Balenciaga and Spain, the de Young Museum's current exhibit showcases designer Balenciaga, whose stylish salon presided over the fashion world until his retirement in 1968. The exhibition is curated by Hamish Bowles, European editor at large of Vogue, some of whose collection is included in the exhibit. The show features120 haute couture garments, hats, and headdresses, including an unprecedented loan of 30 pieces from the House of Balenciaga in Paris, which have not been seen in public for decades.
The exhibition illustrates Balenciaga’s creative vision, which incorporated references to Spanish art, bullfighting, dance, regional costume, and the pageantry of the royal court and religious ceremonies. Cecil Beaton hailed him as “Fashion’s Picasso,” and Balenciaga’s impeccable tailoring, innovative fabric choices, and technical mastery transformed the way the world’s most stylish women dressed.
“Haute couture is like an orchestra, for which only Balenciaga is the conductor,” said Christian Dior, his most formidable rival. “The rest of us are just musicians, following the directions he gives us.” The English photographer and designer Cecil Beaton called him “fashion’s Picasso,” noting that “underneath all of his experiments with the modern, Balenciaga has a deep respect for tradition and a pure classic line.”
His impact and influence were immense, not only on other designers but on the broader fashion zeitgeist. “Almost every woman, directly or indirectly,” declared Harper’s Bazaar in 1940, “has worn a Balenciaga.”
Balenciaga’s work is defined by its structural integrity, the soundness of the garments’ construction from the inside out. Hamish Bowles, the show's curator, remarked on this exquisite skill in everything, down to the last stitch. Almost alone among his contemporaries, he continued to cut and personally make clothes throughout his career. Coco Chanel called Balenciaga “the only couturier.” All the others, she said, “are just draughtsman.”
He was born to a family of very modest means in the Basque fishing town of Guetaria on Jan. 21, 1895. His father's death in 1906 forced his mother to work as a dressmaker and at age 13, Balenciaga was apprenticed to a tailor. He did well enough that by his mid-20, he was able to open fashion houses in several Spanish cities. His clients included members of Spain’s royal family.
He fled Spain during the Spanish Civil War and eventually ended up in Paris where. From the opening of his Paris fashion house in 1937 until his retirement in 1968, Balenciaga’s impeccable garments were worn by generations of the most iconic, stylish women in the world,
Famously reclusive, he only granted a single press interview in 1971 and died of a heart attack the following year, on March 23, 1972.
“The King is Dead,” mourned the trade journal Women’s Wear Daily. No one in the fashion world, and the wider universe of cultivated taste, would have thought that an overstatement.
The exhibition closes on July 4, 2011.
Balenciaga and Spain
de Young Museum
March 26-July 4, 2011
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
San Francisco, CA 94118
Website: deyoung.famsf.org
Comments