Two guys…many hats. Not in any particular order: Curators, jewelers, design alchemists, francophiles, animal lovers, design geeks, dinosaurs, optimists, treasure hunters, fashion archaeologists, vintage repurposers, collectors, couture raiders, marchand-collectionneurs, shopaholics, hoarders, historians, designers and Chanelogists.
Leslie spent his formative years under a design umbrella with a father who was engineer and a mother who was an architect working for Phillip Johnson. After graduating F.I.T. for fashion design he spent a good part of the 80’s working in Europe and N.Y. designing clothes for various fashion houses such as Dorothee Bis (Paris), Fiorucci (Milano) and Geoffrey Beene (NY). Years later, suffering from travel and fashion burnout, he returned to NY to chill and started his own line of assemblage jewelry made from antique parts collected in his travels . Although he had no formal training, this collection was housed and sold for many years in the glass horseshoe cases of the original Barneys on 17 st.
His passion for collecting evolved from shopping the fleas in Paris, Milan and London for Elio Fiorucci, fueling his burgeoning interests in antiques. In New York soon after, he completed his degree in Appraisal Studies at NYU and became involved with antiques, vintage couture and jewelry design on a full time basis.
Mark has been an important collector and dealer in haute couture for many years. He has been listed in Architectural Digest’s Annual list of the world’s 100 most important dealers. With a masters degree in art history, he originally worked as a private museum consultant. Early on when he was writing museum grants, a chance meeting with fashion muse and couture collector Tina Chow changed his direction. Under her tutelage his collecting became honed and focused… Chanel, Schiaparelli, Vionnet, Callot, Poiret, Worth all became part his language.
He became a “Marchand-Collectionneur” specializing in Mariano Fortuny and rarities from the finest Parisian houses from the heyday of the haute couture (1890s to the present).
Known for finding the unfindable, today the worlds most important museums and collectors are supplied with extraordinary period fashion artifacts for their collections and upcoming exhibitions. His personal collection of rarefied pristine pieces are chronicled in many well known books including “The Couture Accessory” etc.
Many of the most extraordinary dresses and accessories which have been on loan from our private collections have been exhibited at such important shows such as: Fortuny (the Kyoto Costume Institute, “Japonisme” (KCI, Kyoto, Japan),”Wild” 2004 (MMA, NY), “Napolean (MMA,NY) “Goddess” (Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY 2002), “Adrian, American Glamour” (MMA 2002), “Blithe Spirit” (MMA 2009), “Surrealism” (2 separate shows)(the Nassau County Museum of Art, NY), “Valentina ” (the Museum of the City of NY 2009), “Chanel” (MMA 2009), ” Poiret” (MMA 2009), “American Woman” (MMA 2010), “Schiaparelli”( Philadelphia Museum of Art and Musee de la Mode, (Louvre Paris 2009), “Surreal Things” ( The Victoria Albert Museum, UK and Bilbao, Spain, “The Couture Accessory” (Fashion Institute of Technology, NY), “Gothic: Dark Glamour” (Fashion Institute of Technology, NY, 2008) , “American Woman” (MMA 2010) , “Chanel Culture” 2011 in both Shanghai and Beijing, ” Fortuny Y Madrazos” (Queen Sofia Institute NY, 2012), “Yves Saint Laurent 1971, The Scandal Collection” (Fondation PB-YSL, Paris 2015), The Rachel Lambert Mellon Collection of Jean Schlumberger (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2017), “Defying Labels: New Roles, New Clothes” (Lyndhurst. Tarrytown New York, 2017), “Is Fashion Modern?” (Museum of Modern Art, NYC, 2017), “Dali and Schiaparelli: In Daring Fashion” (The Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Fla. 2017), “Radiant Masterworks by Jean Schlumberger” Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida (as well as many other exhibitions throughout the world.
In 1998, Mark was hired as a liason to Kensington Palace to act as a representative for the Queen at the Duke and Duchess of Windsor Sale at Sothebys. Unfortunately the Italian menswear house of Brioni outbid him ($27,600.00) for the Duke’s Scholte morning suit worn to his famed wedding to Wallis Simpson, which was embroidered within “H.M. The King, 25.1.36”. In the 1990s he also helped to create Giorgio Armani’s accessories archive in Milan, furnishing with the design studio with thousands of period accessories from the early 20th century.
Mark and Leslie have also been frequent guests in the client banks of the Haute Couture shows in Paris, twice a year for over a decade. They have represented and been advisors to new clients, museums and collectors purchasing contemporary Haute Couture and accessories. They travel many times a year to search out the impossibly rare and thus are fortunate enough to recharge their inspirational batteries for other design endeavors balancing projects in design, decor , jewelry and fashion. Having averaged over 100 trips buying trips over the last decade to locales in Europe, Asia, South America amongst others, they are always in search of the rare, unusual and iconic. Items such as the rare figural Schiaparelli suit in London, the James Arpad shoe and the unknown button maker in Paris, the iconic Mainbocher in Palm Beach, the embroidered tulle Vionnet in Cuba or the collection of Gallengas languishing in Florence…
MWLC Designs:
In addition to being collectors and fashion curators we are also known for our signature jewelry collection: Mark Walsh Leslie Chin.
“We appreciate the quality and tradition of handcrafted jewelry which inspires our collections and ultimately led us to seek out the studios in Europe with whom we work. Our concepts and ideas are culled from our knowledge of fashion history which are then modernized and repurposed for today. Our love of all things antique and beautiful colors our work.”
“In the past our jewelry studio has furnished all the major couture houses of Europe with extraordinary jewels over the course of the last century to this present day. Much like “les Petits Mains” in Paris, we have sought to offer refuge and a quiet moment to these craftsmen who have apprenticed and “stage” grown with these Couture houses from their teen years onward, honing their craft through experience and dedication.”
“In this shrinking and incredibly adrenaline driven global fashion market these unsung geniuses hold the key to a quality long forgotten and cast aside. Our purpose is to keep them alive through our work.”
“We have been fortunate enough to be able to produce the MWLC collections as well as to collaborate with some of the most important talent working in industry today. We have collaborated and designed jewelry for houses such as Jason Wu, Rodarte, Jill Stuart, Tory Burch, Gilles Mendel, Tibi, as well as Lulu Guiness in the UK.”
MWLC stockists have included Browns of London, Bergdorf Goodman (“Collecting with MWLC” Boutique), Linda Dresner, Saks, Joyce of Hong Kong, Harvey Nichols, Optitude JP, Takashimaya JP, Barneys JP, Opening Ceremony, NY, LA, JP and Colette, Paris.
MWLC’s contemporary designs and vintage fashion pieces have also been sourced in video, film and print for many years. Sex and the City for many years has featured our pieces over the course of the television series and the subsequent SATC films. Click here to visit our Press pages.
Services: The Vintage Luxury studio also serves as a sourcing and design lab servicing all the top design houses in the world. Design teams come to explore the unusual and inspirational every season. In addition we collaborate with clients for idea and product development.
“We hope the Vintage Luxury site will serve as an destination address for all things ” Vintage” whether curated by us or designed by us. This will all be served up in the spirit of fun and/or extreme seriousness. We dont take ourselves terribly seriously and hope no one will be offended 😉 by our occasional snarky commentary.”
“Hopefully, the ultimate purpose of visiting is to explore, see and learn about items which maybe are not normally available for sale elsewhere. We hope you enjoy your visit and possibly redefine your concept of how modern “Vintage” can be in the process.”
Mark Walsh, Leslie Chin