Cristobal Balenciaga Term paper

Her mother was a seamstress. Balenciaga got his formal education or rather training in Spain, San Sebastian, and the place where he launched his own house in the year 1917. When he was a teenager, Marquesa de Casa was both his client and patron, and he sent him to Madrid for tailoring formal training. He then opened his business in Barcelona, San Sebastian and Madrid before he fully moved to Paris. Christobal is known to be the leading character in revolutionizing the idea of dressing and female silhouette. Another reason why he is considered a father of fashion is because his designs were immediately met with great acclamation and he would remain on top of this industry for more than thirty years. His clients mostly included the most elegant of after-war years and he persistently trained some younger men to be better in this field.

In the early 1950s, Cristobal was the leading among many couturiers, and all people were looking at him if they wanted to know how the future would be like. Because he was a bit shy, there was a mystique that surrounded him due to his perfection in the work of fashions. There was an aura that developed around the clothes that he made. Then this implied that only the women who were able to ‘carry’ them put his designs on. One notable thing about him was his big evening coats that had dolman sleeves, pillbox hats, chemise and tunic dresses, full and long skirts, seven eighths coat, fitted dressmaker suits, perfumes and development of fabric gazar (Miller, 2017). Balenciaga is considered the master since he was very reticent in publicizing his craft or even himself, and so the identity of his clients, designs and his business are important in supplementing his rare publicity.

His fashion philosophy was guided by evolution of designs other than revolution. He did his fashion work on the basis of wearability, breathability and practicality. Another reason why Balenciaga was named the father of fashion is because of his craftsmanship and construction. He was a perfectionist who was very successful in cutting the ‘never-before-seen’ and high end tailoring in the ladies’ fashion like the envelope dresses, revolutionary sack dresses and balloon hem. Looking on the fashion designs that are still in existence today, his obsession with stand-away collar and sleeves that are three quarter length can be vividly seen. People have indeed borrowed his fashion of stand-away collar and upgraded it to new extremes with oversized blue shell. Several of the x-rays that were made by Veasey during the exhibition reveal the painstaking experience and process which Balenciaga underwent with weights in pursuit of ensuring that garments were always in the right sculptural way (Bowles et al, 2010).

He in most cases seemed to favor the fluid lines which permitted him to change the manner in which the clothes were fitting in to the woman’s body. He dropped the waistlines and then raised them independent of the natural waistline of the woman. He is the father in introducing elegant designs in the fashion industry. In the year 1953, Balenciaga introduced the balloon jacket which was an elegant sphere encasing the upper parts of the body and offered a pedestal for the head of the wearer. In 1957, he introduced his baby doll dress which was high-waisted, the balloon skirt, and his draped cocoon coat which were all elegant. There is little about the house which carries his great name or even among the fast fashions of 21st century which entail attention deficit models can be comparable to Balenciaga.

This was a man who had such resolute reticence that rumors went about him that he existed not. Even at the end of his design collections, Balenciaga never bowed. He went forth and met his loyal clients and gave an interview. After 45 years following his death in the year 1972, the influence that he made then remains very profound (Laprade, 2017). Fashion cognoscenti, right from journalists to couturiers, up to date still offer Balenciaga the accord of being the laurel of designers’ designer. Whenever they use his name they evoke various standards in the evolution of fashion in ease of dress, keen attention to the dress details and style. Former apprentices of Balenciaga such as Ungaro, his aficionados like Paco Rabanne and his colleagues such as Hubert have propagated and inherited various aspects of his style and philosophy.

Within the final quarter of the 20th century, an estimate of 8 main exhibitions all over the world praised his fame, where majority were facilitated an archivist in house of Balenciaga (Bowles et al, 2010). Many upcoming dress designers and fashioners are comparing their achievements to the standard that was set by ‘The Master’. This is a book that describes Balenciaga’s passion in his fashion work. It states that the contemporary fashioners and designers have a lot to borrow from him, since he set the standard in this market. Majority of the advancements in the world of fashion today base their secrets from him. He helped revolutionalize the fashion world. Bowles, H.  International Journal of Fashion Studies, 4(2), 293-297. Laprade takes the course of Balenciaga’s work from the roots to the fruits.

He reveals the way this man was so passionate and the ideas that flowed in his mind in form of visions. He could only have a vision of what his work would produce. He then looks back and sees that that small vision is now celebrated and passed on to generations in the history of fashions. What has not been explored cannot bring a change. If tradition is not changed and blended with innovation, it won’t lead to fruition. What Balenciaga did was to leave his traditions of just watching others work in fashion industry, and he decided to put his innovations to work. That is the reason behind all the wonderful fashion exhibitions made globally in his name.