BALENCIAGA EXHIBITION

At The Queen Sofia Spanish Institute, Park Avenue in New York, Hamish Bowles, Editor in chief for Vogue Europa, has on the request of Oscar de la Renta, arranged an Exhibition about the Architect and Master of fashion  - One of my role models, Spanish Couturier Cristobal Balenciaga, who lived from 1895-1972.

Cristobal Balenciaga established himself around 1919 in his hometown, San Sebastian in Spanien. On request he later expanded to both Barcelona and Madrid, before he in 1937 took the plunge and opened his shop in Paris, when the Spanish Civil war broke out. The Fashion hous is still here today.

Balenciaga was a true champion in cutting, who never compromised. Therefore, he was also highly re-spected by his contemporaries, the likes of Coco Chanel and Christian Dior. After 30 år in Paris, he retired in 1968 as 74 years old and closed all his stores.

Several of the renowned designers of the past, as mentioned above, Oscar De La Renta as well as André Courreges, Emanuel Ungaro and Hubert de Givenchy have worked for Balenciaga.

The Fashionhouse of Balenciaga then lay to sleep until it was bought by Jacques Bogart S.A. in 1986.  It was relaunched with the first collection in October 1987, by designs of Michel Goma.
In 1992 the Dutch designer, Josephus Thimister took over, until 1997 where he was replaced by the suc-cessful designer, Nicolas Ghesquiére.
The exhibition opened on November 19th and can be seen until February 19th, 2011.

Update!
Today, Balenciaga is owned by Kering, previously known under the name Pinault-Printemps-Redoute or PPR, which also owns Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci among others and American Alexander Wang is since 2012 their new designer.

A FASHION HISTORY CLASS

 

If you are interested in fashion history, the Fashion series, The Story of Fashion, as some may remember from 1987, told by Karl Lagerfeld, been reissued on DVD.

You can become wiser about how they looked at fashion at that time and among other things read a review here or take a sneak peek here.

At that time I only bought the first part on video, so I think I would like to acquire the entire series on Amazon.

THE FASHION FUND WINNER 2010

As a follow-up to my former post from October 21, the winner of CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Design competition 2010 is now found.
You can see the first five episodes with the various challenges that the nominated designers should solve along the way here and the last one where they were showing their latest collections in Los Angeles here.

The winner was Billy Reid from Alabama. He loves classic American clothes and describes himself as a traditional American designer.

That is his starting point, that he by using different techniques, details and fabrics renews and makes unique.His style and concept reminds me very much of Ralph Lauren.
But check out his website here and judge for yourself. You can see the actual Award here and read more here.

THE FASHIONHOUSE LANVIN

Lanvin is one of the oldest and most prestigious fashion houses in Paris.
The founder, Jeanne Lanvin was one of the most influential fashion creators in the 1920s and 30s.

The History about Jeanne-Marie Lanvin (1867-1946) is like a French fairytale. Like Coco Chanel, she became an apprentice as 16 year old, to be a Millinary and later on as a Tailor.

Her beautiful dresses for her daughter was noticed and was together with her very stylish dresses what she became known for.

As many may have heard, is the next designer set to collaborate with H&M from the House of Lanvin. The name is Alber Elbaz (12 June 1961 – 24 April 2021). He was hired in 2001 to breath new life into the languishing fashion house. He succeeded. But was unfortunately let go in October 2015, due to disagreements with a new owner.

Read more in this interesting interview with him here, where he is talking about the time after Lanvin. And there is more here.

THE INTERVIEW

I found this Suzy Menkes interview with Karl Lagerfeld from the 10th. Internationale Herald Tribune Luxury Conference in London, on New York Times website.

 

I just wanted to share it with you, who are following what is going on here. He is talking about his long career and the history of Chanel.Quite interesting.

Update! Unfortunately the link doesn't work anymore. But copy paste and look for it.

KARL LAGERFELD CONFIDENTIAL

Karl, forever young, staging himself as a Rock-star.

I have to link a short comment to Go´ Morgen Danmarks (Morning TV) feature of the above mentioned film this morning.

Because there is divided opinions about The Fashion documentary by Rodolphe Marconi from 2007, about and starring Karl Lagerfeld (b. 1933) .

The Question is, if the Film is not more selfconfident than confidential. If you research a little bit, you find that it is actually made on request, to give a certain image of Karl Lagerfeld, especially after the writer Alicia Drake in 2006 wrote The Beautiful Fall, a critical novel about Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld and his background. You can read a review here.

I mentioned Karl Lagerfeld in a post earlier, about Yves Saint Laurent. They were both discovered in 1954, at a Design-competition of The Internationale Wool Secretariat  .

Karl Lagerfeld first became a designer for Balmain and later for Jean Patou. After that he was working freelance from 1962-82, for among others, Chloé and Italian Fendi, which he still designs for. In 1983 he was hired by the House of Chanel and since then been able to renew and lead the House towards its succees of today.

Karl Lagerfeld is a workaholic and has at the same time as he has been designing the many different collections, also been photographing the Campaigns of Chanel for many years.
 
One could argue that he would not have been where he is today, without his work-obsession. But for me it seems like a kind of escapism. But read more here and judge for yourself.

BROCADE DRESSES

Here is a couple of the new simple dresses, that I have been working on. A short Cocktail-dress with some width and a long Evening-dress with layers of tulle. 

Perfect for the wedding guests or maybe for the bride, if she wants or has the courage to be a little different. 

The Dresses are One-of-a-kind and made of a nice silk-/viscose blend, in European size 38, which is about a size 8. They are still available, but something similar can be made on request.

Photo: John Frantsen

FAMOUS FASHION ICONS

Foto: Getty Images

On DR2 Tema, portraits tonight two of the hottest fashion Icons. The Documentaries about supermodel Kate Moss and the designer Marc Jacobs are shown tonight at eight o'clock.

Kate Moss is probably the supermodel who has been on the Cover of Vogue the most. Despite countless scandals, she continues to be popular and in demand.

Marc Jacobs is himself a big name in the Fashion Industry. But he has since 1997 also been an artictic director of  Louis Vuitton. The french documentary from 2009 follows him in New York, Paris and Tokio.

CHARLES JAMES

Charles James (1906-1978) was one of the pasts great Couturier, that I admire and that continues to inspire designers of today

He was born in England by Anglo-American parents, but moved to USA in 1924, where he started out as a milliner and tailor in Chicago and later in New York from 1928-29.

From 1929-39 he worked in London and Paris, but at the same time he sold ready-to-wear garments to New York, where he finally moved back to in 1939.
In New York, among other things he designed the Couture-collection for Elisabeth Arden from 1943-45.

After that he establish himself as independent couturier until 1958 and was very succeesful.

Charles James was known as the first independent Couturier in USA. He was designated as a champion in cutting and known for his great aesthetic sense. He is especially famous for his sculptural evening-dresses in lavish fabrics. Take a look and enjoy some of them here.

These exsamples are very graphic and sculptural in their expression and in turn, timeless in all their simplicity.

As you can see, the term Colorblocking (composition of color fields in the design ) as used often today, was also known at that time