“The master of us all,” is how once described , the rare couturier who could construct a garment from start to finish. Born in the coastal village of Getaria, this precocious talent worked locally under the patronage of the Marquesa de Casa Torres before establishing his own house, Elsa, father afield in Barcelona and Madrid. After his “flourishing business in Spain was ruined by the revolution,” as put it, he “started all over again and made a success in Paris.
” That reset took place in 1937 and for that reason the maison Balenciaga has been aligned with the ’30s – an era of elegance – at , which is organised by decades. “We have no trace of these looks in the archives or in museums,” explains fashion curator Alexandre Samson, yet under Demna’s careful guidance, working with photographic evidence, one drawing and a news clipping, the maison was able to reproduce two looks from the couturier’s pre-war years in Paris. Both dresses are rendered in graphic black and white, “a very ’30s, very drama look,” notes Samson.
Perhaps dramatic times called for dramatic looks; the autumn/winter 1939 collection was presented during the so-called Phoney war (drôle de guerre), and autumn/winter 1940 line-up in an Occupied Paris. Inspired by by Velasquez, the autumn/winter 1939 look, all in black, has a splendidly full skirt, and white fringe that starts at the wrists, traces up the arms then continues in a V-shape down the torso (creating a corset-like shape.
