, kindly include your full name and phone number plus City, State, and Country from which you are contacting so we may offer you exceptional personal service.

JUST IN TIME FOR EASTER

This Sunday, I will be attending a Greek Orthodox Easter. This is after attending two Jewish Reform Passover Seders. This is proving a challenging week to eat healthy between the macaroons and solid chocolate eggs. There are sartorial challenges for many, too. If going to an Easter service followed by a hunt, it is smart to look appropriate for church, yet sporty for brunch and the requisite hunt. Pierre Balmain Haute Couture to the rescue! The baby blue silk shift dress is straight out of the Jackie O mid-1960s style book. The matching cropped jacket covers you as needed. The jacket would also look terribly chic with a pair of white Capri pants and sandals. As for the dress, I feel a princess heel moment happening...avoid the spikes that will sink into a perfect green lawn only to ruin your heels and the grass, too!



Pierre Balmain Haute Couture baby blue silk shirt dress and jacket, c. 1960s. Modern size 6. Flawless/unworn.SOLD
For additional information, please email blog@decadesinc.com or call + 1 323 655-0223. You may also visit us in person at Decades 8214 1/2 Melrose Avenue (2nd Floor) at Harper Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Please reference the description above, if calling or emailing. For email requests, kindly include your full name and phone number plus City, State, and Country from which you are contacting so we may offer you exceptional personal service.

JUNE BRIDE ALERT!

People ask us if we are busy with Award Season at this time of the year and yes stylists and celebs are coming to the store to look at gowns, but we are also really busy with cool brides! This may be one of my favorite cool bride gowns: a Pierre Balmain Haute Couture strapless embroidered bandeau column gown with amazing draped jersey panels that emerge from the back and connect smoothly at the front to create a dramatic cascade that may make you dream of Jeannie. The embroidery features various shades of pearls in white, grey, and blue steel (catch the unfortunate "Zoolander" reference?). I would love to see this worn by a bride barefoot on the beach!
-Cameron

Pierre Balmain Haute Couture white jersey cascade gown with pearl bandeau, c. 1970s. Modern size 4 to small 6 SOLD

For additional information, please email blog@decadesinc.com or call + 1 323 655-0223. You may also visit us in person at Decades 8214 1/2 Melrose Avenue (2nd Floor) at Harper Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Please reference the description above, if calling or emailing. For email requests, kindly include your full name and phone number plus City, State, and Country from which you are contacting, so may offer you a high level of personal service.

CAUSE TO CELEBRATE!

What do you follow up a vintage pink Jean Desses draped chiffon evening gown to the after party of your film's premiere at Radio City Music Hall? Follow Kristin Davis and bring on the vintage! For the SATC 2 after party, Kristin changed from her Desses to a Pierre Balmain fitted dress composed of hand-painted tortoise print paillettes. She wore the Marilyn-esque dress with Fred Leighton drop earrings, a Judith Leiber clutch, and custom Rene Caovilla strappy platforms. Next stop: London!

ONE MORE LESAGE ENHANCED BALMAIN

Everyone has seemed very enchanted with our collection of late 1960s Pierre Balmain Haute Couture evening gowns with outstanding Lesage embroidery. Just two weeks ago, Kristin Davis effortlessly wore a white column Balmain to the White House Correspondent's Dinner and the Balmain requests for similar dresses came fluttering in to Decades. This is our last from the single owner collection of vintage Balmain gowns and it is a spectacular scoop neck and back short sleeve gown with a pink silk waist band and maxi amethyst raw silk skirt. The top portion is intricately enhanced by the master French embroiderer, Lesage. It's a wonderful example of French Haute Couture from the late 1960s and the color combined with the embroidery makes this a particularly special knockout of a gown!

