Cristóbal Balenciaga

 

Cristóbal Balenciaga Eisaguirre (1895-1972) was born in 1895 in Guetaria (Getaria), a small fishing village on Spain's stormy northern coast. He rose to become the most famous Spanish fashion designer of his generation during his lifetime. He died in Jávea, on Spain's eastern coast, twelve years after receiving the Légion d'honneur for services to the French fashion industry and only four years after closing his prestigious Paris business. The contrast between Balenciaga's birth and death places provides a touching analogy to his journey from rags to riches, or, at the very least, from obscurity to prominence in international fashion. While his material comfort increased, he did not lose his work ethic. He had a central Paris apartment, an estate near Orléans (France), and a large house in Igueldo, near Guetaria. He was able to fill his homes with collections of decorative and fine arts, as well as friends from various walks of life from time to time.

Balenciaga evidently achieved this significant change in circumstances, at first, through the patronage of a member of the Spanish aristocracy, the marquesa de Casa Torres, who recognized his talent for sewing—a skill he learned from his seamstress mother—and apprenticed him to a tailor in fashionable San Sebastián (Donostia). He went on to become the chief designer at a local dressmaking establishment before opening his own house in Madrid. With the help of a fellow Basque, he went on to successfully establish, direct, and design for the Parisian couture house that bore his name. At the same time, he ran three high-end dressmaking shops in Spain: San Sebastián, Barcelona, and Madrid. They went by the name Eisa, which was an abbreviated form of his mother's patronymic.

Balenciaga's formative experiences in Spain influenced both his design practice and eventual move to Paris. His tailoring apprenticeship taught him the art of cut and construction, as well as an obsession with fit perfection. As his archrival Coco Chanel acknowledged, he was one of the few couturiers capable of "cutting material, assembling a creation, and sewing it by hand." His interest in simple forms (the manipulation of circles, semicircles, and tunics) may have stemmed from his familiarity with the cut of ecclesiastical vestments and clerical dress so common in Spain. His use of specific colors (black, gray, earth colors, brilliant reds, fuchsia, and purple), forms of decoration (heavy embroidery and braid), and fabrics (lace used voluptuously in flounces and heavy woolens or new synthetics "sculpted" into extraordinary shapes) owed much to the aesthetic of Spanish regional dress and drapery and costume depicted in Spanish painting and sculpture from 1500 to 1900. His early working experience in San Sebastián made him aware of Paris's dominance in international women's fashion, as one of his responsibilities was to travel to the center of couture to the seasonal collections, making drawings of models that could later be translated into garments for Spanish clients. He was a copyist or translator rather than a designer at this second, transitional stage of his career.

Historical Context

While the reasons for Balenciaga's departure from Spain in 1935 at the age of forty and subsequent establishment in Paris are unknown, the commercial and political situation in Europe is likely to have played a role. Paris was a fashion mecca in the 1930s, not only for ambitious designers, but also for the cosmopolitan women they dressed. Because couture and its ancillary trades were important national export industries, the French government encouraged them. Subsidies encouraged the use of French textiles, and textile manufacturers supplied couture collections with limited runs of rare fabrics. The Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne directed the regulation of working conditions, training for aspiring couturiers, and the efficient coordination of the twice-yearly showings of all couturiers' collections. This arrangement made the trade more appealing because private clients and commercial buyers from department stores and wholesale companies in other parts of Europe, the United States, and Japan could plan their visits ahead of time and make the most of their time in Paris. Prior to World War II, no other country had such a well-organized and prestigious fashion system, which Balenciaga must have been aware of as early as 1920.

Balenciaga's decision to "defect" fifteen years later was most likely linked to Spain's increasingly difficult political situation, a state of affairs that did not bode well for those who made a living from fashion. The Spanish monarchy was deposed in 1931, and a period of uncertainty preceded the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Balenciaga's main clientele of the 1920s, the Spanish royal family and aristocracy who spent their summers in San Sebastián and their winters in Madrid, left him. As a result, he closed his branch in northern Spain shortly after it opened. Because the outbreak of war did not improve his prospects, his relocation to Paris (via London) was timely. By the time he reopened his houses in Spain in 1939, he had established a reputation in Paris, gaining an international clientele that far outstripped his captive following in Spain.

