The diminutive but immensely powerful Japanese designer instils in her collections a very philosophical approach to fashion. In this essay, fashion historian Ángela Hurtado Pimentel dissects Kawakubo’s creative, cultural and philosophical vanguard

In 1967, Spanish couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga introduced the envelope dress, a garment of an inverted triangular shape with pleats of fabric joined by the shoulders and a narrow leg opening located slightly above the knees. Although the unusual piece was well received among the press, it proved quite impractical for female customers, who complained of not being able to use the bathroom while wearing it and disappointedly sent it back to the designer. A similar situation was reported with a 1967 black velvet gown, which featured a leg split so high that customers had to request for it to be lowered.

 

Such discontent could have ruined your average designer. But Balenciaga – or 'the master´, as he was known – was anything but average. He was inquisitive, analytical and a hopeless perfectionist, as those who knew him and his work would attest. Yet, as a new exhibition at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum focuses on Balenciaga’s most experimental years and his highly influential legacy in the fashion world, it’s difficult to ignore the conflictive relationship he had with the female body.

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"He was inquisitive, analytical and a hopeless perfectionist, as those who knew him and his

work would attest"

 

Coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the opening of his first fashion house and the 80th anniversary of the opening of his Paris salon, Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion displays an assortment of pieces from the Spanish designer’s most experimental years, his last as couturier. In this experimental stage, the devoted Catholic would create some of the most liberating pieces to date, such as the sack dress. Nevertheless – and despite becoming a reference of constructive innovation and craftsmanship – some of his work seemed to follow the constricting silhouettes of Charles Frederick Worth or Charles James. Was Balenciaga’s priority the comfort and satisfaction of his customer, or would his own need for creative expression be his ultimate drive?

 

According to Cassey Davies-Strodder, lead curator of Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion, it was both. “Like any designer, he was communicating his vision through statement pieces, but he was also very in tune with his customers and their needs,” the 20th and 21st century fashion expert says. One of those statement pieces is the 1957 sack dress, a simple tubular garment with long sleeves and front pockets, which completely abstracted the female shape. The sack dress was considered a liberating antithesis of Christian Dior’s New Look and a winner piece for females disenchanted with constricting clothes.

 

In the 50s and 60s, the latter years of his career, Balenciaga’s love for experimentation and setting himself apart from his peers drove his business. He created memorable masterpieces such as dresses with balloon hems, the baby doll dress, the T-shaped jacket, and long dresses and capes made out of single pieces of fabric. He also had an interest in international influences, evidenced in the kimonos he introduced in 1939, and his version of a sari in 1966. The majority of these garments hung seemingly loose and spaciously over the female body, yet x-ray and pattern studies held for the exhibition reveal hidden weights, boning and corsets, characteristic elements in Balenciaga’s structured and sculptural garment construction. Also common signifiers of movement constriction.

 

In 1985, US human ecologist Suzanne Sontag carried out a study on the three dimensions of comfort with respect to clothing, which she named as physical, psychological and social. Closely linked and even blurred from one another, these dimensions represent how comfortable we feel about clothes in respect to our physical bodies, our mental perceptions of ourselves, and our social environment. In haute couture comfort seems to be of a social dimension, as fashionistas often prefer garments that make them look good or on trend, rather than feel physically comfortable. The incentive to consume fashion ultimately depends on which dimension of comfort the wearer values the most, and such was the case with Balenciaga’s exclusive garments, for which customers went to great lengths to get a hold of, often disregarding practicality or comfort.

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"Fashionistas often prefer garments that make them look good or on trend, rather than feel physically comfortable"

 

Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion attests how loved Balenciaga was by the press and his colleagues but, most importantly, by his clients. English socialite and former contributing editor at Harper’s Bazaar Gloria Guiness once stated Balenciaga’s clothes “were so beautifully constructed, so perfectly thought out, that there was not a woman in the world who could not wear them”. And Celia Bertin, a French writer and journalist, said: “Women who wear his tailored suits seem to have them moulded on to their bodies… while leaving them complete freedom of movement.” This admiration was shared by American socialite Mona von Bismarck, who followed Balenciaga’s work for over 30 years, buying as much as 80 garments in a single season. 

 

Whether focused on the physical needs of the female body or not, ‘the master’ had his own vision in terms of how he projected women, and this was particularly evident with the models he used for his shows. His ‘monsters’, as the media called them, were not considered traditional beauties, but would often flaunt curvaceous bodies or be a little older than usual. Taiga, a Vietnamese model who collaborated with him in the 50s and 60s, was one of them. “He’s known for taking on the challenge of dressing imperfect bodies,” Cassie Davies-Strodder says. “There are accounts of him lengthening a neck or strengthening a back simply through pattern cutting.”

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“There are accounts of him lengthening a neck or strengthening a back simply through pattern cutting”

 

Over his 50-year long career, Balenciaga received ample recognition for his work, which was and is still today seen as aesthetically groundbreaking and overall flattering, despite the occasional complaints. The Spanish couturier’s oeuvre has also proven influential among younger generations of designers, as is the case with British designer Molly Goddard. She says: “I like seeing how he works with the body… Not necessarily supporting and following it, but doing the total opposite.”

 

Cristóbal Balenciaga past away in 1972, four years after the closure of his couture house. Since then the brand was relaunched and successfully kept alive by his successors, Nicolas Chesquière and Demna Gvasalia, both of whom have admitted looking back at 'the master' for inspiration.

 

Gvasalia, who ­has been at the forefront of the couture house since 2015, has managed to marry the unapologetic street style of his own brand, Vetements, with Balenciaga’s structured silhouettes. The Balenciaga muse used to make bold statements of beauty and perfection draped in the Spanish couturier's creations. Today, dressed in loose puffa jackets and voluminous suits, this woman is a bolder and freer species, though vulnerable still to the schemes of couture.

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Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion is on at the Victoria & Albert Museum from May 27th and until February 18th 2018. There are a number of talks and events taking place alongside the exhibition. For tickets and additional information, visit https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/balenciaga-shaping-fashion.

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All images courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum.