Pizziolo, M., Ravasio, R. et al. 2021, Balenciaga. The glamorous 1950s. Drawings from the iconic Maison, enhanced Focus, EdiXion, Dubai.
Balenciaga, the first great couturier. An artist who knew how to design a new woman, iconic. “A good couturier must be an architect for the models, a sculptor for the form, a painter for the colour, a musician for the harmony and a philosopher for the measures”, declared Balenciaga in 1968. For more than thirty years, Cristóbal Balenciaga dressed the most beautiful and elegant women in the world, from European nobles and bourgeoisie to Hollywood stars: Jackie Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, Countess Mona Von Bismarck, Helena Rubinstein, Greta Garbo, Grace Kelly, Ava Gardner, Marlene Dietrich, Wallis Simpson or Marella Agnelli.
A collection curated by Marina Pizziolo and Romano Ravasio. This book was created to present a collection of original drawings from the Maison Balenciaga, owned by Lorenzo Riva, who was artistic director of Balenciaga in Paris in the 1980s.
The collection of Balenciaga drawings is an extraordinary testimony to the creative process that marked the history of Haute Couture in the 1950s. Each work is absolutely unique. There are rare drawings created by Balenciaga in London, when the couturier was a guest of the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, to create her exclusive wardrobe. And there are the technical sketches on which the entire atelier team worked, precious documents where fabrics are pinned to the paper, accompanied by handwritten notes, client names and collection numbers jotted down on the fly: elements that reveal the working method and creative process of the Maison in every technical and organisational detail. Each drawing is a project, contains the seed of an idea destined to become the dream of an entire generation of women. They are drawings capable of making us slip behind the scenes of a legendary atelier, where the garments that made the history of 1950s fashion were created.
An archive of museum value. In 2022, the Department of Culture of the Basque Government purchased 8,362 drawings from this extraordinary collection for the Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum, in Getaria, the couturier‘s birthplace. In May 2023, the same museum hosted the exhibition “Sketches from the House of Balenciaga 1943-1964. Riva Collection”, an event that presented not only a selection of Balenciaga’s historical drawings, but also garments signed by Lorenzo Riva himself, creating a unique dialogue between the master’s legacy and his successor’s vision. In 2025, another 700 drawings were acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The museum acquisitions testify to the value of the Balenciaga Archive. The glamorous 1950s, which constitutes the complete original nucleus of this exceptional heritage of recognised international historical value.
Enhanced content of the book. Explore the multimedia materials embedded:
– p. 2: The man behind the legend: who was Cristóbal Balenciaga
– p. 9: The Maison Balenciaga in its golden years: fashion shows and atmospheres
– p. 11: How Balenciaga was inspired by the great artists of the past
– p. 18: Lorenzo Riva, the couturier at work, autumn-winter 2009
