Born: Guetaria, Spain, 1895
Died: Javea, Spain, 1972

In Vogue, 1962: ‘There is one brief, pithy Spanish word, cursi, that Balenciaga uses to describe what he hates most in fashion: vulgarity and bad taste. Of these he has never, ever, been guilty.’ Cristobal Balenciaga is the undisputed designer’s designer. Revered and admired by couturiers past and present, including a coterie of all-time greats: Madeleine Vionnet, Hubert de Givenchy, Christian Dior and Coco Chanel. André Courrèges and Emanuel Ungaro were lucky enough to have worked with him on a one-to-one basis. Givenchy, for whom Balenciaga was a mentor, described him to Vogue in 1991 as ‘Gracious, elegant, religious, simple, talented.’

Balenciaga’s colour palette was, like his clothes, very carefully edited. ‘His colours are of Spain’, commented Vogue in 1962, ‘deep, thick black, accented with white; brilliant reds; turquoise; yellow; warm, cinnamon browns; and whether he knows it or not, Goya is always looking over his shoulder.’ The immaculate quality of his collections prompted Vogue to observe that what Balenciaga designed in 1938 would always transcend time. ‘He has a complete and utter disregard for public opinion, caring not a fig whether Press or customers like his collection, and because he follows no ideas or trends but his own, everyone follows him.’

Balenciaga was the son of a fisherman and seamstress. One of his mother’s clients, the Marquesa de Casa Torres, apprenticed him to a tailor at 13 years old. At 24 he opened his own house, dressing ladies of the court of Alphonse XIII. Balenciaga went bankrupt in 1931, reopened in Madrid and Barcelona, and travelled to Paris, via London, six years later. In the latter part of his career, Balenciaga was asked to lend his name to an American tie line. He felt licensing was a form of prostitution. Givenchy recalled, ‘He was indeed of another era. When commissioned to design Air France uniforms he wanted to personally do the fittings for 3,000 stewardesses.’

Unlike Dior, who made a statement which changed the course of twentieth-century fashion, Balenciaga created the most enduring examples of perfection. In 1962 Vogue observed that Balenciaga was ‘an implicit believer in the golden rule of fashion – that the essence of chic is elimination. It follows that he has the most elegant clientele in the world.’ Six years later – a year before man landed on the moon – Balenciaga closed the doors to his business, claiming there was no one left for him to dress. When customers asked where they should go, 73-year-old Balenciaga pointed them in the direction of Givenchy, whose salon was situated across the street.

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