Caftan Confab

Vintage couture expert Cameron Silver talks about his latest oeuvre, "Caftans: From Classical to Camp"

Also in this issue:

• A personal look back on Joe Biden’s first presidential run in 1988

• A swift look at the Gwyneth Paltrow-Derek Blasberg hullabaloo

• Another look at the Chanel ado

Nieves Álvarez in a midnight-blue satin-crepe djellaba ornamented with golden metal and lapis lazuli, by Stéphane Rolland, 2021. In Caftans: From Classical to Camp.

Cameron Silver is the Grand Poobah of Vintage Fashion. He is the founder and owner of Decades, a top pre-loved couture boutique in West Hollywood, which opened in 1997 and has dressed actresses for iconic red carpet moments, like Chloë Sevigny in vintage Holly Harp at Vanity Fair party in 2002 and Diane Lane in vintage Azzaro at the Oscars in 2004. We spoke about the sustainable advantage to buying pre-loved fashion on my podcast The Green Dream in 2022. You can listen to it here, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Diane Lane in vintage Azzaro from Decades at the 2004 Oscars.

He’s the author of Decades: A Century in Fashion, a gorgeous coffee table book published in 2012 by Bloomsbury that traces fashion like Vogue World tried to do in its fashion show last month.

He served as fashion director of the legendary American brand Halston, and appeared for years on QVC to sell the company’s accessible line, H by Halston.

He mounts pop-ups and trunk shows all over the United States for Decades, as well as other brands. From July 17 to August 15, he’ll be presenting Balmain’s High Summer and Pre-Fall collections at Shelter Island’s historic seaside hotel, The Pridwin.

And now he has put out a new book, Caftans: From Classical to Camp, published by Vendome Press, the first I’m spotlighting in my Summer Style Reads series.

Caftans: From Classical to Camp is a 360-degree look at this historic clothing item, which Silver notes is “the original gender-fluid garment” and “the great equalizer.”

I spoke with Cameron at the book’s Paris launch last month at Librairie Galignani, a beautiful shop that’s been located at 224 rue de Rivoli since 1856. Excerpts:

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