Balenciaga, Bold Even Back In The Day

I was leafing through the gorgeous FASHION, a Taschen anthology that my super-tasteful aunt and uncle gave me, and realized that it's easy to ignore how incredible Balenciaga designs were back in the 50s, a lifetime before the label's current genius designer, Nicholas Ghesquiere. I mean, yes, I know that Ghesquiere uses the archives as inspiration, but I still tend to think of his crazy fabulous fashion architecture before those of his predecessor, Cristobal Balenciaga. Ol' Cristobal, however, deserves boatloads of recognition. If you don't know this already, here's a little rundown (if you do, enjoy the eye candy):

In addition to being quite the dashing guy, Cristobal Balenciaga was born in Spain in 1895 and grew up in San Sebastian (my favorite town in the world; I lived there several years ago and the fact that he sprang from its beautiful, historical, dripping-with-culture loins is just the cherry on top). He started designing at 13, fled to Paris during the Spanish Civil War and was revolutionary enough to introduce the trapeze (babydoll) silhouette and the cocoon coat at the same time that Christian Dior was the darling of the fashion world with his uber-traditional feminine New Look. Seriously, think about that: right when VOGUE is cooing over Dior's hourglass silhouette with full skirt and cinched waist, Balenciaga is all like, "screw waists! I'm going to make clothes that don't even touch the body at ALL! You could hide a Thanksgiving turkey under here, and I am declaring it beautiful." Amazingly enough, the fashion-forward agreed, and he was a sought-after coutourier.

Liked Maurizio Pecoraro's voluminous coat for fall 2008?

Then you'll probably like Cristobal Balenciaga's gorgeously constructed cocoon coat for fall 1954.
Think the last few years were the first to feature interesting cropped jackets? Think again. I envy the insanely chic bride who wore this 1965 wedding outfit (omg, those sleeves!)

See what I mean? Fabulous. When I was on a bus trip near San Sebastian, I tried to visit the Balenciaga museum (in a tiny random town) during one of our stops. I nearly missed the bus, and they wouldn't wait for me. Tasteless jerks. Maybe next time...until then, here's a collage that someone more patient than I made:

[thanks, band of thebes]