LONDON — “I use his way of looking at things 360-degrees,” said Demna Gvasalia of Cristóbal Balenciaga on the eve of a major show at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
The show, which takes an intimate look at aspects of Balenciaga’s work, ranging from his signature shapes to his intricate process of constructing garments and his client relationships, runs from May 27 to Feb. 18.
“Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion” is the first major U.K. show dedicated to the Spanish designer who, despite his great talent, was one of fashion’s quiet ones.
“What’s so frustrating about Balenciaga is that his voice is nowhere. He only ever did one interview, so you don’t get him talking about his clothes. Because of that, there’s a lot of mythology around him,” said the show’s curator Cassie Davies-Strodder. She said the designer’s private personality prevented him from promoting himself. It was his work that did the talking. “When you see it closely, you can understand he was a real perfectionist.”
The exhibition is staged at an intimate, smaller space within the museum. “With someone like [Alexanderr] McQueen, we needed a big stage to explore his showmanship. Balenciaga was a far more considered designer. His work is much more about
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