Pierre Balmain Haute Couture Lesage embroidered gown with bright pink self-bet and raw silk amethyst A-line skirt, c. 1968. Modern size 0! And we do mean ZERO

For additional information, please email blog@decadesinc.com or call + 1 323 655-0223. You may also visit us in person at Decades 8214 1/2 Melrose Avenue (2nd Floor) at Harper Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Please reference the description above, if calling or emailing. For email requests, kindly include your full name and phone number plus City, State, and Country from which you are contacting, so may offer you a high level of personal service.

WHITE HOUSE PERFECTION

From our House to the White House: Kristin Davis is the epitome of elegance in vintage Pierre Balmain Haute Couture from Decades Inc. at the annual White House Correspondent's Dinner. This is a gown Jacklyn Kennedy would have worn in the 1960s and Kristin evokes one of the great icons of the 20th Century.

We can't wait to see what she wears Monday night at the MET Costume Institute Gala!

PIERRE BALMAIN HAUTE COUTURE

This gown is more or less a guarantee to get you on the Best Dressed List at Monday Night's Party of the Year gala benefiting the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Pierre Balmain Haute Couture designs a home run of a strapless bodice sheath gown composed of a pink satin band with a bow attached to a scrumptious dress of gold and silver metallic lace embroidered with pearl, metallic ribbon, and satin forming floral shapes. The gown has a corset so when your hands raise your dress won't fall to your ankles. It's nothing short of a triumph of French Haute Couture in a perfectly modern silhouette. Our Balmain Haute Couture always sells so fast, so grab this this quickly!

Pierre Balmain Haute Couture exceptional embroidered pink strapless gown, c. late 1950s. Modern size 6 to small 8 SOLD

For additional information, please email blog@decadesinc.com or call + 1 323 655-0223. You may also visit us in person at Decades 8214 1/2 Melrose Avenue (2nd Floor) at Harper Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Please reference the description above, if calling or emailing. For email requests, kindly include your full name and phone number plus City, State, and Country from which you are contacting, so may offer you a high level of personal service.

JU-JU-BEES FOR BREAKFAST

Candy may spike your insulin and screw up your fashion figure, but Ju-Ju-Bees make the most divine color inspiration for this late 1960s Pierre Balmain Haute Couture evening gown with a Ju-Ju-licious buffet of Lesage multi color embroidery on a sexy halter connecting to a Thai silk maxi skirt of luck-of-the-Irish green! The simplicity and clean lines of this dress takes the decadence of hand-embroidery and streamlines the perceived excess into a great modern silhouette that looks really fresh when everyone else around you looks like a frothy wedding cake, so you will be the belle of the ball! People have really responded to our late 60s Balmain embroidered gowns so we are thrilled that they are finding such fabulous homes.

Pierre Balmain Haute Couture Lesage embroidered halter green with green Thai silk maxi skirt, c. late 1960s. Modern 0 to 2. SOLD

For additional information, please email blog@decadesinc.com or call + 1 323 655-0223. You may also visit us in person at Decades 8214 1/2 Melrose Avenue (2nd Floor) at Harper Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Please reference the description above, if calling or emailing. For email requests, kindly include your full name and phone number plus City, State, and Country from which you are contacting, so may offer you a high level of personal service.

NOW THAT'S WHAT WE CALL EMBROIDERY

Today, the House of Balmain has a way with embroidery and Swarovski crystals in a very rock 'n roll and military-themed aesthetic that has won the hearts and pocketbooks of flashy fashion fanatics. But embroidery and Pierre Balmain go way back, including his popular 50s ball gowns and wedding dresses that were very Dior-esque, and ultimately in the 1960s, Monsieur Balmain found bright colors, minimalist silhouettes, and intricate Lesage embroidery to create a very signature look that was a French Haute Couture version of First Lady Jackie Kennedy's signature wardrobe. Although we sold the white A-line column gazar gown a few weeks ago, we have a few more precious Balmain gowns from the late 60s to share and this apricot layered chiffon skirted gown has an elaborate top of hand embroidery in colors ranging from brown (in the shape of wood beads), peach, white, lilac and diamond crystals. The textures and color combinations are intoxicating and the fluidity of the skirt juxtaposed with the ornate top creates a striking balance of modernity and the highest levels of artisan fabric and fashion techniques.

