Whether the image of a woman resplendent in a kaftan conjures up Vreeland herself, reclining in her red sitting room, Elizabeth Taylor decked out in her brocade versions complete with jewels, Kate Moss cruising up the gangplank to Club 55 in Saint Tropez for lunch, Talitha Getty, beautiful on a Moroccan rooftop or even Auntie Mame, there is an air of nonchalance and spirit of eccentricity inherent in this way of dressing that we adore. It suggests a love of adventure, a fuss free approach that leaves plenty of room for good times and a relaxed sort of fabulousness you just can’t bottle. Kaftan wearers are invariably the most fun women at the party – most likely, equal parts glamorous and eccentric. They also look fantastic. Dripping in print or embroidery, clad in wonderful colour, swathed in luxurious fabrics – and then paired with some simple flats – this is a look that never dates and never ceases to make the best sort of statement.

In our designs at KOTUR, the idea is always to deliver just this sort of glamour.  It’s the kind that wears as well with jeans as it does with cocktail dresses, that takes you somewhere in your imagination, somewhere exotic and indulgent, without ever seeming forced. Gyspet style speaks to the kaftan wearer in all of us. Look to our designs, and you’ll see that they do, too.

Click through our gallery above to see some of our very favorite examples of wonderful kaftan wearers. Brilliantly bohemian, inordinately glamorous and effortlessly fabulous, these are women dressing with just a little bit of decadence, and we love them for it. Because too much of a good thing really can be wonderful.

Photo Courtesy:

1. Talitha Getty, Patrick Lichfield, Vogue, January 15, 1970
2. Elizabeth Taylor, That’s Entertainment (1974)
3. Diana Vreeland, photo by Horst p Horst in her ‘Garden from Hell’ 1979
4. Rosalind Russell in the role of Auntie Mame (1958)
5. Donna Marella Agnelli, photo by Horst P. Horst featured in Horst Interiors by Barbara Plumb, 1993
6. Catherline Deneuve, Vogue, 1966
7. Lee Radziwill in an Ottoman style Kaftan, Cecil Beaton
8. Grace Kelly, Getty Images
9.  Diane Von Fuerstenberg, 1970s
10. Marisa Berenson in gold caftan by Tina Leser with rings by Gripoix, Photo by Henry Clarke 1968
11. Ashley Oslen in vintage caftan by Neilson Barnard/ Getty Images
12. Kate Moss cruising up the gangplank to Club 55 in Saint Tropez by fameflynet.uk.com
13.  Margherita Missoni by Vittorio Zunino Celotto
14. Jerry Hall, 1975
15. Nicole Richie by Jeffrey Mayer
16.  Sheikha Mozah of Qatar in Chanel Spring 2011 Haute Couture

Mia Farrow and Lee Radziwill at Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball  Held at the Plaza in 1966 to celebrate the success of his novel ‘In Cold Blood,’ Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball was arguably one of the most glamorous parties New York had ever seen. 500 of the city’s most beautiful were carefully picked by the author to attend, and all had to adhere to his strict black and white dress code. What that made for were some stunning outfits – not least Mia Farrow on the arm of Frank Sinatra in a simple white babydoll mini, long white gloves and feline mask and Lee Radziwill, resplendent in a full length embroidered kaftan style gown. See them in our gallery above.

Audrey Hepburn wears Paco Rabanne in Two for the Road  In 1967′s Two for the Road, Hepburn got hip in several signature 1960′s designers. Most knockout look, however, was probably that of Paco Rabanne’s signature metal paillette dress. A swinging sixties look that we’d be happy to emulate, any day.

Bianca Jagger at her Studio 54 Birthday Party, 1977  As party entrances go, Bianca Jagger riding into her 30th birthday party at Studio 54 atop a white horse is up there with the most dazzling of them. Dressed in fire engine red Halston, her outfit epitomised that oh so seventies glamour of the day.

Supermodels in Alaia  Alaia is the man many a model has gone to for their party dress for decades (just ask Naomi Campbell.) And here, shot for the pages of French Elle in 1990 by Gilles Bensimon, it’s easy to see why. As worn by a host of supermodels including Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington, here was the 1990′s most iconic party look: bodycon by way of Alaia.

Kate Moss’s 30th Birthday Party Look: At her F Scott Fitzgerald inspired, ‘The Beautiful and The Damned’ themed birthday party held at London’s Claridges hotel, Moss wowed in a vintage, midnight blue sequinned gown. Elegant, decadent, Art Deco inspired and incredibly chic.

Whilst 1040 Fifth Avenue might not have been anything like as large as the living quarters she had been afforded in the White House, visitors to it noted the same design touches, it’s old world feel, and it’s lack of pretension and it’s cosiness. During Sotheby’s famous sale of it’s contents in 1996, the world was granted a glimpse inside its doors. And, as Carolina Herrera once said of it in an interview in Vanity Fair, “”It was an apartment of someone who comes from an old family. Not a showplace full of marble like the homes of all these new people. It was her taste.”

That taste preferred the personal over the grand. A fan of print and colour, Jackie liked to head to a firm called Design Works for her prints in the early 1970′s. Red and gold drapes coloured the dining room, whilst chintzes covered the sofas, and bold, graphic prints were found on tablecloths.  A fan of chinoiserie, she decorated with laquer cabinets, blue and white chinoiserie lamps and even had a screen festooned in cherry blossom. There was an easel she liked to draw at in the living room, books scattered throughout the apartment, pictures of horses and dogs on the walls and the same kitchen existed virtually unchanged for the thirty odd years she lived there. 1040 5th Avenue was a home – not a style statement. Much like with her approach to fashion, it was the result of an uncompromising approach to her very own and very personal aesthetic – and no one else’s.  Click through our gallery above for pictures of it here.

Pictures:

Painting by Aaron Shikler of Jackie Kennedy with John and Caroline in the Living room at 1040 Fifth Avenue

The entrance to 1040 Fifth Avenue

Jackie, John and Caroline outside 1040 Fifth Avenue

Ron Gallela’s shot of Jackie outside her apartment

Interiors pictures from the Sotheby’s sale of the apartment contents, 1996

And so we launch our new blog series, Dames in their Drawing Rooms, kicking off with Lee Radziwill, a bastion of chic, sister of Jackie Onassis, and all round style icon in the real sense of the word. Lee Radziwill has had homes all over the world – from London to Paris, via New York. She’s been friends with Capote and Warhol, a doyenne of society in London and New York, she travelled with the Rolling Stones, had an affair with Peter Beard, known Nureyev and published a book of her happy memories – and she’s done it all looking immaculate. Today, as featured in T magazine, her Paris apartment speaks volumes about her style. Classic elements, splashes of colour, an understated, unstudied sort of chic all come together with an elegance that’s unmistakeable and subtle – just the sort of kind you’d want.

Go back a few years, and you’ll find those style signatures there, too. They’re in her infamous ‘Turkish Room,’ the Renzo Mongiardino designed drawing room of her 1960′s London home that was festooned in Indian block printed fabric, they’re in her New York city library, an ode to La Manach in ceiling to floor print, and they’re in her Avenue Montaigne overlooking Paris abode, too. Colour, print, nick nacks and treasures – all have their place in these pictures.  Click through our gallery to see the drawing rooms of one amazing Dame.

Pictures: 1-4, Lee Radziwill’s Paris apartment shot by Francois Halard for T Magazine 2013. Pictures 5,6, Lee Radziwill’s New York apartment shot by Eric Bowman April 09 Elle Decor, Picture 7, Lee in her Turkish Room, London, Image: Happy Times, Cecil Beaton,