1958
CRISTÓBAL BALENCIAGA
Dress
Autumn/winter 1958–59 haute couture
Cristóbal Balenciaga, Spanish, 1895–1972
Black wool mohair plain weave with black silk satin bow
Gift of Rosamond Bernier, 1973 (1973.58.1a, b)
2018
NICOLAS GHESQUIÈRE
for LOUIS VUITTON
Dress
Spring/summer 2018
Louis Vuitton, French, founded 1854
Nicolas Ghesquière, French, born 1971
Black leather
Courtesy Collection Louis Vuitton
Many of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s complex and inventive designs were inspired by traditional costume from his native Spain. Less frequently, he took a historian’s approach to Western fashion outside that country, as in this dress, which invokes the dropped-waist chemise of the 1920s. In contrast to the softly draped lines of its predecessor, this reincarnation’s rigorous structure and sharp outline result from a balanced pairing of cut and fabric. The dress is fashioned from a pliable yet firm woven mohair cut along princess lines that mold the torso from shoulders to hip. Gathered into a hip-level horizontal seam, the skirt springs from its moorings like a flower in bloom. Balenciaga’s prescient return to the 1920s anticipates the shift dresses that would dominate the “youthquake” styles of the 1960s.
In Nicolas Ghesquière’s reprisal of the silhouette, he likewise employs a material that provides inherent support for the garment’s shape. The leather is supple enough to create soft folds in the skirt but is stiffer than Balenciaga’s fine wool, creating a more pronounced pannier effect. Merging eighteenth-century exuberance with the spare modernism of Balenciaga’s late work to create a contemporary outlook, Ghesquière brings past and present into harmonious accord.
In Nicolas Ghesquière’s reprisal of the silhouette, he likewise employs a material that provides inherent support for the garment’s shape. The leather is supple enough to create soft folds in the skirt but is stiffer than Balenciaga’s fine wool, creating a more pronounced pannier effect. Merging eighteenth-century exuberance with the spare modernism of Balenciaga’s late work to create a contemporary outlook, Ghesquière brings past and present into harmonious accord.