Home Fashion Cristobal Balenciaga’s birthday party at the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute.

Cristobal Balenciaga’s birthday party at the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute.

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Jennifer Creel

 

Photography by Rose Hartman. Sonja Tremont Morgan and Montgomery Frazier.

 

This past Thursday saw us attending the honorary birthday of Cristobal Balenciaga’s birthday at the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute where a dandy crowd and high fashion awaited us. Had the founding Balenciaga father still been alive he would have been 116. (which is to say he was born in 1895).

As conceived by Oscar de la Renta and curated by Hamish Bowles, Vogue US’ European Editor at Large one couldn’t help but marvel at the master atelier’s work on display on the ground floor and the basement. As with things that are atypical Spanish, rambuctuous forms, organic flowing rhythm and the tempestuouness of vividness- Balenciaga also celebrated that which he saw growing up in Spain and from fisherman’s pants, to the matador, to the dignified lady attending to Saturday morning errands- his work embodies the guile of a spirited people. Of course what struck most of us as we regarded the work was how much this body of work which first hit its stride in the 1950’s approximates (or should we say the other round?) the work of modern day ateliers.

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Photo by Aracelis Batista.

 

Image source-Guest of a Guest.

 

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