& # 039; Balenciaga in black & # 039; Review: Fashion goes to the dark side
& # 039; Balenciaga in black & # 039; Review: Fashion goes to the dark side
.& # 039; Balenciaga in black & # 039; Review: Fashion goes to the dark side
The black color Deepened with the designer Cristóbal Balenciaga (1895-1972). Coco Chanel, his older partner, also liked it. In the 1920s, he launched the LBD, or "little black dress", a sly understatement that would bring elegance to women of all classes. For Balenciaga, the Negro was never small. It was his inheritance as a Spaniard: the aristocratic black of Velázquez, the Catholic black of the cassock, the mysterious black of the lace mantilla, the exuberant black of the bullfighter. In 1948, when his longtime companion, Wladzio d'Attainville, died suddenly, Balenciaga's pain was so great that he was ready to enter a monastery. He did not, and his next collection, all black, was the gateway to his deepest decades in design. Each of Balenciaga's 93 collections (the last was the summer of 1968) included a dress that was cut and made by hands alone: a black dress. Was this darkness a form of loneliness, awareness, reverence? Or was it a reach into the unknown?
Balenciaga in black
Kimbell Art Museum
Until January 6, 2019.
Such questions may come to mind at the Kimbell Art Museum, where "Balenciaga en Negro", his first haute couture exhibition, has just opened. Originally organized for the Palais Galliera, in Paris, by Véronique Belloir, Galliera's couture curator, the exhibition has been remodeled for the south gallery of the Kimbell Piano Pavilion by Mrs. Belloir and Jennifer Casler Price, Kimbell's curator of Asia and Western art. The adjustment is perfect. With more than 100 garments taken from the Palais Galliera and the Balenciaga Archives, plus four loans from the Texas Fashion Collection (located at the University of North Texas in Denton), this may be the most sublime gathering of Balenciagas ever. seen in a room. . Against the poured concrete walls of Renzo Piano, the beige gray of unbleached linen, these black shapes are not only masterful, they are also modern and often minimalist.
The illustration of dress and cape by Cristóbal Balenciaga, model no. 86, winter 1967
Photo:
Archives of Balenciaga
"For Balenciaga, black was more than a color or even a non-color," reads the introductory text of the exhibition wall, "it was a vibrant matter, it becomes opaque or transparent, matte or bright." The word "matter" is important, to point to properties of space and mass, and suggests the mortal tone of the black, which is the thumb on the scale of Balenciaga's work. "From the never-seen black prototypes to the more abstract forms of his later collections," the text continues, "Balenciaga's use of infinite black shades emphasizes the essential shapes, the dense volumes and the amazing silhouettes of his unique creations. "
Cristóbal balenciaga in 1927
Photo:
Lipnitzki / Roger Viollet / Getty I
The prototypes mentioned above, or toiles-It's the first thing we see in the opening of the exhibition, the section called "Sketch and Construction". The toiles are traditionally cut from whitish muslin, but for garments that would be black, Balenciaga cuts toiles of black calico, serge or tarlatan. Why? Because the planes, folds and shades of black add light and weight dynamics to the finished piece, and Balenciaga wanted to see this from the beginning.
Dressed by Cristóbal Balenciaga, summer 1965.
Photo:
Julien Vidal / Galliera / Roger-Viol
The exhibition moves in a clockwise direction, and the next section, "Archival Documents," is possibly the best use of the draft sketches I have seen. Most of the numbers shown in the photo can be found later in the show, exquisitely made, which is exciting. Some realizations are located steps away from Balenciaga's pencil conceptions, including two masterpieces from the winter of 1967. One of them, the four-cornered cocktail dress (often called "envelope"), is like a cubist cathedral with buttresses flying, a wild-style locket. for the woman inside. The other is a sinuous silk crepe pod topped with a large spiral of clusters or a crown of silk gazar with folds. Metaphors proliferate. Is this a smoke tree? The death dress for the opera? Or the most elegant chimney sweep in history?
Cristóbal Balenciaga costume and jacket set, winter 1965.
Photo:
Julien Vidal / Galliera / Roger-Viol
These two pieces float between sections called "Structured Volumes" (suits and classic dresses) and "Abstract Volumes", mantle-shaped coats and formal garments that move away from the body, letting cuts and curtains (especially on the back) ) create a secret Spaces that are read as beautiful. When does the volume become abstract? The answer depends on the viewer, but it is these wonderful dresses that ask the question.
Dress of Cristóbal Balenciaga, winter of 1967.
Photo:
Archives Balenciaga, Paris
The sections that follow include "Contrasting Black", which shows Balenciaga mixing a ludic and playful iridescence with the blacks they raise. "Black and Sheen" looks at her love for the voluptuous paillette and the jet applique for the night, and contains dazzling necklaces made of surprisingly cheap materials. "Black and Transparency" studies the lace confections that were a signature of Balenciaga, and they are not fragile flowers. There is a hardness and autonomy similar to those of Carmen for the black cords of Balenciaga, the spirit of Spain.
Evening dress by Cristóbal Balenciaga, c. 1952
Photo:
Julien Vidal / Galliera / Roger-Viol
The exhibition ends with "Black and Colors", although this section could have been called, despite some black and white pieces, "Black and Pink". The delicate pink dust of the dressing table, the saturated pink of the killer's stockings ... Balenciaga loved rose as an accent for black. An extremely simple column of a coat, with an easy dropped shoulder, is cut from black wool with thin stripes, widely spaced, neon pink. Balenciaga has worked the fabric so that the stripes, only four, move horizontally, and he has placed these orbits with an ineffable, electric and almost strange precision and style. Here is another of the wonderful designs of the winter of 1967, when the black dragged Balenciaga to the afterlife, a galaxy of its own.
Ms. Jacobs writes about culture and fashion for the Journal.
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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