BALENCIAGA L’OEUVRE AU NOIR – M– USEE BOURDELLE

   The Palais Galliera has presented exhibition “Balenciaga, l’oeuvre au noir” at the Musee Bourdelle from 8 of March till 16 of June 2017 in Paris. This is venue devoted to explanation with a black harmony of Haute Couture alchemist. There are over a hundred of pieces from the Palais Galliera collections and the archives of Maison Balenciaga. As explained Véronique Belloir, the director of haute couture collections at the Palais Galliera, during an advance preview for Vogue :”the idea of focusing solely on the color black came from a visit to Madrid. We realized that we could really spotlight creation, shape, volume, and construction because we weren’t distracted by color”. Also as reported Vogue, in the scenography, the Palais Galliera director Olivier Saillard made the most of the museum’s vertical space, propping dresses up high and arranging them in mirrored stands as a counterpoint to the museum’s sculpture collection. Documents and photos accompany finished pieces from private collections and the archives. There are also toiles, which Cristóbal Balenciaga worked in black, too. “We think that he did this because with black you realize immediately whether the proportions are right,” she said.

    Cristobal Balenciaga was named as “designer desingner’s”. He opened his houses in Spain : first one in San Sebastian in 1917 and a second in Madrid in the 1920s. They were called Eisa, a shortened version of Eisaguirre, his mother’s maiden name. In case of Spanish Civil War he moved to Paris where he opened his Maison in 1936.

Need to say that, like most of his contemporaries, Cristobal Balenciaga was self-taught. In those days wasn’t fashion education. However, he gave woman new silhouette. He experimented with volumes and introduced the semi-fitted cut and toneau- barrel line in fashion. Cristobal Balenciaga’s work has been called sculpture, architecture, and even furniture. His lines related to the body of any woman with innovative and bold fabrics and materials. His signatures are cocoon and square coats, balloon jackets and skirt, sack-backed day dresses, toreador-like beaded boleros, peacock tail dress. His often spare, sculptural creations were considered masterworks of haute couture. He was called the father of late 20th century fashion. At the height of his powers in the fifties and sixties Cristobal Balenciaga dressed every woman of style from the Duchess of Windsor to Marella Agnelli, from Pauline de Rotschild to Jakie Kennedy. According words of Diana Vreeland,  when he closed his business, Mona Bismarck, one of his most faithful clients, locked herself away in her Capri villa for three days, unable to imagine life without his clothes. By the way, prices were the highest in Paris. Great photographer of his time, Cecil Beaton named of Cristobal Balenciaga as “created the future of fashion”. However, Last but not a least , according legend in fashion world Balenciaga’s final words when he closed his couture house in 1968 are reputed to have been,”It’s a dog’s life”.

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