Cristóbal Balenciaga, born on January 21, 1895, in Guetaria, Spain and died on March 23, 1972 in Valencia, was one of the most recognized fashion designers among people of the highest economic level, specializing in gala dresses and other designs. classics. Do you want to learn more about Cristóbal Balenciaga and other businessmen and celebrities in history?
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Biography of Cristóbal Balenciaga
Cristóbal Balenciaga Eizaguirre better known simply as Cristóbal Balenciaga or Balenciaga (born in Guetaria, Spain on January 21, 1895 and died on March 23, 1972) was an important Spanish fashion designer with high prestige for being considered one of the creators of major haute couture.
He founded the house of Balenciaga, one of the most revered couture brands to date. Known as the “couturier’s couturier”, Balenciaga had supreme mastery of each and every one of the processes that go into making an ensemble. He was one of the few designers who didn’t sketch his idea but started with the fabric itself.
He could make patterns, drape and cut fabric, and sew and finish a garment by himself.
Every collection he presented had at least one outfit completely built by him. His passion for creating perfection was one of the main reasons he was popular not only with his crème-de-la-crème clients, but also with his contemporaries. In the words of French designer Christian Dior, Balenciaga was “the master of us all” and was referred to by Coco Chanel as the one true couturier.
What set him apart was his finesse and deep knowledge of fabric and tailoring, which helped him imagine and create masterpieces that no one else could even think of.
Do you want to know what the success of Cristóbal Balenciaga is due to? We tell you all the details of his biography of him as well as basic information of the brand that he developed.
Who is Cristóbal Balenciaga?
Cristóbal Balenciaga was a highly prestigious Spanish fashion designer, especially in haute couture, who developed most of his work in Paris. He lived through the time of the fashion boom in the textile sector together with contemporary designers such as Coco Chanel or Christian Dior.
She began to seriously study dressmaking at the age of 10, when the death of her father, a sea captain, forced her mother to support the family by sewing. His first trip to Paris at the age of 15 inspired him to become a couturier, and by the age of 20, he already had his own tailoring establishment in the elegant Spanish summer resort of San Sebastián.
Over the next 15 years, Balenciaga became Spain’s leading couturier. In 1937, when the Spanish Civil War interrupted his business and he moved to Paris, for the next 30 years his collections included sumptuously elegant dresses and suits. Balenciaga helped popularize the trend toward layering and loose waistless clothing in the late 1950s and the use of plastic for rainwear in the mid-1960s. In 1968 Balenciaga’s house closed and he retired.
Together with Manuel Pertegaz and Elio Berhanyer, Balenciaga is known as one of the most important haute couture dressmakers in Spain. His training as a tailor gave him the necessary knowledge to work on different projects and create his own brands in Spain.
Cristobal Balenciaga net worth
Cristóbal Balenciaga’s net worth is not measured in monetary amounts but in the number of works and designs that he left as a Spanish dressmaker and designer that he was. The designs and different creations that Balenciaga made and that he contributed to the world of fashion are estimated to be incalculable.
Personal data of Cristóbal Balenciaga
| Name and surname | Christopher Balenciaga Eizaguirre |
| Date of Birth | January 21, 1985 |
| Death | March 23, 1972 (age 12) |
| Place of birth | Getaria, Spain |
Formation of Cristóbal Balenciaga
Awards & Accolades for Cristóbal Balenciaga
Balenciaga Museum, in Guetaria (Spain)
Additional information about Cristóbal Balenciaga
How did Balenciaga start to become popular?
After becoming a patron of the VII Marquise de Casa Torres, Cristóbal had the opportunity to open the Balenciaga Lizaso house together with the Lizaso sisters, although their success was not last since in a few years they separated due to an argument.
Later he opened stores in Madrid, Barcelona and San Sebastián in 1914 under the Eisa signature, although with the Spanish civil war he had to close his stores and moved to Paris, it was during these years that the designer learned fashion notions from haute couture most innovative: dropped shoulders line and pinched waist among others.
The great mastery he had of sewing and fabrics helped him make the suits that had the details that he most wanted since they not only remained in the sketch but he even materialized them. He is called the father of haute couture, defining design and patterns that continue to this day thanks to the trends that follow one another in the fashion sector.
How was the evolution of Balenciaga’s professional career?
The Spanish royal family and the aristocracy were especially fond of Balenciaga’s creations, but the Spanish civil war forced him to close his boutiques and move to Paris, where he opened his own fashion house in 1937.
During the following years, he continued to reinterpret styles belonging to past periods in the history of Spain, which we can find in his “Infanta” collection, inspired by the clothes portrayed by Diego Velázquez in the paintings of the Princess of Spain, and in the “Jacket” collection. of light”.
The 50s are characterized by the New look, legitimized by Christian Dior, but not by Cristóbal Balenciaga, who decided to liberate women by transforming the silhouette, widening the shoulders, erasing the waist and eliminating the corset. Following these principles, in 1951 he created the semi-rigid suit, in 1953 the puffer jacket and in 1955 the tunic dress.
His success did not come until the end of World War II. The culmination of Balenciaga’s success came in the early sixties thanks to the reinterpretation of the classic empire dress. During the fifties and sixties, the name of the Balenciaga fashion house was definitely known in the realm of haute couture.
However, in 1968, with the advent of Prêt-à-porter, Balenciaga retired, although he remained a great inspiration for later internationally renowned designers such as Oscar de la Renta, André Courrèges, Emanuel Ungaro and Hubert de Givenchy.
Balenciaga died in Valencia in 1972.
What is Balenciaga?
Balenciaga is how the Spanish fashion designer, Cristóbal Balenciaga, is recognized, or also the luxury house brand that this designer created through his own last name. It was a brand with unusual standards for its time, with outfits such as skirts and strange silhouettes, while feminine but very modern.
The Balenciaga house closed its doors in 1972 when the same designer died, although the brand was later bought and went public in 1986. Currently, the brand belongs to the Kering group and is based in the city of Paris.