How Many S's in Balenciaga

Sheldon and I went to a wonderful retrospective exhibition of the master of couture, Cristobel Balenciaga,  at the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute.

It is housed in a swish mansion on Park Ave

The selection of clothes came from the Balenciaga Archives in Paris, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Texan Fashion Collection as well as many private collectors.

His influences were the Catholic Church regalia, Flamenco, Bullfighting costume and sailors uniforms. The cut and drapery combined with fantastic embroidery and metallic beading are gob smacking. To Coco Chanel he was the only master. And in every one of his collections he personally cut and sewed a garment, usually a black dress.

The dress second from the left was worn by Kitty Carlisle... wife of Moss Hart and a wonderful singer who appeared with the Marx Brothers in "A Night at the Opera"  As a member of New York's elite she would have had quite a few B's, I expect.

There was a video of a salon showing of his work in the 60's and the Australian model, Maggie Eckhardt crossed my mind. Then we looked in a glass cabinet and there she was on  the cover of  Harper's wearing Mr B.  She was one of his top models and this is she in the two photos below.

Here is a peek through the windows of the mansion as we were leaving