Fashion Designer Cristobal Balenciaga

The greatest contribution is to change the contour of fashion.

In 1950s, he boldly relaxed the shoulder lines of women's clothing, and even removed the waistline, which made the woman's captivated. When he suddenly decided to close all the shops, customers cried for three days.

No one can control this self possessed, quiet and eccentric master.

However, whether he was willing or not, the fashion industry continued to pay tribute to him in the next half century. In the spring and summer stretches of 2012, Balenciaga's contour of high fashion created in 1950s is everywhere.

As the most important fashion master in twentieth Century, Cristobal Balenciaga not only influenced the designers of his contemporaries, but until now, the fashion world is still reviewing the classical outlines of Balenciaga.

In the spring and summer of 2012, the contour of high fashion created by Balenciaga in 1950s is still everywhere: Jil Sander, Celine, Dries Van Noten and other brands have designed strong fashion sense of architecture; and Balenciaga's current designer, Nicolas Ghesquiere, has also sought inspiration from the brand archive pool, restoring many of the Masterpieces of the year's brand founder.

Last summer, the ten year old Cristobal Balenciaga Museum designer's hometown, Spain's Getaria, was prepared.

The project not only got support from the Spanish government, but also the queen of Spain officially sealed the title for the national treasure class at the unveiling ceremony of the museum.

Although Paris has spread the reputation of Balenciaga all over the world, his design has never left Spain's customs.

The Royal aristocracy, religious art, folk life and other rich elements are reflected in the fashion of Balenciaga.

And like quiet, hate the unique personality of overexposure, let the fashion giant add a bit of mystery.

Like most fashion designers, Cristobal Balenciaga also has a tailor's mother who decided to take the road of designer when she was very young.

Although she was born in a fishing village in Spain, her mother did manual work for the royal family who came to the holiday, and also made the young Balenciaga have the opportunity to get dressed up in upper class society.

These experiences have had an indelible impact on Balenciaga.

Coupled with his talent, he had clients from royal families in his teens.

In 1937, a civil war broke out in Spain. Balenciaga simply shut down all the shops in the country and moved to the fashion capital of Paris.

At first, snobbish Parisians disregarded the boy from the Spanish fishing village, but after his first fashion series was released, the name of Balenciaga quickly filled the front page of the streets.

Balenciaga's clothes are always permeate with strong Spanish customs, just like the embroidered shores worn by bullfighters. After being improved, they become beautiful jackets that can help the human body reach the perfect ratio. The short sleeves and the widened necklines make women show more skin and show the same jewelry jewelry as beautiful as they are.

He also prefers stiff fabrics, so his work always has a strong sense of architecture.

His inspiration comes from bullfight, from flamenco dance, from the fishermen wearing a loose blouse, from the monastery of the quiet......

Then Balenciaga rubbed together these colors and inspirations with her taste, creating fashion that women followed for more than thirty years.

The greatest contribution of Balenciaga is to change the contour of fashion.

At the height of his career in 1950s, he boldly relaxed the shoulder lines of women's clothing, and even removed the waistline. This loose clothing style made the fabric far away from the skin of the wearer, began to narrow at the knees and was shaped like a pocket, so it was called "Sack Dress" (cloth bag skirt).

This can be seen as a subversion of the "New Look" hourglass profile after World War II.

Balenciaga disagrees with the popularity of Christian Dior. He said, "before World War II, I designed those cocktail skirts."

He said.

The Pattern Book, which was published in VOGUE, was included in the 1957 album, and commented: "this loose" bag style "and the neglect of waist line design are everywhere in the streets of Paris recently.

Back in fashion, we found that this is a popular revival.

This half tight contour, ignoring the waist line, tightening the design of the buttocks, has become a popular trend again.

Naturally talented Balenciaga does not naturally have to cater to the market and customers.

No matter what he designs, it will become a single item that all fashionable women crave.

There was no background music and no narrator in his fashion show, and the audience could not talk with each other because the above behaviors would disturb the audio-visual and interfere with the appreciation of artworks.

After the conference, he never came out.

When he went to the main store on George V Avenue, he had never entered the backdoor, but was afraid to meet those crazy customers and pursuers.

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Rapids retreat

"If a woman walks into a room wearing Cristobal Balenciaga clothes, the other women in the room will be invisible."

Legendary fashion editor Diana Vreeland has said so.

"Balenciaga is not just making clothes," he added. "He is making sculpture, painting and artistic creation in the way of making clothes.

That's why he is superior to others.

People always tell me that fashion comes from the street, but I always see it first in Cristobal Balenciaga. "

After Vreeland became a consultant to the Metropolitan Museum of clothing, the first fashion show she planned was Balenciaga's retrospective exhibition, "The World of Balenciaga".

