Past Exhibitions
Balenciaga Couture
An haute couture garment is different from all other clothing because of its originality of design, excellent craftsmanship and fabrics. Each is made to the individual measurements of the client with small changes in the proportion or finishes to best suit her body and personality. Cristobal Balenciaga is acknowledged as the master of 20th century French haute couture. His timeless classics have had incalculable influence over other designers and the clothing that all women have worn.
Balenciaga's extraordinary skill in design, cut and tailoring, combined with his knowledge of fabrics, has set him apart from all other designers. His garments are simple in form and lack ornamentation. Volume and shape are achieved with the cut of the material. They are always in agreement with the lines of the body giving the wearer confidence, comfort and self-assurance.
The installation of Balenciaga Couture, which includes approximately 25 designs from the 1930s through the 1960s, echoes his salon during a couture showing. The clothes, all from Phoenix Art Museum's collection, are shown on the type of dressmaker's form that would have been employed in Balenciaga's couture workrooms.
Balenciaga's ateliers in Spain and Paris produced clothing for many of the world's most distinguished women from 1937 until his retirement in 1968.
This exhibition is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and is supported by the Museum's Arizona Costume Institute
and the Novis M. Schmitz Foundation.
Left: Evening Gown (detail), Balenciaga, Spring 1950, Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Donald D. Harrington. Center: Evening Dress (detail), Balenciaga, Spring 1961, Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Gift of Mr. Vincente Minnetti. Right: Dress and Slip, Balenciaga, Winter 1957, Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Louis Coblentz.