Cristóbal Balenciaga

Spanish fashion designer, the foremost leading couturier in Spain. As one of the first designers to introduce a Spanish influence into the world of French fashion, he took his elegant styles for gowns, dresses and suits to Paris and established a clientele that included the cream of international society, royalty and film stars. Balenciaga was known as a master of illusion, and his designs inspired the fashion industry throughout the 20th century.

Cristóbal Balenciaga Eisaguirre was born into a fishing family in Getaria, in the Basque region of northern Spain. His father, a sea captain, died when he was a child, leaving his mother to support the family by sewing, and Balenciaga began studying dressmaking and needlework under his mother’s tutelage at the age of ten.

He worked under his mother’s guidance until 1910, when during a trip to Paris at age 15, he was so completely inspired by the fashions he saw, that he decided to become a couturier. In 1915, under the sponsorship of Marquesa de Casa Torres, he established a tailoring business at the fashionable summer resort of San Sebastián, Spain.

It wasn’t long, only 15 years, before Balenciaga was known as a leading couturier of Spain. The Spanish Civil War of 1937 disrupted his business, so he relocated to Paris, and opened his couture shop, the House of Balenciaga. For the next 30 years, he designed splendidly elegant dresses and suits.

His international fame increased dramatically after World War II, when Balenciaga became part of the triad of couturiers who were responsible for dressing the world’s most beautiful women. In 1945, when other designers were staying true to the so-called "new look," Balenciaga designed fitted waists and square shoulders. Never one to follow the fashion conventions set by other designers, he tended to anticipate and create new trends instead.

During the 1950s, he was instrumental in popularizing capes and flowing silhouettes.