1895-1972 Cristobal Balenciaga

[DosViolines]

source: http://www.phxart.org/pastexhibitions/Balenciaga_Couture.asp

Balenciaga Couture Fashion Design Gallery

An haute couture garment is different from all other clothing because of its originality of design, excellent craftsmanship and fabrics. Each is made to the individual measurements of the client with small changes in the proportion or finishes to best suit her body and personality. Cristobal Balenciaga is acknowledged as the master of 20th century French haute couture. His timeless classics have had incalculable influence over other designers and the clothing that all women have worn.​

Balenciaga's extraordinary skill in design, cut and tailoring, combined with his knowledge of fabrics, has set him apart from all other designers. His garments are simple in form and lack ornamentation. Volume and shape are achieved with the cut of the material. They are always in agreement with the lines of the body giving the wearer confidence, comfort and self-assurance.

The installation of Balenciaga Couture, which includes approximately 25 designs from the 1930s through the 1960s, echoes his salon during a couture showing. The
clothes, all from Phoenix Art Museum's collection, are shown on the type of dressmaker's form that would have been employed in Balenciaga's couture workrooms.

Balenciaga's ateliers in Spain and Paris produced clothing for many of the world's most distinguished women from 1937 until his retirement in 1968. For example, the exhibition includes donations of Balenciaga clothing made to the Museum by Mrs. Clare Booth Luce, Mrs. Sybil Harrington, Mrs. Burton Tremaine, Mr. Larry Aldrich among many others.
This exhibition is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and is supported by the Museum's Arizona Costume Institute and the Novis M. Schmitz Foundation.

 

[DosViolines]

source: metmuseum.org

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[FONT=geneva, arial, sans-serif] Keenly historicist, Balenciaga invented a fantasy of eighteenth-century court dress, knowing that Marie-Antoinette favored overdresses with swags anchored by roses. Sustained by wide panniers also appropriated from eighteenth-century fashion, Balenciaga renewed the Rococo rose for the 1940s and 1950s. [/FONT]
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Dress (Ball Gown), spring/summer 1948
House of Balenciaga (French, founded 1937), Couture House; Designed by Cristobal Balenciaga (French, born Spain, 1895–1972)
French
silk, crinoline, steel; L. at center back: 43 ½ in. (110.5 cm). a) L. at center back: 10 ¼ in. (26 cm).
Gift of Lisa and Jody Greene, in memory of their loving mother, Ethel S. Greene, 1958 (C.I.58.13.6a, b)[/FONT]

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[DosViolines]

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source: metmuseum.org

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[FONT=geneva,arial,sans-serif]Evening gown, 1965
Cristobal Balenciaga (French, born Spain, 1895–1972)
Light-blue silk satin
Anonymous Gift, 1973 (1973.139)
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[FONT=geneva,arial,sans-serif]This is a deceptively simple evening dress designed in 1962 by Spanish-born couturier Cristobal Balenciaga, considered the supreme architect of twentieth-century fashion. Remembered primarily for his virtuosity as a tailor and for his use of fabrics with a stiffer or more structured "hand," Balenciaga generally sheathed the body in a self-supporting armature of cloth. In this extraordinary example, he manipulated a luxurious silk satin on the bias. With the exception of the back scarf panel, this gown is cut-in-one, like a piece of soft origami. The fabric is seamed at a diagonal in the back but lacks any darts for fit. In its economy, Balenciaga's gown is like the single panel constructions of the peplos, but its technical sophistication is unlike that of any preceding form.
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[morbidexistence]

hmm those are all beautiful. and i found more in a book of fashion that i own.
it has so many amazing pics. you won't believe it.unfortunatly all my pics are bad quality scans. yep i don't how that thing works... and some of them are so tiny...sorry.

all pics were scanned by me from the book A moda no séc XX.
​

 

[arlekindearrabal]

great! that black bubble coat looks so heavy and marvelous...

 

[cerfas]

I really love the pictures in EllaH's post (#28) ...

 

[- belle -]

This thread is amazing! I love his designs!

 

[softgrey]

simply marvelous and breathtaking...

genuinely inspiring...

thannks to ella for starting this thread and to everyone who has contirbuted...
this is what tFS is about!!...

great thread!......

 

[calexico]

my favorite is this cape:
View attachment 124166

his work is unparalleled...
his dramatic sense of proportion...
the complexity of his structuring in order to achieve the final, and often very simple, forms...
so elegant and genuine...

the images is from a very small book on his work...
it does him no justice... he deserves much more...
but it's a nice little collection of images...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/284323624X/104-3331566-6499160?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance

 

[calexico]

here is the cape again, next to a more recent one by nicolas (i think)...
View attachment 124167
source: "extreme beauty: the body transformed"

i love the original...

 

[calexico]

had to dig through my stuff and find a couple more that i had...
(both these) circa 1950...
View attachment 124366 View attachment 124367

digging up these images has really inspired me...

amazing textures and silhouettes...
this man was an architect who had a deep understanding the materials he was working with...

this is such a wonderful thread...

 

[DosViolines]

From the "Fashion in Colors" exhibition:


http://ndm.si.edu/EXHIBITIONS/fashion_in_colors/


nytimes.com

 

[Ella]

Thank you for the pictures DosViolines!

 

[Diamond Star]

simply marvelous and breathtaking...

genuinely inspiring...

thannks to ella for starting this thread and to everyone who has contirbuted...
this is what tFS is about!!...

great thread!......

I second that.I've only just discovered this thread and it's wonderful

 

[Mafiosa]

Thanks to everyone who have posted pictures in this thread. They're amazing. Balenciaga is truely an inspiration... a sculpturer!
Imagine if you could buy clothes like this today

 

[Diorling]

Imagine if you could buy clothes like this today

I wish.

Though Nicolas is really staying true to the houses roots, it seems...

BTW, that reinvented cape is from a Balenciaga collection, but a Theyskens* for Balenciaga collection.

*Actually the designer previous to Ghesquiere was Mechior Thimister...Got thier names confused...

Style

 

[ClassicCouture]

OOoooo amazing pics i love 50's and 60's Haute couture lovely

 

[stilettogirl84]

It is all breathtakingly sculptural!

Most designers today seem to be trend forcasters- changing simply for the sake of change- I love to see things like this to remind us of the true ART that fashion can be.

I think Nicolas Ghesquiere is doing an amazing job following in his footsteps

 

[dizzytacks]

i think fashion people are a little jaded...

 

[stilettogirl84]

http://www.apph25.dsl.pipex.com/bygone/balenciaga-suit.jpg

http://almanaque.folha.uol.com.br/images/balenciaga1.jpg