Pierre Balmain Haute Couture apricot chiffon and Lesage embroidered evening gown. c. late 1960s. Modern size 2 SOLD

For additional information, please email blog@decadesinc.com or call + 1 323 655-0223. You may also visit us in person at Decades 8214 1/2 Melrose Avenue (2nd Floor) at Harper Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Please reference the description above, if calling or emailing. For email requests, kindly include your full name and phone number plus City, State, and Country from which you are contacting, so may offer you a high level of personal service.

SHE'S ARRIVED

Our Wolff size zero dressmaker form has finally arrived and we are elated and scared at the same time. Elated that we have something to showcase our tiniest dresses on and scared that it's humanely possible to have a waist that small! Anyway, vintage tends to be elite petite and this incredible Lesage embroidered Pierre Balmain Haute Couture evening gown is proof in the pudding (but certainly anyone size zero skips the pudding course!). A simple A-line silhouette, this nearly 40 year old gown is an example of streamlined modernity that looks very fresh against today's current red carpet fashions of dramatic goddess draping. The top is a spectacular example of Lesage embroidery and our detailed photo shows the unusual materials used to compose the elaborate pattern of pearls, white beads, and cork colored leather. Although this dress would be divine on a bride, we don't think it is exclusive to the marrying kind, but perfect for any woman wishing to make a grand entrance. The skirt of thick silk faille appears to float as you walk and that adds to its appeal and entrance making quality. We have a few more gowns from this era of Balmain to post in the next days.

Pierre Balmain Haute Couture Lesage embroidered and white silk faille A-line evening gown, c. 1969. Modern size 2 SOLD
For additional information, please email blog@decadesinc.com or call + 1 323 655-0223. You may also visit us in person at Decades 8214 1/2 Melrose Avenue (2nd Floor) at Harper Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Please reference the description above, if calling or emailing. For email requests, kindly include your full name and phone number plus City, State, and Country from which you are contacting, so may offer you a high level of personal service.

MINT

The guest at a party with a tin of Altoids is often the most popular attendee as a) the guest likely has fresh mint breath; and b) the guest likely insures other guests have fresh mint breath, too. Now we can't positively state that the guest in a vintage Pierre Balmain Haute Couture mint colored evening dress will be the most popular guest at a party, but throw in a tin of Altoids with this late 60s exhilarating-hued dress and we say the site of that guest in this dress can freshen even the breath of an over-indulged-h'ors d'oeuvres-guest-with-too-much-garlic-and deadly-breath party animal!

Back to the dress: the silk crepe rounded-tank style dress is trimmed in Lesage embroidery and features a simple coordinating slim sash belt. The skirt has two layers and the back scoops just low enough to be sexy without being too revealing. Some thoughts on cocktail dresses in unexpected colors and trims: they are good to own especially when there's a blizzard and you have to go to a formal event. If the streets are full of snow, don't wear a full length gown. Wear this dress with tights and Uggs....but don't wear the Uggs into the party, rather throw them off in the car en route and switch to your Louboutins (it will be our secret!). Now when the weather isn't frightful and it's spring or summer, this dress will look divine with a bare leg and some strappy Choos or Atwoods.

We have several additional Balmain Haute Couture concoctions to post including full length gowns with elaborate Lesage embroidery, but we have to buy a new form to photograph them on as they are true twos and our mannequin is a four. They will post soon...we promise!

Pierre Balmain Haute Couture mint layered skirt silk crepe cocktail dress with Lesage trim, c. late 1960s. Modern 4 to 6 SOLD
For additional information, please email blog@decadesinc.com or call + 1 323 655-0223. You may also visit us in person at Decades 8214 1/2 Melrose Avenue (2nd Floor) at Harper Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Please reference the description above, if calling or emailing. For email requests, kindly include your full name and phone number plus City, State, and Country from which you are contacting, so may offer you a high level of personal service.