Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum: Preserving and Sharing a Heritage

A genius at work

Cristóbal Balenciaga revolutionized the concept of dressing and the female silhouette. For him, perfection was an obligation and his extraordinary technical skils facilitated the task. As a result of his innovative personality, he sought greater simplicity and purity of forms. He was hailed by fashion designer Coco Chanel as "the only true couturier amongst us, able to design, cut, assemble and sew a dress entirely by himself."

Cristóbal Balenciaga deserves the title of “The Master” due to the perfection of his creations and ability to be ahead of his time by creating a new technical and visual language for the female silhouette. His work has stood the test of time is even more relevant today.

A museum in his hometown

Opened in 2011, the museum is located at Getaria, a small fishermen village in the Basque Country, at the north cost of Spain. Cristobal Balenciaga was born in 1895 not far from where the museum stands today.

The museum is housed in a newly built annex to Palacio Aldamar. This majestic villa, on a hilltop overlooking Getaria, was the residence of the Marqueses of Casa Torres, grandparents to Queen Fabiola of Belgium and mentors to Balenciaga during the early days of his career.

The Musuem's curators, textile conservators and mount specialist are responsible for the preservation, conservation, investigation and display of the Museum's outstanding collections.

Textile heritage

The collection is renowned for its rich diversity in terms of both the items on display and the time period covered, which ranges from Balenciaga’s earliest creations to his final ones, making it complete, coherent and truly world-class.

Documental heritage

The textile collections are complemented by the documentary archive that includes the Historical Archive of the Marquises of Casa-Torres, commercial documentation of the Balenciaga House with its clients, work material such as sketches and fabric samples, photographs and personal correspondence of Cristóbal Balenciaga.

Intangible heritage

There is a permanentely opened research line in the museum to help us to interpret and disseminate the intangible heritage associated with the trade and Balenciaga's work. The aim is to put in value the artisan of this office and pay tribute to those people who worked with Balenciaga and who helped shape his creations.

Since 2014, the museum has conducted a project called “the hands that sew” which seeks to identify the contribution of the many people who worked for Balenciaga over the years, conserving the techniques used in his studios and shedding new light on aspects of his personality, through the eyes of his collaborators.

Testimonials

An important part of this research involves collating testimonies from people associated with the Balenciaga House. These include both the first-hand accounts of the people themselves and the second-hand recollections of their families.

The Museum supports the professional development of emerging designers, both through the transmission of knowledge and providing opportunities for visibility and contexts for development.

In the image, Javier Martin in his masterclass.

In the image, Miguel Elola, disciple of Balenciaga, in his masterclass.