safari jacket

Summary

Black cotton safari jacket; belted, shirt-waister style with 2 pairs of flapped buttoning pockets; single breasted; unlined; labelled 'Saint Laurent rive gauche, Paris'. Unsold as lot 199 in Christie's Fashion thru the ages sale, 3.12.09. Belonged to Anne Moen Bullitt (1924-2007). Born in Paris but brought up in the States, she married 4 times. At first she bought clothes in New York, mostly from Hattie Carnegie, but her second husband, Nicholas Duke Biddle, who she married in 1947, was vice consul in the American Embassy in Madrid, giving Anne access to Balenciaga couture clothes with the Spanish name 'Eisa' operating in tandem with the Paris house. She later moved to Ireland and bought clothes by Sybil Connelly, Lanvin, YSL and others. Anne Bullitt was tiny, with an 18-20 inch waist, making her clothes virtually unwearable for anyone else. Norman Norell (1900-72 worked first for Hattie Carnegie, then for Traina, creating his own firm in 1960.