Difficult Designer / Brand Pronunciation

[Yppe]

I think that is correct, that is how Harold Koda says it, with a stress more on the "bel" then anything else.

The stress is the second "a" : balenciaga

 

[Deleted member 7575]

The stress is the second "a" : balenciaga

Yeah the problem is that the way americans speak that is ALL the stressing that will be placed.

 

[Nemova]

It's not Ver-sa-tchee, but Ver-sa-tche.

But the way english native speakers pronouce the single 'e' is different, so I put a double 'e' to make sure it's not "ver-sa-tchay".

 

[travis_nw8]

Simply : bot- EH - ga Ven- ah- TAH
although one should only ever refer to it by the first name.

 

[Luna]

Merging this thread... there is already a thread dedicated to Designer Pronunciations.

 

[m4ryb3ar]

faux is like FO

and laurent is like lo-ron


and can someone help me with a word please...........how do u pronounce chantecaille???

ooh so u can't hear the "t" in laurent? and how do u say yves??

 

[AlexN]

ooh so u can't hear the "t" in laurent? and how do u say yves??

most people tend to mush his name together very quickly...like evesahnlaurahn

 

[yourbestfriend]

i don't know if this has been brought up in this thread yet or not... i can't search...but let's clear this up:

how do you pronounce lobuoutin? ...i'm pretty sure the way i pronounce it is right, but i'm not exactly sure... i pronounce it "loo-boo-teen," because that's the way it should be pronounced if i know my french right.....but i've also heard dumb people pronounce it "loo-boo-TON" (the o prounounced like "ah" or as in the way dumb people say VATON instead of vuitton) ... but that makes no sense whatsoever. "-tin" in french does NOT sound like "-TON" at all..... am i right?!!?

yeesh!!

i saw a thing on tv a few hours ago where Jeanne Beker says it loo boo tawn?

 

[travis_nw8]

pronounciation of hermes:
personally i feel its perfectly acceptable to pronounce her- meez.
unless one is fluent in french air- meez sounds solidly pretentious.

 

[marrimoda]

true...but that soft c is specific to only cedrtain dialects of spain...my dad's a spanish profesor..so i know this...correct pronunciation is the first one meg posted...with the
cee-ah...blended together the way purple posted....

sort of like this...bah len syAH gah...

This can be a tricky one...and I'm going to claim credibility on this designers name only because he comes from the same region that my family comes from, which is the Basque country in Spain (quite close to France-in fact the region overlaps with the French border to the extent that the basque region includes 3 provinces of France). The name Balenciaga is Basque Spanish...where people speak both the Castillian Spanish language, and Basque language, which is not a dialect but rather a language.

In his hometown people will say cristobal's last name:
balen-thi-Ah-gah

indeed there is a "thi" sound instead of "Si" -- however it is a very delicate and subtle "thi" not a heavy TH. In other words, when you form the "thi" you are only using the very tip of your tongue against the back of your top row of teeth. "si" sound would be formed with your teeth closed, mouth in more of a east-west horizontal shape. A hard "TH" would involve a larger portion of your tongue against the back of the teeth.

Again, its: balen-thi-Ah-gah ( and go very,very easy on that "thi").

Accent on the second Ah.
If its too hard, just say balen-see-Ah-gah...it's not as authentic, but you'll be understood.

 

[SanDiego]

How do you say Issey Miyaki?
I always say Iss-he but I hear people say Ish-she

 

[Yppe]

Marrimoda I think you have explained perfectly how to prounce the "c" from balenciaga, I didn't thought about "thi", because my English phonetics is so bad,
but know I think that it's the most similar.

 

[m4ryb3ar]

most people tend to mush his name together very quickly...like evesahnlaurahn

ok, i think i gotcha hehe thanks

 

[Deleted member 7575]

How do you say Issey Miyaki?
I always say Iss-he but I hear people say Ish-she

this I know for SURE....

it's like EEES-AY ME-YAH-KEE

 

[SanDiego]

Thanks Muterlein, I have been pronouncing it wrong for a while now, at least I wasnt say ISH-she!

 

[yourbestfriend]

ah my tongues getting tired...

 

[Meg]

so it's pronounced like 'ray' then for rei kawakubo??

as for balenciaga...I really don't think that the vast majority of people will understand that cristobal is from the basque region of spain and therefore to pronounce it as it looks is much easier than pronouncing it as a few thousand people would.

 

[MaLkAv]

luckily japanese and italian pronunciation are the same

if balenciaga is spanish then "ciaga" has to be spoken this way: "thi"aga (lol I left aga out of the phonetics since i'm not an english native and i don't wanna say stupid things )

 

[AlexN]

so it's pronounced like 'ray' then for rei kawakubo??

yes.

 

[marrimoda]

so it's pronounced like 'ray' then for rei kawakubo??

as for balenciaga...I really don't think that the vast majority of people will understand that cristobal is from the basque region of spain and therefore to pronounce it as it looks is much easier than pronouncing it as a few thousand people would.

Really its more than just a few thousand. Also I think that for many Spaniards the pronounciation will be quite the same. I am just providing an explainer on the authentic pronounciation -- as is being done for many other designers in this thread...(review the posts on the belgian names, japanese names, french...etc)

In the end it is always your choice to form your verbal communication as you wish.