Balenciaga, licensee of Maison Vionnet

Abstract

Cristóbal Balenciaga’s initial period in Spain (1917–1936), when he was working to develop himself as a couturier and consolidate his business in the luxury sector, is less known than his Parisian period (1937–1968), due to the scarcity of available information. This article analyses the designer as a buyer of haute couture licenses during that initial period. His biographers claim that in the early years of his professional development Balenciaga would attend to the presentations of prestigious French Maisons where he acquired pieces that he later sold in his establishment in San Sebastián, and that he studied to improve his own technique. Among these Maisons is that of Madeleine Vionnet. However, the restrictive licensing policy applied by the French couturière, puts in doubt the idea that Balenciaga had once been authorized to acquire pieces from her collections. Based on research in the archives of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris and the Archives de Paris, and in the Spanish, French and North American press published between 1920 and 1930, this article provides new findings that confirm the existence of just such a commercial relationship. It reveals when it emerged, specifies which Vionnet pieces Balenciaga acquired and studies the influence of Vionnet’s technique and aesthetics on some of the Basque couturier’s creations prior to his establishment in Paris.