Word: balenciagas
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...years, his salon on Avenue George-V was the very citadel of haute-couture, and Cristobal Balenciaga, 73, was its lofty priest. The son of a Basque fisherman, Balenciaga created a legend rich in grace and splendor; elegant women-the Duchess of Windsor, Barbara Hutton, Queen Fabiola-cloaked themselves in the simple yet sumptuous designs that were his trademark. Thus the entire fashion world lost some of its sheen last week at the news that the House of Balenciaga is closing. Some said he is simply bored; others claimed that his disdain for "commercialism" and contemporary styles had caused business...
...customers are the same women who have been buying from Mainbocher, Balenciaga, Givenchy and Dior for years. The list includes such current Best-Dressed women as Lee Radziwill, Christina Ford and Mrs. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, as well as Best-Dressed Hall of Famers Gloria Guinness, Jackie Kennedy, "Babe" Paley and Jayne Wrightsman. The key to Valentino's rise: in a fashion world gone mad for mod, he designs clothes of great taste and elegance for women who prize beauty above eccentricity...
...What, then, is a "mini-Shetland"? A Shetland pony that has strayed into the territory of the head-shrinking Jivaro Indians of Peru? Not quite. It's a sweater, and it's the latest style in Paris-not exactly from the showrooms of Courrèges or Balenciaga, but hard to miss on the mesdemoiselles at Castel's discothèque or in Le Drugstore on the Boulevard St. Germain...
From Kooky to Effortless. Americans do still, of course, buy European haute couture. Their purchases account for 40% of the trade in the Paris couture houses. Since an original Balenciaga ball gown can cost $12,000, or a Chanel suit $2,200, pacesetters such as Mrs. William Paley and Jackie Kennedy also snap up the "line-for-line" copies available in the U.S. Manhattan Socialite Mrs. John Converse happily admits, "I love Ohrbach copies." She also likes American designers like Bill Blass and Mainbocher. Nowadays, the Duchess of Windsor, Mrs. Loel Guinness and Mrs. Jeanne Murray Vanderbilt shop on both...
Paco himself sort of slipped into haute couture. As the son of Balenciaga's premiere (first seamstress) in San Sebastián, Spain, he grew up in the world of fashion. He set out to be an architect, studied at the Atelier Perret, then drifted into fashion design. "Fashion is the same process as architecture," he explains. "Both are concerned with very precise limits-in fashion, those of a woman's body." One reminder of his former studies is his white-pailletted hat, "directly inspired by Bucky Fuller's geodesic dome...