Ball gown
Keenly historicist, Balenciaga invented a fantasy of eighteenth-century court dress, knowing that Marie-Antoinette favored overdresses with swags anchored by roses. Sustained by wide panniers also appropriated from eighteenth-century fashion, Balenciaga renewed the Rococo rose for the 1940s and 1950s.
Artwork Details
- Title: Ball gown
- Design House: House of Balenciaga (French, founded 1937)
- Designer: Cristobal Balenciaga (Spanish, Guetaria, San Sebastian 1895–1972 Javea)
- Date: spring/summer 1948
- Culture: French
- Medium: silk, steel
- Credit Line: Gift of Lisa and Jody Greene, in memory of their loving mother, Mrs. Ethel S. Greene, 1958
- Object Number: C.I.58.13.6a, b
- Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute
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House of Balenciaga
1945–55
House of Balenciaga
1960s
House of Balenciaga
ca. 1960
House of Balenciaga
1960s
House of Balenciaga
1960s
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