In the middle of the exhibition hall is a sculpture of Charles Thi wearing armor and riding a white horse. The hall echoes the flamenco dance. There is a continuous sound of horseshoe stamping in the middle. There is also the smell of Balenciaga's "Le Dix" perfume in the air.

The collection of Balenciaga from all over the world is not only the most profound Retrospect and yearning for designers, but also pioneered the museum's fashion exhibition.

In those days, no one could refuse Balenciaga.

Florette Cheelot, who was once the chief salesperson at Balenciaga general store, had met a very tough customer. The latter's unreasonable demands finally called Cheelot intolerable and had to remove the customer from the customer list so that she could not shop in the shop of Balenciaga any more.

On the second day, the woman's husband brought a bouquet of flowers to Cheelot to make amends, hoping that she would clear up the past and continue to let her wife buy her favorite Balenciaga dress.

After Balenciaga decided to close her shop around the world, Mona von Bismarck cried for three whole days, because she was afraid she would never have a good taste and wardrobe like before.

No one knows why Balenciaga suddenly decided to close all shops.

It is speculated that he made a closed shop decision in order to adhere to the small customer service and unwilling to compromise with the universalized clothing market.

His students have become the new trend of the times.

The design of the Andre Courreges's short skirt with the space meaning and the dress of Flat Boots, became the 1960s's iconic uniform.

Emanuel Ungaro conquered the new world with bold and complicated colors and prints.

In 2006, the The Meadows Museum hosted the "Balenciaga and his Legacy" exhibition. The curators specifically displayed the works of Andre Courreges and Emanue Ungaro to show the impact of Balenciaga on later generations.

Go one's own way

Balenciaga's life circle is very small. He doesn't need everyone to put on his own design clothes, and he doesn't want to make so many unrelated people.

His mentoring relationship with Hubert de Givenchy is a fashion phrase, but this relationship was not so smooth at the beginning.

Givenchy has been looking up to Balenciaga's achievements in fashion design since he was a child, and has been looking forward to talking to him and asking idols to point out one or two.

At the age of 17, Givenchy took a sketch of his own fashion design, took a train to Paris, planned to take the "pilgrimage" to the Balenciaga headquarters on George V Avenue, but was blocked by the shop leader because "Mr. Balenciaga declined to see the guest."

In desperation, Givenchy had to be an apprentice at the hands of Jacques Fath, and only eight years later did he expect the first formal meeting with Balenciaga.

At that time, Hubert de Givenchy already had her own.

Shop, small business success.

At the "April in Paris" dinner held at Waldorf Hotel, Givenchy was introduced to meet the idol Balenciaga finally, and from then on the two became friends for life.

"I worked for Jacques Fath, Elsa Schiaparelli, but when I saw him, I realized that I wouldn't be too much."

Givenchy said.

According to his memory, Balenciaga has helped a lot in his career.

On one occasion, Balenciaga suggested that Givenchy find a skilled technician because "you have good ideas and personality, but you need the right professional and technical personnel to help you turn these into reality."

Then, Balenciaga called two employees of her studio, Carmen and Gilberte, and asked them to start working for Givenchy from then on.

The two female employees naturally disagreed, but Balenciaga said, "I will sell all my stores in a few years.

You will have better opportunities and future with Givenchy. "

Givenchy is naturally grateful to his mentor.

In 1956, Balenciaga was fed up with the way to show the media before launching the fashion, because many of the design elements would be copied by the mass market before they were officially launched, and the media preview system was abolished.

Everyone can only see the appearance of the new season fashion until they are formally hung out in the shop.

Givenchy immediately followed the mentor's footsteps and pushed the fashion reporters out of the press conference.

This brings a lot of complaints and dissatisfaction. Balenciaga always can control the trend, and the media can't take him as well. For his Givenchy, he has to tolerate it.

American magazine is an exception.

The magazine's legendary editor in chief, Carmel Snow, was a strong supporter of Balenciaga from the beginning.

She wore a Balenciaga suit all the year round and wore the same medicine box cap. She wore these clothes for only a few months before she handed them over and put on another new dress herself.

Every fashion week, "which design of Carmel Snow will wear Cristobal Balenciaga this time" is always a hot topic for fashion people.

The growth environment of Carmel Snow and Balenciaga is similar: their fathers are too early to die, and their mothers are engaged in work related to the clothing industry.

In her autobiography, Snow once wrote, "I saw Cristobal Balenciaga at once.

Although I can't speak Spanish, he can't speak English, nor is our French very good, but it doesn't affect our communication. "

In 2006, Snow family member Penelope Rowlands published a biography of Carmel Snow A Dash of Daring revealing a secret: Carmel Snow is more like the love between women and men.

Unfortunately, she was married and Balenciaga was a homosexual.

However, her enthusiasm for Balenciaga continued until the day she died. At the funeral, she wore her favorite Balenciaga red silk suit for her life.