"Thirties organzas and chiffons, postwar haute couture, Liza Minnelli's castoffs, and just plain old pretty things."
VOGUE’s news/features director, editor Sally Singer interviewed me in my San Francisco home for an article about TheFROCK.com that ran in their Dec. 2005 issue.
Text from the VOGUE article is below (my portrait is from the publication, other photos are current offerings from the website.)
WHEN CHRISTIAN MADRIGAL, an art student and paralegal in San Francisco, realized that his private collection of Victorian and Edwardian mourning dresses and capes (amassed for the purpose of a photographic project) had grown way, way out of hand, he set up a website to offload it." Other paralegals had boxes of documents in their offices", he says, "I had boxes of dresses".
Such was the stampede of electronic buyers that Madrigal found himself steering a major business in antique and vintage clothing. For five [twenty now] years, TheFrock.com has been a key site for anybody interested in browsing through and possibly buying Civil War capes, thirties organzas and chiffons, postwar haute couture, Liza Minnelli's castoffs, and just plain old pretty things.
Even though the top sellers on the site are cheery Lilli Ann suits, fifties prom dresses, heavily beaded sheaths from sixties Hong Kong, and anything reeking of Jean Harlow, Madrigal's heart is still with jet beaded, fin de siecle funereal ensembles, as befits a man who loves in a chocolate-and-aubergine apartment and often wears a Victorian cape to play Dark Wave music with his band, The Organism.
The unifying motif of Madrigal's collection is not archival importance or curatorial zeal, it's all about fabulous frocks that women have worn and loved for their beauty, unique details, and flattering silhouettes. He has an eye, simple as that, and one that is beholden neither to fashion trends (although lovers of the demure Fall 2005 fashionings of Rochas and Comme des Garcons should start clicking now), nor to camp and kitsch (just imagine La Minnelli's clothes look surprisingly wearable).
"But I also like a garment that's so elaborate it's confusing," he says,
"something that—in some way—alters the shape of the human form."
SALLY SINGER / VOGUE Magazine
Issue: Dec 2005
PHOTO 1: Hattie Carnegie 1940s beaded tulle ballgown (Sold)
PHOTO 2: 1930s satin and georgette gown (Available in our Antique section)
PHOTO 3: 1800s mourning ensemble (Photography project "Portraits from the Pit")
PHOTO 4: Junya Watanabe smocked dress (Available in our Late Vintage section)