Spanish fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga was famously elusive. He only gave one interview his entire career – to The Times in 1971, three years after closing his fashion house, and one year before his death. He also banned press from the first showings of his collections in 1965.
It’s a mean feat then that the Victoria and Albert Museum in London is launching a forensically in-depth exhibition about the designer – the first in the UK – which spans the 1950s and 60s, Balenciaga’s most avant-garde and revolutionary years. The exhibition comes 100 years after the designer opened his first fashion house in San Sebastián and 80 years after he launched his Paris salon. It’s a centenary year being explored in that city too – ‘Balenciaga: L’Oeuvre au Noir’ opened in March at the Musée Bourdelle, which focuses solely on the designer’s use of black.
Balenciaga is credited with a host of revolutionary silhouettes, including the babydoll and sack dress shapes which caused consternation in the late fifties, but later became analogous to sixties fashion. Vetements’ Demna Gvasalia – who took the creative helm of Balenciaga in October 2015 – presented a series of archive dresses, some Amphora line, puffball or with a balloon hem, as part of his A/W 2017 women’s collection. They highlight the signatures of a designer who – contrary to his counterpart M Dior (synonymous with the ‘Bar’ silhouette) – is renowned for an experimental approach to the female form.
Cristóbal Balenciaga in his studio at Avenue Marceau in Paris, late 1950s. © Cecil Beaton Studio Archive at Sotheby’s
We’re known sticklers for attention to detail, and ‘Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion’ is an exhibition so in depth that it features X-ray images of garments, created with the artist Nick Veasey. These scans uncover the unusual and intricate structures in Balenciaga’s designs. ‘We had a mobile X-ray studio, which was parked outside the archives,’ explains curator Cassie Davies-Strodder. ‘It was great to be able to illustrate those things that are hidden. In a lot of Balenciaga’s early dresses you find cork structuring. We also found a dress cut from a single piece of fabric, which in terms of cutting is unreal. It also has two weights concealed inside the hem.’
Spanning two galleries at the V&A, the exhibition opens with Balenciaga’s couture salons, and his workrooms. Materials used as part of the exhibition design reflect these private and public worlds – utilitarian white polycarbonate formed the backdrop to the designer’s atelier. Balenciaga’s range of extravagant couture clients, like Mona von Bismarck, Pauline de Rothschild and Elizabeth Parke Firestone, is framed by rich wood.
Upstairs, the ‘Legacy’ section explores the influence of Balenciaga’s aesthetic on over 30 designers over the last 50 years. The exhibition considers the impact of his cutting techniques on the work of Issey Miyake; his use of ‘intellectual’ floral embellishment on Hubert de Givenchy; the impact of the babydoll silhouette on contemporary London-designer Molly Goddard, and his minimalist approach to haute-couture on Calvin Klein, Céline’s Phoebe Philo, and the late André Courrèges – a former apprentice. ‘Balenciaga brought a simplicity to couture,’ Strodder explains. ‘He allowed for garments to be very beautifully made, without having to drape them in luxury materials.’
X-ray ‘La Tulipe’ evening dress, gazar, Balenciaga for EISA, Spain, 1965.
Alongside a host of pieces by designers including JW Anderson, Hussein Chalayan, Yohji Yamamoto and Erdem, the exhibition also features new acquisitions by Rick Owens and Comme des Garçons. We went behind the scenes of Rei Kawakubo’s Met Fifth Avenue show in our June issue (W*219), and the Japanese designer’s exploration and obscuration of the female form, study of black and refusal to court the press bears many parallels to Balenciaga.
The exhibition also contains pieces by Nicolas Ghesquière, creative director of Balenciaga from 1997-2012, and current designs by Gvasalia. An archive skirt suit, with a fishtail drape attached unusually to the back of the jacket instead of the skirt, sits next to a wool and silk reinterpretation of the two-piece in Gvasalia’s debut collection for the house.
‘We felt it was important for half of the exhibition to look at Balenciaga’s legacy,’ Strodder says. ‘I met Hubert de Givenchy last year, who trained with Cristóbal. He said he still has Balenciaga’s voice inside his head.’
