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Fashion Without Boundaries: Balenciaga's personal archive
He was one of the most influential couturiers of the 20th century, his fashion visions changed the way clothes were created and according to Coco Chanel he was the ultimate fashion master. 40 years after his death we have a chance to get a closer look at Cristobal Balenciaga's personal archive in a special exhibition.
If you appreciate fashion, this is something you definitely don’t want to miss.
Not often do we have the chance to see closely how legends are created. Luckily, in the case of couturier Cristobal Balenciaga, we have a unique opportunity to see exactly how he turned fabrics into art, how he changed the way of thinking about design, and the massive influence he had on 20th century fashion.
Balenciaga's vast personal archive has never gone public before. Now, 40 years after his death, the Paris Fashion Museum has launched a new and very curious exhibition. Costumes, documents, dolls clothes, and even fragments of material, are all part of the new and magnificent exhibition, allowing the crowd to become familiar with one of the biggest couturiers the fashion world has ever seen.
Cristobal Balenciaga was born in the Basque country of Spain in 1895. Fashion innovations such as bubble skirts and modern shapes became his trademark, gaining him the reputation of an exceptional designer with daring tastes.
The unique collection has been held at the vaults of the Paris Fashion Museum since 1979. Olivier Saillard, the museum's director, came up with the idea of building and publicizing this exhibition to honor the Spanish couturier. According to her, Balenciaga was “enigmatic and often too radical for his contemporaries and profoundly influenced by Spanish popular culture”.
Saillard also quoted Coco Chanel, who referred to Balenciaga as the only couturier (besides herself) that perfectly mastered all the techniques from cutting to sewing and who had a “massive influence on the world of fashion”. Not only was Chanel a big fan of Balenciaga, top designer Christian Dior was also aware of his Spanish colleague's talents and used to call him “the master of us all,” mainly because of Balenciaga's uncompromising standards and radical visions.
The exhibition runs through October 7th. So if you are visiting the city of lights, take a break from shopping and find out who is responsible for some of the most lust-worthy designs…
Click here and buy some of Balenciaga's great designs:
