He was one of the figureheads of the golden age of Parisian haute couture. Pierre Balmain dressed the exceptional women of his day, from queens to princesses to film stars. An eminent traveler, he also contributed to spreading and propagating French style and luxury around the world. This art lover also took inspiration from Arab...
Everything started with the death of Guccio Gucci, the famed founder of the Tuscan luxury house, and the successive inheritance of the enterprise by his sons Aldo, Vasco, Ugo, and Rodolfo. By using the initials of the man behind Gucci’s edification, Aldo Gucci gave birth to the famous double G logo in homage to his...
Founded in 1854, Louis Vuitton was made for travel. In a world where technical progress finally united the four corners of the Earth, Georges Vuitton saw the growing interest of his contemporaries for new means of transport. He took a close interest in this more nomadic lifestyle and made transport vessels his speciality. Take for...
1945: Paris was freshly emerged from WWII when Pierre Balmain founded his studio on 44 rue François 1er. After studying with Lucien Lelong, an haute couture master of the day, the couturier presented his very first collection on October 12 of that same year. The reviews were unanimous: a seductive breed of refinement was exuded...
The renowned lover of all things elegant released his very first collection in February 1947, during which time France was still clearing the ashes of World War II. The time had come to put the role of women soldiers/ factory-workers on the shelf; to accomplish this, Dior put his faith in the superimposition of different...
Cristóbal Balenciaga often took inspiration for his couture from the folklore, the tradition, the art, and the liturgy of Spain, his homeland. From his first collection presented in Paris in 1937, Balenciaga established his ‘Infante’ style. The couturier was convinced of the incontestable elegance of black and white, but saw in red the power and...
Architecture always had an important place within Pierre Balmain’s creativity – as a young man, the couturier studied architecture while creating fashion drawings on the side. These two disciplines would soon feed off one another, and when Balmain founded his eponymous brand in 1945, it yielded a new fashion with structured lines and a curved...
1945 – after the war, Pierre Balmain was the first of the great couturiers that would put Paris back at the center of the fashion world to open his own fashion house. At 44 rue François 1er, the stylist would introduce his first collection on October 12 of that same year. As one did back...
Pierre Balmain studied architecture in Paris – his designs, dresses, fashion, were a pass-time that he liked to indulge in. The two disciplines were thus often linked in his work – in his drawings can be read the spirit of an architect seeking the perfect composition around a body. His early dresses appear very cinched,...
The secret of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s couture resides in the fact that he never sketched – his dresses came to life directly on the bodies of his models. From this very first step, the couturier of couturiers was able to obtain his canvas, a sort of reworked first draft adjusted until he achieved the perfect interpretation...
