It was during the Renaissance in Italy and Flanders that lace first began. Soon the fabric would make its way throughout all of Europe between the 16th and 17th centuries. Two centuries later, with workshops now mechanized, the motif became even more democratized and would be the prerogative of the greatest couturiers, especially Cristóbal Balenciaga, after World War II. A thoroughly European couturier, English through his tailor’s training, French with his perfect knowledge of Parisian haute couture, Balenciaga would become a couturier that was open to all the world’s fashions. And open to all influences as well: his creations evoke the memory of the Spanish women painted by Goya or Zuolaga, or Zurbarán’s saints. Balenciaga takes the lightness of the lace edging of garments from Goya’s portraits. From Zurbarán, Cristóbal traced the sculpted skirts of the saints. To transcribe this effect, he had Swiss manufacturer Abraham specially imagine gazar, a textile he appreciated as much as lace. He used this very lace as much as an ornament as a textile. Playing with motifs, colors, and their usages, Balenciaga explored every way to use lace. Moreover, the artist magnified its characteristics with the goal of better how to respond to the needs of the era: appearing young and modern. Specially cut for tilted-waist dresses, he gave lace to his clientele starting in 1957, a clientele that would from then on be able to slip into bag or baby doll dresses… The couturier’s originality also resides in the way he sculpted the silhouette with transparence and lightness. In reality, Balenciaga liked to exacerbate the femininity conferred by a lace outfit.
Now until August 31st, Balenciaga’s work can be found in Calais, revealed through a brand new approach: “Balenciaga, magician of lace.” It’s notably in Calais that the couturier was able to garner the materials for his production ensemble, whether it be for his workshops in Paris, Saint Sebastian, Madrid, or Barcelona. The exhibit becomes a pedagogical manifesto where Parisian pieces appear alongside a number of outfits that have never before been displayed in France, having been produced in his three Spanish fashion houses in Saint Sebastian, Madrid, and Barcelona. Three rare pieces, made in Spain (before the couturier’s arrival in Paris in 1936), inaugurate the exhibit. The oldest, a short evening dress dated 1927, is overflowing with emotion in that it illustrates the influence of two French couturiers on the young Spaniard. The pleated tulle technique evokes the work of Madeleine Vionnet; as for the volumes, it recalls the stylish dresses of Jeanne Lanvin. With close to 75 outfits, accessories (hats, gloves, shoes), with a number of photographs and atelier sketches as well, this exhibit allows for the very first time for a vast panorama of the Spanish couturier’s creation. Lace, ever so fragile, was indeed used by the couturier for a good number of accessories that became essential accompaniments to cocktail get-ups. By uniting haute couture clothing and details on the behind-the-scenes of the fabrication, the exhibit allows you to take away three different aspects: the first relating to social history, the second to fashion, and the third to creation techniques… Finally, constructed in the heart of an authentic 19th century lace factory, the Cité de la Dentelle et de la Mode poetically and modernly presents one of the most mysterious couturiers of last century.
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