During WWII, he moved back and forth between the two countries, maintaining contact with his familial and cultural roots while maintaining control of his modest fashion empire. He continued this practice after the war. Even when he was in Paris for extended periods, he maintained contact with Spaniards because both his business and home were in a neighborhood frequented by Spanish émigrés, many of his business associates or employees were Spanish, and his friends included fellow countrymen Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, and Pablo Palazuelo.

The Businesses

Haute couture houses are notoriously secretive about their inner workings, if not their ambitions, and it is often the design records that survive rather than the accounts. In the absence of financial or administrative archives for the house of Balenciaga, only its public registration, its rich design archive, and limited oral and written testimony from the salon, some of its more illustrious clientele, and a few of the designer's colleagues or pupils can be used to reconstruct its organization and strategy. In terms of its internal structure and workforce, design output and production quality, and the maintenance of a loyal and prestigious customer base, the house exemplified tradition and continuity. Even during the postwar period of consumerism, when many of Balenciaga's competitors freely engaged in a variety of new sales tactics, such as the development of ready-to-wear clothing, accessories, and numerous fragrances, as well as the use of advertising, gimmickry was avoided at all costs.

Balenciaga was a limited company, as was fairly common in Parisian couture, formed by Balenciaga himself, his hat designer and friend Vladzio Zawrorowski (d. 1946), and Nicolas Bizcarrondo, the Basque businessman who provided the initial capital. Bizcarrondo's faith in Balenciaga and willingness to support him could be attributed to Balenciaga's previous success in Spain and the existence of three houses there (albeit in limbo in 1937). Balenciaga's couture house was founded in 1937 with an initial investment of Fr 100,000 and rose in value to Fr 2 million in 1946 and to Fr 30 million in 1960. Funding injections coincided with an expansion of its activities. The investment reflected the size, which was large by couture standards but small in comparison to industrial enterprises before or after WWII.

The structure of the design house followed a traditional couture model to the letter, easily conforming to the new haute couture regulations implemented in 1947. Throughout Balenciaga's reign, the company's headquarters were located at 10 Avenue Georges V, a convenient location in the golden triangle of Parisian luxury production. This six-story structure served all purposes, including aesthetic, craft, commercial, and administrative. The exterior and interior were designed with discretion in mind, with little overt reference to the house's sales function. Outside, classical pillars flanked the shop windows, which never displayed any clothing for sale but rather pretended to be artistic.

The boutique (shop) on the ground floor sold accessories such as gloves and foulards, as well as the perfumes Le Dix (1947), La Fuite des Heures (1948), and Quadrille (1948). (1955). This floor resembled a grand house's hallway, with a black-and-white tiled floor, rich carpets, and dark wooden and gilded furniture and fittings. The salon and fitting rooms were on the first floor, reached by an elevator lined in red Cordoban leather and studded with brass pins, and were decorated in 1937 in the fashionable Parisian taste of the day, with upholstered settees, curvaceous free-standing ashtrays, and mirrored doors. This floor, presided over by Madame Renée, housed the vendeuses (saleswomen), who greeted their own specially designated clients, consulted with them about their vestmental needs and social calendar, introduced them to models that might suit them (specially paraded by a house mannequin), and then watched over their three fittings once they had placed their orders. Above the salons were the workshops where the clothes were cut and constructed; only on rare occasions were specific garments farmed out for special treatment, such as embroidery by Bataille, Lesage, or Rébé. The administration's offices were located higher up in the building.

Expansion and Continuity

The workshop space expanded beyond the four workshops established in 1937. (two for dresses, one for suits, and one for dresses and suits). Balenciaga added two millinery ateliers during the war (1941); then, after the war (1947-1948), another two workshops for dresses and one for suits; and, finally, another for dresses in 1955, bringing the total to ten. Balenciaga had 318 employees just before the final workshop opened. Balenciaga regarded his cutters as more valuable than his workshop heads, paying the former 20-30% more than the latter between 1953 and 1954. Given the house's reputation for high-quality tailoring, this prioritization is not surprising, nor is the fact that skilled employees in positions of trust stayed with the firm for an extended period of time. The majority of the known workshop heads stayed for twenty to thirty years. Furthermore, "new" senior staff appear to have come from Spanish houses, possibly because Balenciaga could rely on their standards and experience.

