Fashion Icons & Powerhouses Encyclopedia. Balenciaga.

The good work with shapes and volumes and his dexterity with the use of the needle brought the couturier a more than deserved fame among his professional colleagues and placed the house among the benchmarks of women`s fashion since the 1940s. The first stage of the house highlights Balenciaga`s interest in creating unexpected volumes and fluid lines, something that he was able to mix perfectly with the reinterpretation and updating of garments typical of folklore such as the cape or the kimono – influenced by Madeleine Vionnet, a great friend of Balenciaga and an expert in Japanese aesthetics–. The references to the pictorial world, especially to the works of Goya, Zuloaga and Velázquez and which were given a good account of the exhibition "Balenciaga and Spanish painting" held at the Thyssen Museum, and to Spanish culture, reappropriating the bullfighter's jacket , the mantilla and other elements of the national textile tradition, were the house's trademark until 1968, when the designer retired, closing a stage.

Balenciaga remains in oblivion, active only in the Japanese market, until 1987, when Michel Goma recovers the firm and launches a prêtàporter line, which, however, does not obtain the expected repercussion. In 1992 Josephus Melchior Thimister takes the helm and tries to raise the tone of the designs. The unknown Thimister, half Dutch and half Belgian and grandson of the Russian royal girl, unveiled the first ready-to-wear collection based on two colors. Black and black blue, and "a sharp sense of haute couture". Nonetheless, the industry's reaction has remained sluggish, far from what the Balenciaga home initially meant. The company lives primarily from the past and the sale of perfumes.

In 1997, the witness was handed over to French designer Nicolas Ghesquière. At just 24 years old, Nicolas Ghesquière was asked to restore the brand's characteristic sculptural volume and avant-garde touch. "Balenciaga is one of the three haute couture maisons that best symbolize elegance without sacrificing modernity," said Jesquier. His first parade is carried in black and has the clear goal of reinterpreting the spirit of Spanish couture. 2008 was the year of delirium, the dedication of Jesquier in Balenciaga and the historic collection of the company. Her dress and floral print and puff sleeve two-piece suit, and her reinterpretation of the boot version of the Gladiator inspired professionals and trendsetters around the world. It was easy to fall in love with this style of embroidered wetsuit. Balenciaga's new muse was a perfect match for the avant-garde image of the house. Strong women with character, with angular faces and androgynous physiques such as Charlotte Gainsbourg – the image of Balenciaga Paris, the first perfume of the new era of the house and a great friend of the designer – or Connelly herself, who walked Ghesquière's creations on carpets Reds and premieres from all over the world.