Balenciaga And Spain

"Published by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Skira Rizzoli Publications, Inc., on the occasion of the exhibition Balenciaga and Spain, on view at the de Young Museum from March 26 through July 4, 2011"--T.p. verso.

This book surveys the significant influence that the painters of the so-called Spanish School had on the creative process of Cristóbal Balenciaga, the great master couturier of the 20th century.

Overzicht van de creaties uit de Texas fashion collectie van de Spaanse modeontwerper (1895-1972).

A sparkling life of the monumental fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga One of the most innovative and admired figures in the history of haute couture, Cristóbal Balenciaga was, said Christian Dior, "the master of us all." Despite his extraordinary impact, Balenciaga was a man hidden from view. He saw to it that little was known about him, to the point that some French journalists wondered if he existed at all. Even his most devoted clients—Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Hutton, a clutch of Rothschilds—never met him. But one woman knew Balenciaga very well indeed. The first person he hired when he opened his Paris house was Florette Chelot, who became his top vendeuse. She witnessed the spectacular success of his first collection, and they worked closely for more than thirty years, until 1968, when Balenciaga abruptly closed his house without telling any of his staff. Youth-oriented fashion was taking over, Paris was in upheaval, and the elder statesman wanted no part of it. In The Master of Us All, Mary Blume tells the remarkable story of the man and his world. Intimate and revealing, this is an unprecedented portrait of a designer whose vision transformed an industry but whose story has never been told until now.

A catalog to celebrate the opening of the Cristâobal Balenciaga Museoa features a selection of Balenciaga's work and includes four essays written by specialists on the master designer.

Christian Dior called Cristobal Balenciaga "the master of us all." The priest-like Balenciaga, whose private life remained a total mystery until the day he died, created day dresses of deceiving simplicity and evening gowns of staggering extravagance, and for them he was paid the highest prices in the couture world. His faithful clients were the great fashion plates of the postwar years: the Duchess of Windsor, Gloria Guinness, Pauline de Rothschild, and Mona Bismarck, among others. Cristobal Balenciaga was born in 1895 in Getaria, in Spain's Basque country, and at the early age of twenty-four he created his own couture house in San Sebastian. He opened in Barcelona in 1933, in Madrid in 1935, and in 1948 on the Avenue Georges V in Paris, where he could serve a more international clientele. Cristobal Balenciaga retired in 1968 and died in reclusion in his native Spain in 1972. The informative text and legendary photography in this volume beautifully document this master's immeasurably influential life and work.

Fashioning Spanish Cinema provides a critical examination of the intersections between fashion, costume design, and Spanish cinema.