The History of Balenciaga

The story of the fashion house Balenciaga goes back to 1919, when founder Cristobal Balenciaga opened the doors to his very first fashion house in the Spanish city of San Sebastian. Before long there were also branches in Barcelona and Madrid. His designs found particular favour with the both the Spanish royalty and the aristocracy.

The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 forced Balenciaga to close his stores and prompted him to move to Paris, which even then was considered the world’s fashion capital. Balenciaga was right in his element here as he found himself in the company of other famous designers like Coco Chanel. During his first runway show in Paris in 1937, Balenciaga put a Spanish Renaissance influenced collection on display.

It took barely two years for him to be praised as a revolutionary force in fashion. Clients even risked the dangers of war time travel during the Second World War to visit Europe just to gaze upon the designer’s work. His well known square coat design was one of the highlights during this period.

In 1947 he created his first parfume, called Le Dix, soon to be followed by La Fuite Des Heures in 1949.

In the early 1950s he produced yet another revolution in the fashion world by dropping the waistlines on outfits and widening the shoulders, radically transforming the silhouette. It was a big step away from the rigid hourglass shapes made popular by Christian Dior.

Considered way ahead of his time in his design vision, he produced the first evening dress in 1957 to show bare leg right to the knee, well before the mini skirt became high fashion in the 60s. His most loyal clients continued to include the rich and the famous, most noteably the likes of the Duchess of Windsor and Pauline de Rothschild. Cristobal Balenciaga died on March 24, 1972 in Javea, Spain.

In 1986 Jacques Bogart obtained the rights to Balenciaga. Currently it is owned by Gucci.

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