Left, skirt suit, wool tweed lined with silk, by Cristóbal Balenciaga, Paris, 1954. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Right, skirt suit, wool, by Demna Gvasalia for Balenciaga, Paris, A/W 2016. On loan from Balenciaga Archives, Paris
Left, silk spiral hat, Balenciaga for Eisa, Spain, 1962. © Victoria and Albert Museum. Right, X-ray photograph of silk spiral hat, by Nick Veasey, 2016. © The artist
The ‘Legacy’ section explores the influence of Balenciaga’s aesthetic on over 30 designers over the last 50 years. Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum
Balenciaga’s designs for extravagant couture clients is framed by rich wood. Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum
Installation view of the ‘Legacy’ section of ‘Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion’ at the V&A. Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum
Amphora line silk evening dress, by Cristobal Balenciaga, Paris, 1960-1961. © Victoria and Albert Museum
Left, babydoll cocktail dress, crêpe de chine, lace and satin, by Cristóbal Balenciaga, Paris, 1958. Right, babydoll party dress, nylon tulle, by Molly Goddard, London, A/W 2016. © Victoria and Albert Museum
INFORMATION
‘Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion’ is on view until 18 February 2018. For more information, visit the Victoria and Albert Museum website
ADDRESS
Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road
London SW7 2RL
-
Modern masters: the ultimate guide to Jean-Michel BasquiatNew York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat centred the Black subject in political, electric works which resist easy definition
-
The Citroën Ami Dark Side is a special edition electric city car with a true Halloween vibeTrick or treat? The Dark Side edition of the tiny Citroën Ami is a gothic delight for micro-minded commuters
-
The Architecture Edit: Wallpaper’s houses of the monthFrom Malibu beach pads to cosy cabins blanketed in snow, Wallpaper* has featured some incredible homes this month. We profile our favourites below
-
‘Dirty Looks’ at the Barbican explores how fashion designers have found beauty in dirt and decayFrom garments buried in River Thames mud to those torn, creased and stained, ‘Dirty Looks’ is a testament to how ‘creativity and new artistic practices can come out of decay’, its curators tell Dal Chodha
-
Tyler Mitchell’s London show explores the figure of the Black Dandy, ‘imagining what else masculinity could look like’Originally part of a visual essay to accompany the Met’s ‘Superfine’ 2025 Costume Institute exhibition, ‘Portrait of the Modern Dandy’ goes on display at Gagosian Burlington Arcade in London this week
-
Haute Couture Week A/W 2025: what to expectFive moments to look out for at Haute Couture Week A/W 2025 in Paris (starting Monday 7 July), from Glenn Martens’ debut for Maison Margiela to Demna’s Balenciaga swansong. Plus, ‘new beginnings’ from JW Anderson
-
Inside Louis Vuitton’s Murakami London pop-up, a colourful cartoon wonderland with one-of-a-kind caféWallpaper* takes a tour of the Louis Vuitton x Murakami pop-up in London’s Soho, which celebrates the launch of a new ‘re-edition’ accessories collection spanning the greatest hits from the Japanese artist’s long-running collaboration with the house
-
Get to know Issey Miyake’s innovative A-POC ABLE line as it arrives in the UKAs A-POC ABLE Issey Miyake launches in London this week, designer Yoshiyuki Miyamae gives Wallpaper* the lowdown on the experimental Issey Miyake offshoot
-
Margaret Howell London Fashion Week Women's S/S 2019 -
London Fashion Week S/S 2023: Ahluwalia to Martine RoseThough slimmed-down, London Fashion Week nonetheless provided the moments of creative expression the city is known for – from Ahluwalia’s ode to Africa to Martine Rose’s much-anticipated runway return
-
From The Simpsons to the European Parliament: best Balenciaga show sets‘Ay, caramba!' In celebration of The Simpsons-inspired Balenciaga S/S 2022 runway show, which saw the residents of Springfield descend onto the catwalks of Paris Fashion Week, we present the best recent fashion show sets from the Parisian maison
