Fashion designer Cristobal Balenciaga - Essay Example

Fashion designer: Cristobal Balenciaga Born on 21 of January 1895 in a small village of Guetaria within the Basque region of Spain where people depended on fishing activities, Cristobal Balenciaga is a renowned fashion innovator. Documented evidence reveals that, Cristobal spent many hours alongside his mother who was a tailor at his early age. Cristobal is daring innovator of superb classic styles of designing clothes. In spite of being Spaniard, surprisingly, he became the leading fashion designer in France (Walker, Museum, and Fashion 33).

This paper will discuss the live and work of this talented designer majoring mostly in part of his successful designing career. His history began in sort of a legend when it became very apparent that this young man by then was destined to for Couture. When he was thirteen years old, Cristobal astounded the Marquise of CASA TORRES with remarkable comments on her elegance. Upon spotting his intriguing interest in Couture as well as his aesthetic potential, she permitted Cristobal to design a copy of the Haute Couture she was wearing at that moment.

Driven by trembles, Cristobal did his piece of work so elegantly that she awarded him by putting it on. A year later, Cristobal travelled to France where in daze devoured DRECOLL, WORHT, and DOUCET among others. When he returned at age sixteen, he opened his first fashion design workshop in San Sebastian where he started designing the Parisian Style for Spanish women (Walker, Museum, and Fashion 65-66). This facilitated his rise into his successful journey of becoming one of the most respected fashion designers in the world.

In 1915, San Sebastian witnessed opening of the first fashion designing shop under his BALENCIAGA name. He travelled to Madrid in 1920 where he opened his second fashion design workshop but had to leave the country when the Civil War broke out. He went ahead to establish himself in Paris where he grew to become the icon to beat in the fashion industry. The most tremendous transformation in his line of career was in 1937 when he opened his showrooms at avenue 10 George in Paris. Form the beginning, created a style that ended up living to his expectations for more than thirty glorious years.

To sum up his ambitions, he was musician of harmony in fashion, fashion philosopher for temperance, design sculptor for shape, fashion design architect, and a painter of couture color (McDonnell 130). Year after another, this talented fashion designer created astonishing collections with mastered cuts where he transformed the women’s silhouettes. In 1945, Cristobal revolutionized the fashion industry when started creating clothes with close-fitting waistlines, square shoulders, wide shoulders, open necks, and looser silhouettes.

In the 1950s, he premiered coasts with wide shoulders, sack dresses, and tunic dresses. With the fashion business booming and reaping maximum benefits out of the existing market, Cristobal also incorporated his flair into creating prestigious perfumes. As a result, fashion analysts saw him as a talented man who was exceptional in the way he never got tired in its quest of achieving even greater harmony between clothing and the human body (Steele 51). He at all times knew what was the true sign of elegance, the refining touch of design, as well as the laying subtle of fashion depicted by delicate notes of fragrance.

In summary, his astounding career extended its lengths in 1947 when he came up with his first perfume called LE DIX obtained from the famous couture’s address at George Avenue. His attained climax in his work when earned the most trusted and faithful clients such as the Queen of Spain, the Queen of Belgium, Princes Grace of Monaco, and the Duchess of Windsor. The press recognized all these people as the best-dressed women in the entire planet. Date 12 of May 1958 witnessed him make his Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur.

He closed his shops in Madrid, Paris, and Barcelona in the late 1960s at age 74 and on 24th of March 1972, Cristobal passed away (Steele 179). Works Cited McDonnell, Marcy. In the Know. Sydney: Hardie Grant Publishing, 2008. Print. Steele, Valerie. The Berg Companion to Fashion. Oxford: Berg, 2010. Print. Walker, Myra, Museum, Meadows, and Fashion, Texas. Balenciaga And His Legacy: Haute Couture from the Texas Fashion Collection. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. Print.