The Story of Balenciaga

By Jagged Metal

Cristóbal Balenciaga was born in 1895 in Getaria, a small fishing village in the Basque region of northern Spain. His mother was a seamstress; he began an apprenticeship with a tailor at twelve. In 1917 he established his first fashion house in San Sebastián, named Eisa — a shortening of his mother's maiden name. The Balenciaga name came in 1919. The Spanish royal family and aristocracy were among his earliest clients.

When the Spanish Civil War forced him to close his Spanish houses, Balenciaga opened his Paris couture house on Avenue George V in August 1937, his first collection drawing heavily on Spanish Renaissance references. His success was rapid. Within two years the press had identified him as a revolutionary.

Balenciaga wasn't known for decoration. He was known for construction. Christian Dior described him as "the master of us all" — not because of branding or visibility, but because of how he cut cloth. The clothes held their shape away from the body. Volume was controlled rather than added. Everything depended on proportion. Among the designers who trained in his studio: Paco Rabanne, André Courrèges, Emanuel Ungaro and Hubert de Givenchy.

Balenciaga's contribution to fashion was structural, not decorative. Across the 1940s through the 1960s he introduced forms that reshaped how clothing moved and sat on the body: the tunic dress in 1955, the sack dress in 1957 — which eliminated the waist entirely and was initially met with hostility from clients and press alike — the balloon jacket in 1953, the baby doll silhouette, the cocoon coat. These weren't variations on existing styles. They changed the relationship between garment and wearer.

Fabrics were chosen for structure rather than surface effect. Weight, stiffness and drape were used to create form. The result was clothing that felt architectural — restrained, precise, entirely intentional. He worked with embellishment when it served the design, but rarely relied on it.

Balenciaga closed his Paris house in 1968, unwilling to continue in a fashion landscape shifting toward ready-to-wear and faster production. He died in 1972. The brand remained largely dormant until Nicolas Ghesquière was appointed Artistic Director in 1997, holding the role for fifteen years and returning the house to the front rank of fashion through sharp, technical, often futuristic work that still referenced the original emphasis on structure. The Motorcycle Bag emerged during this period. Alexander Wang succeeded Ghesquière in 2012, followed by Demna Gvasalia in 2015 — a shift toward exaggeration, deconstruction and streetwear references. Louder, more culturally reactive, and trading discipline for commentary. Balenciaga has been owned by Kering since 2001.

For vintage collectors, Balenciaga sits slightly outside the usual conversation because his influence isn't tied to recognisable motifs or logos. The original house produced relatively little costume jewellery compared to contemporaries, and what exists is not widely codified or collected in the way that Chanel or Givenchy pieces are.

The value sits elsewhere — in the way his approach shaped the designers and houses that followed. Houses like Givenchy and Dior absorbed his discipline: proportion, balance, restraint. When jewellery from those houses feels architectural or clean, the reference point is often Balenciaga, even indirectly.

Understanding Balenciaga makes it easier to recognise why certain pieces from other houses work — why proportion matters, why restraint can feel more expensive than decoration, and why some designs still feel modern decades later.

Jagged Metal specialises in authenticated vintage designer and costume jewellery from the 1960s through to Y2K. Browse the collection at jaggedmetal.com.