Client Base

The clientele was also consistent, which satisfied Balenciaga's firm belief that women should find and stick with the dressmaker who best served their needs and understood their personal styles. For thirty years, the house had many private and professional clients. At his peak, Balenciaga showed his collections to 200 wholesale buyers and made to measure approximately 2,325 garments per year for private clients. Some of the latter purchased up to eighty items per year. They chose from among the four hundred models he created, which was comparable to the output of other top couturiers at the time.

Major department stores purchased Balenciaga models with specific customers in mind and then recreated the couture experience as closely as possible in their salons, offering fashion shows, personal advice on customers' social and practical needs, and high standards of fitting and making. Lydia Moss, Fortnum and Mason, and Harrods in London; Hattie Carnegie, Henri Bendel, Bloomingdale's, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Bergdorf Goodman in New York; I. Magnin in Los Angeles and San Francisco; and Holt Renfrew in Toronto were among these firms at various times. Wholesalers, on the other hand, purchased with batch production in mind, spreading Balenciaga styles through their adaptation of house toiles. Many members of the London Model House Group, the elite of ready-to-wear wholesalers, attended Balenciaga's shows. Each model had eight to ten derivatives, each of which was replicated four hundred to five hundred times. Some Balenciaga models, on the other hand, were deemed too complex for reproduction in department stores or factories, as well as too outré for the tastes of more conservative clients.

Balenciaga's devoted clientele included the world's wealthiest titled and untitled families, as well as professional women and socialites. Some customers combined purchases from him with purchases from other made-to-measure or ready-made sources, while others discovered his garments in specialized secondhand stores. His true devotees formed close bonds, even friendships, with "The Master," who catered to their every need: future Queen Fabiola of Belgium, daughter of his patron, the marquesa de Casa Torres; Sonsoles, daughter of his most consistent client, the marquesa de Llanzol; and General Francisco Franco's wife and granddaughter, whose wedding gown was the last designed by Balenciaga. Others, such as Mona Bismarck, widow of Harrison Williams, one of America's wealthiest men, who consistently acquired her wardrobe from him every season for twenty years, including the shorts she wore for yachting or gardening, grew into Balenciaga through familiarity with his house in Paris. Perhaps, like Barbara "Bobo" Rockefeller, she believed that wearing a Balenciaga gown provided her with a sense of security. A less expensive method of purchasing made-to-measure Balenciaga fashions were available to those who were familiar with his Spanish operations, where labor costs were lower and local fabrics were sometimes substituted for those used in Paris. Ava Gardner, a frequent visitor to Spain in the 1950s, frequented Eisa and the Parisian house, for example.

Air France was Balenciaga's final—and perhaps most intriguing—client. In 1966, the world's largest airline asked him to design summer and winter uniforms for air stewardesses based on a brief that most likely appealed to him: "elegance, freedom of movement, adaptability to sudden changes of climate, and maintenance of a smart appearance even after a long journey" (Miller pp. 57-59). His previous encounters with the soigné jet set, as well as his fashion philosophy of practicality, had prepared him well for this request.

Fashion Philosophy and Signature Designs

Balenciaga was reserved when it came to discussing himself and his craft, so the nature of his business, the identities of his clients, and actual surviving garments and designs are required to supplement his occasional observations about his fashion philosophy. Practicality, wearability, and "breathability" were guiding principles in his design and, no doubt, suited a discerning, largely mature clientele. Balenciaga was at his peak in the 1950s and 1960s, and his designs bear witness to his keen attention to the effects achieved by combining different colors and textures. The inherent qualities of fabrics, whether traditional woolens and silks or innovative synthetics, frequently guided the design process as Balenciaga considered their potential in tailored, draped, or sculpted forms. He was willing to forego a French government subsidy granted to couturiers whose collections contained 90 percent French-made textiles in order to acquire the best-quality and most innovative textiles from wherever they came in Europe.

