Balenciaga is "the master of us all" as Christian Dior once said. There are hundreds of iconic pieces by him, however, this book only contains 2. One design was incorrectly attributed to Balenciaga for many years, but was later found to be from an American Designer. This is ironic then that Dior complimented Balenciaga while the Met decided to put in 12 Dior designs to Balenciaga's 2. The brand today is definitely scorching history with its hot take on fashion as always, but Dior has overshadowed its place in popular culture for far too long.
In searching for pictures of this dress I was both lucky and unlucky. There were only a couple images from the Met Costume Institute, but Balenciaga did several versions of this dress. I can use the looks of the others to piece together the feeling of this dress.
It was easy enough to identify the fabric of a duchesse satin in a creamy white and that I would need thick velvet trim to create the decoration of the dress. Hopefully Joann Fabric's stands up to the test of quality. Then I can use a few other pictures and even a painting of the dress in pink to help me understand the pleats of the shoulder and velvet of the sleeve cuffs.
But then came the question of the hips. The picture below is what was on the Met's holdings and it paints a picture in my mind of these strange hip shape because the saucer shape is unlike most other designs. I've even included the original Velasquez painting that Balenciaga was inspired by to create this shape. Hopefully a bobbinet version will hold up the weight of the duchesse and of course I am still wondering if tulle or any other padding holds up this shape. May need to research the panniers and underpinnings of Velasquez's era to find my answer.
