Cameron Silver On Big Caftan Energy

“Ultimately, it’s a book about beauty,” Cameron Silver explained to me when I called to ask him about his new book, fittingly titled Caftans From Classical To Camp. “It is a very visual book with brief essays, but this is also about couture, this is about resort, this is men, this is about Morocco.”

The caftan, or kaftan, the two spellings are interchangeable, is one of the oldest garments made by man. They have been found in remnants or in artistic renderings part of archeological digs of ancient settlements; we know that the caftan is at least tens of thousands of years old. “I really realized what a historic garment this was,” Silver told me, soon after his research began. “The beginning was with our Paleolithic brothers and sisters, then through all of these different ages and periods. The caftan has shown up in very different incarnations. But it’s always there, on some continent or in some society. It’s just sort of this universal garment. I call it the original t-shirt.”

The weight of all this history, much of it unknown to popular culture, appealed to Silver. As a subject, he said “it had more gravitas to me than just another book about pretty people in pretty clothes.” The project began, Silver told me, with an email. Mark Magowan, the president of Vendome Press, reached out with an idea for a book.

“Ironically, I was working on a project in Palm Beach, it was very fortuitous timing as I was working on a project about the history of resort wear, so caftans were very much on my radar.” Vendome Press is known for publishing a very select list of titles related to art, history, design and culture. It is a publishing house that prides itself on quality over quantity, and maintains close relationships with its authors.

“I think, once we figured out the themes,” Silver told me, it was much easier to sort of address what needed to be there and where. It’s kind of like the story started to tell itself.” The book is broken up into sections based on some of the various ways a caftan could be grouped. There is a chapter on haute couture, one on famous figures who wore caftans, one about the decidedly masculine versions of the garment, one on Morocco (where the caftan may have originated), and finally a chapter on the garment in collections appearing more recently.

It is a fine overview of the subject, with many insightful glimpses into the past and many gorgeous photographs illuminating the text. 200 all told, stunning images, including a set of previously unpublished drawings by Stephen Sprouse of caftans designed by Halston, with whom Silver has a special connection as he has has been fashion director for H by Halston, a QVC exclusive brand, since before I first met him in 2020. Silver reached out to Leslie Frohe, niece of Roy Halston Frowick, he told me. “I said we have got to find something that’s never been seen before. And then she came up with the illustrations. I was like, oh my God.”

That is a fair, and unexaggerated response. The Sprouse illustrations are objectively wonderful. They show how a really great line drawing can become a really beautiful garment.

Silver, who founded his celebrated (and rather fabulous) vintage couture boutique, Decades, on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles in 1997. In 2012 he wrote a book about vintage, Decades: A Century of Fashion, cementing his less official title; Silver has been known for years as the King of Vintage Fashion. I had to ask him about his favorite caftans, either from his own closet, or particularly special examples which may have come through his shop over the years. Perhaps it was an unfair question to someone who knows so much about the history of clothing. But his answers were so much fun.

“I have archival runway Michael Kors men’s caftans in my closet,” Silver began. “I remember an amazing Gucci caftan. You know, it’s interesting because a lot of those resort wear caftans, prior to the sort logo mania, were appearing on clothes in the 1960s and 1970s. I remember great Gucci GG monogrammed caftans, or of course, the Pucci caftans. There have been a lot of good ones.”

This is definitely the right cultural moment to dive deep into the caftan. Palm Royale, once a best selling novel, has become a sensation on Apple TV, right after the end of Capote, another series which focuses its storytelling lens regularly on the 1960s and 1970s. Caftans bloomed in popularity during those years, similarly to the way they are capturing popular attention today. Diana Vreeland’s love of travel met Yves Saint Laurent’s obsession with Marrakesh, and Vogue was there to capture it all, as international style was ushered into an era of unsurpassed fashion editorial images. Images that this book celebrates, and which will hopefully usher us, today, towards another movement that celebrates the many things that beautiful can mean to the many people who live on our planet.

Silver believes this is possible, perhaps even inevitable, and there are not enough words for me to explain how much I hope he is right. This moment could become something bigger, better, and more inclusive, more sustainable. All of these things to hope for have been important to Silver throughout his impressive career. He knows why Palm Royale connects with so many, and why the story resonates in the world right now. “Exhibition in Palm Beach is popular,” he explained, building on the idea that we’re on the ascent of a cultural shift. “There is this cultural Zeitgeist of caftans,” he is clear, they are coming. And, to be clear, this is a good thing. “I think that I keep telling everyone who’s got a store, get caftans, like get in the moment. And now my friends are just constantly telling me, ‘Oh, I’ve never seen so many caftans… I think there is something permeating our fashion psyche about caftans.”

There are many, many versions of a caftan, just like the breadth of any garment with centuries of history. That is one of the lovely things about this book. There are so many ways to edit or adjust the fit or form of a caftan while retaining all the bits which make it what it is. Cameron was happy to explain. “There are one-shoulder caftans, you know, there are bodycon caftans, boo-boos, which are enormous. Then there are sheer caftans. I developed a capsule collection around the book because I just constantly got inspired,” the collection is available through Decades, the collection is called “Caftan Capsule,” and it includes pieces for any adult. “I want to do variations of these incredible caftans I’m seeing and make them in, you know, more modern ways.

What is Silver’s biggest hope for his book? “I hope people come out of the book and realize, wow. Okay.” He wants people to feel inspired to explore this wide world of caftans. “When I like something now, I’m like, it has Big Caftan Energy. B-C-E, big caftan energy.” I like that, and I think a world with BCE would likely be a better place. There would definitely be more beautiful textiles.