BALENCIAGA

Balenciaga is a luxury fashion house founded in Spain by Cristóbal Balenciaga, a designer born in Guetaria, Spain. The brand is now owned by the French multinational company Kering. Balenciaga had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as "the master of us all" by Christian Dior. His bubble skirts and odd, feminine, yet "modernistic silhouettes" became the trademarks of the house.
== History ==
Cristóbal Balenciaga opened his first boutique in San Sebastián, Spain, in 1917, which expanded to include branches in Madrid and Barcelona. The Spanish royal family and the aristocracy wore his designs, but when the Spanish Civil War forced him to close his stores, Balenciaga moved to Paris.
Balenciaga opened his Paris couture house on Avenue George V in August 
1937, and his first fashion show featured designs heavily influenced by the Spanish Renaissance. Balenciaga's success in Paris was nearly immediate. In the period of two years, the French press lauded him as a revolutionary, and his designs were highly sought-after. Carmel Snow, the editor of Harper's Bazaar, was an early champion of his designs.
Customers risked their safety to travel to Europe during World War II to see Balenciaga's clothing.
 During this period, he was noted for his "square coat," with sleeves 
cut in a single piece with the yoke, and for his designs with black (or 
black and brown) lace over bright pink fabric.
However, it was not until the post-war years that the full scale 
of the inventiveness of this highly original designer became evident. 
His lines became more linear and sleek, diverging from the hourglass 
shape popularized by Christian Dior's "New Look". The fluidity of his silhouettes enabled him to manipulate the relationship between his clothing and women's bodies.
 In 1951, he totally transformed the silhouette, broadening the 
shoulders and removing the waist. In 1955, he designed the tunic dress, 
which later developed into the chemise dress
 of 1958. Other contributions in the postwar era included the spherical 
balloon jacket (1953), the high-waisted baby doll dress (1957), the 
cocoon coat (1957), the balloon skirt (1957), and the sack dress (1957).
 In 1959, his work culminated in the Empire line, with high-waisted 
dresses and coats cut like kimonos. His manipulation of the waist, in 
particular, contributed to "what is considered to be his most important 
contribution to the world of fashion: a new silhouette for women."
In the 1960s, Balenciaga was an innovator in his use of fabrics: 
he tended toward heavy fabrics, intricate embroidery, and bold 
materials.
 His trademarks included "collars that stood away from the collarbone to
 give a swanlike appearance" and shortened "bracelet" sleeves. His often spare, sculptural creations—including funnel-shape gowns of stiff duchess satin worn to acclaim by clients such as Pauline de Rothschild, Bunny Mellon, Marella Agnelli, Hope Portocarrero, Gloria Guinness, and Mona von Bismarck—were considered masterworks of haute couture in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1960, he designed the wedding dress for Queen Fabiola of Belgium made of ivory duchess satin trimmed with white mink at the collar and the hips. Jackie Kennedy famously upset John F. Kennedy
 for buying Balenciaga's expensive creations while he was President 
because he feared that the American public might think the purchases too
 lavish. Her haute couture bills were eventually discreetly paid by her 
father-in-law, Joseph Kennedy.
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