CNN
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When you think of Balenciaga today, you think of bold branded accessories, futuristic footwear, Runway show featuring celebrities It was all over social media.
However, the label’s origins were quite secret. Founder Cristóbal Balenciaga was famous for his privacy, secrecy, and need for control over every aspect of the design process. Now, Disney + Spain’s new series “Cristobal’s Balenciaga” opens the curtain on his 30 years of personal life, which he spent in Paris from 1937, where he developed his skills and developed his personal and She overcame professional challenges and built an internationally renowned fashion brand. A home with a lasting legacy.
Born in 1895 to a working-class family in Getaria, a small town in the Basque region of northern Spain, Balenciaga learned his craft from his mother, who was a seamstress, and at the time worked as an apprentice to a tailor. In an interview with CNN through an interpreter, Lourdes Iglesias, the creator of Cristobal Balenciaga, said, “Balenciaga was born very close to where I live in Spain, but how important is his character?” I didn’t know that,” he said.
David Herrantz/Courtesy of Disney+
For the show’s creators, showcasing Balenciaga’s skills as a master dressmaker was one of the most important aspects of the series.
Iglesias said the research process to build Balenciaga’s profile was long, detailed and difficult, especially considering how private he was and how few interviews he gave to the press. Still, she said the production was able to do some primary research. “Where my coaches and I live, there are people who know him well and have given us minute details about his level of perfectionism.”
Balenciaga began designing as a teenager and quickly acquired his first patrons. The woman was an influential woman in town, and Balenciaga sent him to a tailoring school in Madrid and dressed him as a result. At the age of 22, Balenciaga opened his first boutique in the coastal town of San Sebastian, and later in the fashionable cities of Madrid and Barcelona. However, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War forced the closure of his store in Spain, and in 1937 he moved to Paris with bold ambitions. It was to establish his own fashion house and join the ranks of others around the world such as Coco his Chanel and Elsa his Schiaparelli. About French haute couture.
Boris Lipnitsky/Roger Violet/Getty Images
Cristobal Balenciaga was forced to move his business to Paris in 1927 due to the Spanish War.
“Cristobal Balenciaga” begins with the designer’s entry into the highly competitive Parisian fashion scene. (In the show, he is played by actor Alberto San Juan.) “We thought this was the most important period in his life, the most interesting period,” Iglesias said. .
The series charts the successes and challenges of the House of Balenciaga over three decades, illustrating the intense competition among couturiers, the impact of the Nazi occupation of France, and the changing tastes of the post-war high fashion market.
It also shows the personal challenges Balenciaga faced, namely his death in 1947. Vladio Jaworowski Datanvillehead of the brand’s millinery and lover of Balenciaga.
For Iglesias, showcasing Balenciaga’s skills as a master dressmaker was one of the most important aspects of the series’ storytelling. “He knew exactly how to sew buttons and make the whole dress,” Iglesias said. “He didn’t sketch. He observed the movement of the fabric and created the dress based on that. He…didn’t believe in handing over to someone else to make a dress. ”
In fact, a contemporary (and rival) of Balenciaga in Paris recognized his talent: Christian Dior called him “the master of us all,” Coco Chanel said he was “the only true couturier,” and his pupil Hubert de Givenchy called him “the master of haute couture.” He said he was an architect.
Balenciaga’s innovative and bold approach to fashion is on display throughout the series. Recreating the Maison’s collections reveals perfectly tailored silhouettes, unique constructions, and dramatic uses of fabric and color. His vision cultivated a base of loyal and high-profile customers from the 1940s onwards, including Grace his Kelly, Wallis his Simpson, Marlene his Dietrich, and respected American fashion editors Carmel his Snow and Diana. He created fans such as Vreeland.
David Herrantz/Courtesy of Disney+
The show reveals how Balenciaga has cultivated a loyal customer base since the 1940s, including Grace Kelly, Wallis Simpson and Marlene Dietrich.
To recreate the original look, Maison Balenciaga gave Iglesias and the series’ costume designers Vina Daigeler and Pepo Luis Dorado access to its archives. and museum. Daigeler said more than 80 reproductions of Balenciaga designs were made for the show, alongside vintage Balenciaga pieces sometimes worn by performers, but none of the museum’s original pieces were used. Ta. “It was very important to show the most iconic dresses, but we also had to consider the dramatic purpose of using the dresses and which ones would better fit the story we wanted to tell. ” Iglesias said.
She added that there were also practical considerations when deciding which garments to reproduce. She said: “We had to choose clothes that were easy to copy. Some things can’t be copied now because the fabrics have changed. You can’t make them with the fabrics we have today.”
In fact, Balenciaga’s own attention to detail is so meticulous when it comes to fabrics that this series Invention of “ghazal”” is a stiff type of silk specifically made for designers. The construction of this material allowed Balenciaga to create some of the most iconic architectural-inspired designs of his 1960s. “It’s about perfectionism,” Iglesias said. “He liked to control everything.”
Victor Seco/Courtesy of Disney+
The Balenciaga house granted the series’ costume designers, Vina Daigeler and Pepo Luis Dorado, access to its archives and museum.
That control extended to the very existence of the Balenciaga brand itself. What Iglesias wanted to portray in “Cristobal Balenciaga”.
“His legacy was so important that he said he did not want the house to continue with his name under another designer,” Iglesias said. “The essence of this series is about his authorship. He alone is the author of his dress.”
That became a reality in 1968, when Balenciaga abruptly closed its Parisian house. After his death in 1972, The brand was dormant for 14 yearsUntil it was acquired by French perfume and cosmetics company Jacques Bogart SA and began introducing a ready-to-wear line, a concept Balenciaga had resisted during its Paris days.
It was probably the appointment of a French-Belgian fashion designer. Nicolas Ghesquière appointed as creative director The sale of Balenciaga in 1997 and then to French luxury fashion group Kering in 2001 changed the company’s fortunes and brought the brand’s image back into the modern era.
David Herrantz/Courtesy of Disney+
The designer opened a store in San Sebastian, Spain, in his early 20s, followed by stores in Madrid and Barcelona.
Since then, the fashion house has often been embroiled in controversy, especially in recent years. In November 2022, advertisement campaign It sparked widespread backlash and resulted in an apology from the brand and creative director Demna.Demna is also credited with Balenciaga. Success in a new generation Since joining the house in 2015, he reintroduced haute couture to the brand for the first time in more than 50 years in 2021 and appeared on Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People list the following year.
Obviously things are very different now than when Cristóbal Balenciaga was active. “[Balenciaga]certainly respected privacy, which is the opposite of the exhibitionism we see today,” Iglesias said, reflecting on the changes and continuities throughout the Balenciaga era. A more general fashion landscape. “I think Balenciaga is a different character than the brand that new audiences know, and I think it’s good to talk about it. It’s always good to know about the origins of a brand.”
Cristóbal Balenciaga is currently streaming on Disney+ in the UK and Europe.