Balenciaga gradually refined his daywear design, progressing from seemingly traditional tailored suits with neat, fitted bodies and sleeves that sat perfectly at the shoulder into experimentation that resulted in the minimalist "no-seam coat" (1961), crafted from a single piece of fabric by the artful use of darts and tucks. This garment hung loose on the body and represented the culmination of a range of loose or semifitted lines in various garments that were probably Balenciaga's most important contribution to fashion. Throughout the 1950s, these designs gradually emerged, flattering various female figures (mature and youthful) and allowing the wearer to move freely. The tunic (1955), chemise or sack (1957), and Empire styles (1958) diverted attention away from the natural waist by forming a tubular line or emphasizing that a bloused back lay on the hip line or that a high waist lay on the bust. Suit jackets were carefully tailored, and matching skirts were frequently gathered slightly into the waistband at the front to accommodate middle-age spread. Three-quarter and seven-eighth-length sleeves, as well as necklines set away from the neck, were designed to flatter the wrists and neck, both of which are graceful at any age. They were also useful for people with hectic schedules. In the 1960s, Balenciaga's collections featured a variety of jacket and coat lengths and fits, ranging from very fitted to loose.

Similar minimalism can be found in Balenciaga's cocktail and evening wear, as well as a taste for grandeur and elaboration appropriate to the occasion. He drew inspiration for these gowns from historical and non-European sources, and he sought his own interpretation of modernism. Despite their apparent ease, these dresses were frequently constructed on a corset base with boning, an understructure that was not visible beneath the complex confections of drapery, puffs, and flounces popular in the 1950s. However, by the 1960s, shapes had simplified and did not cling to or mold the body. The contrast is stark between the slim black sheaths of the late 1940s and early 1950s and the outstanding gazar, zibeline, faille, and matelassé models of the 1960s. The former derived their drama from swaths of contrasting satin in jewel colors that were attached at the waist or neckline and could be draped as desired by the wearer. Rather than artificial flowers, feathers, or polychrome embroidery, the latter based their Éclat on the sculptural simplicity of their lines and the substance of the fabric. While three-dimensional decoration remained popular, the shapes to which it was applied became tunic-like. Frills, ballooning skirts, and sack backs had been replaced by a more austere, almost monastic aesthetic.

Importance and Legacy

Balenciaga retains the title of "designers' designer" among the fashion elite, from couturiers to journalists. They use his name to evoke certain fashion standards, such as style evolution, ease of dressing, and meticulous attention to detail (visible or otherwise). Former Balenciaga apprentices (André Courrèges and Emanuel Ungaro), colleagues (Hubert de Givenchy), and aficionados (Oscar de la Renta and Paco Rabanne) have inherited and spread elements of his philosophy and style. Approximately eight major exhibitions worldwide were held in the last quarter of the twentieth century, many of which were facilitated by the archivist of the house of Balenciaga, which was owned by Bogart perfumes from 1987 to 2001 and since then by the Gucci Group (91 percent) and the in-house designer, Nicolas Ghesquière. Ghesquière's widely recognized talent and vitality revived Balenciaga's fortunes in the late 1990s, and by the early 2000s, the designer himself had begun to explore the riches of the archives and appreciate the shadow in which he labored more fully. He was quick to draw parallels between his own work and that of "The Master," despite the fact that couture is a minor component of his output.

In Spain, Balenciaga's reputation aided initiatives to promote the Spanish fashion industry: in 1987, the Spanish Ministry of Industry and Energy named the first (and only) national prize for fashion design after him, and in 2000, the Spanish Ministry of Industry and Energy invested $3.2 million in the charitable foundation established in his honor in Guetaria. The trust's overarching goal is to "foster, spread, and emphasize the transcendence, importance, and prominence that Don Cristóbal Balenciaga has had in the world of fashion," (http://www.fundacionbalenciaga.com), which will be accomplished through the construction and development of a museum in Guetaria, the establishment of an international center for design training, the establishment of a research and documentation center, the publication of a fashi

With such consistent efforts to preserve Balenciaga's reputation and values, his influence on fashion is bound to endure, disseminated through a variety of techniques from which the reserved and publicity-averse Balenciaga himself might have shied. His dedication to fashion for the once-small fishing town of Guetaria is likely to have far-reaching consequences.