BALENCIAGA TV SERIES
ON THE FAMOUS DESIGNER
After last year's Halston, we now have two more mini series in production about famous fashion designers: beside The New Look Apple series about Dior and Chanel with Juliette Binoche, Ben Mendelhson, John Malkovich and Emily Mortimer in the cast, we also have Disney Plus Spanish language series BALENCIAGA for which I have first photos for you
today. Currently shooting with a team of 100 professionals and 2,000 extras, it tells the story of the famous designer: a man who, through his natural talent, perseverance and business acumen, dared to challenge his social status as the son of a seamstress and a fisherman, becoming one of the most relevant designers of all times.
Born in Guetaria, Guipúzcoa, in 1895, Cristóbal 
Balenciaga Eizaguirre (played by Alberto San Juan), known in the world and in history as Balenciaga, is considered one of the most important creators of haute couture, who carried out his work mainly in the city of Paris for more than three decades. Before his work in the French capital he worked for various own brands in Spain. Died in 1972, he is considered the most 
important designer of Spanish high fashion. The six part series will also show his search for identity in the face of adversity and the challenge of social conventions over the years. He was obsessed with finding his own style among the voices that judged his work and with the loneliness that comes with being an artist! The rest of the cast will include
Belén Cuesta as Fabiola de Mora y 
Aragón before becoming Queen of Belgium,
Patrice Thibaud as designer Christian Dior.
Gabrielle Lazure as Carmel Snow, the fashion director of Harper’s Bazaar.
Gemma Whelan is Prudence Glynn, a journalist for The Times.Isabel Bres is the designer Jeanne Lanvin.
Anna-Victoire Olivier is 
the actress Audrey Hepburn.
Eva Blay gives life to the designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Adam Quintero will be Ramón Esparza, partner and collaborator of Balenciaga; and Elvira Cuadrupani plays Bettina Ballard, correspondent for Vogue magazine in Paris. Thomas Coumans is playing Wladzio D’Attainville, the love of Balenciaga’s life.
today. Currently shooting with a team of 100 professionals and 2,000 extras, it tells the story of the famous designer: a man who, through his natural talent, perseverance and business acumen, dared to challenge his social status as the son of a seamstress and a fisherman, becoming one of the most relevant designers of all times.
Born in Guetaria, Guipúzcoa, in 1895, Cristóbal 
Balenciaga Eizaguirre (played by Alberto San Juan), known in the world and in history as Balenciaga, is considered one of the most important creators of haute couture, who carried out his work mainly in the city of Paris for more than three decades. Before his work in the French capital he worked for various own brands in Spain. Died in 1972, he is considered the most 
important designer of Spanish high fashion. The six part series will also show his search for identity in the face of adversity and the challenge of social conventions over the years. He was obsessed with finding his own style among the voices that judged his work and with the loneliness that comes with being an artist! The rest of the cast will include
Belén Cuesta as Fabiola de Mora y 
Aragón before becoming Queen of Belgium,
Patrice Thibaud as designer Christian Dior.
Gabrielle Lazure as Carmel Snow, the fashion director of Harper’s Bazaar.
Gemma Whelan is Prudence Glynn, a journalist for The Times.Isabel Bres is the designer Jeanne Lanvin.
Anna-Victoire Olivier is 
the actress Audrey Hepburn.
Eva Blay gives life to the designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Adam Quintero will be Ramón Esparza, partner and collaborator of Balenciaga; and Elvira Cuadrupani plays Bettina Ballard, correspondent for Vogue magazine in Paris. Thomas Coumans is playing Wladzio D’Attainville, the love of Balenciaga’s life.
The list left out Thomas Coumans playing Wladzio D’Attainville, the love of Balenciaga’s life. I wonder who will play the Maestro’s lifelong muse, Sonsoles, Marchioness of Llanzol and who will play The Francos. It is a well-known fact that Balenciaga was the pet designer of the Franco women ever since he made an evening gown for Doña Carmen when she was just the wife of some obscure general. He went on making dresses for her and her daughter. His last masterpiece was the wedding gown of Franco’s granddaughter, in 1972. I wonder if Disney will shy away from what (at the time) were considered Balenciaga’s controversial issues such as his homosexuality, his confrontations with the Germans during the Occupation, and his relationship with Franco’s government. He was not only the best designer of Spain, but he was also the best designer of the world. Unlike Chanel and Dior who were innovative couturiers, Balenciaga was an artist, The Leonardo of fashion designing
ReplyDeleteI've added him now, thank you! I am not familiar with Balenciaga's work, I mean I know the name but not what his trade mark was and what kind of things he designed. Googling him I see he was into classic designs, very nice, I do think it was easier to design back in those days when women were still feminine and everybody dressed like a lady with class, it is more difficult nowadays.
DeleteHe had three stages, all of them very cassy. He drew his inspiration from baroque Spanish painters, and folk Spanish costumes. I wrote a review, I'll send you the link even if you have to rely on the awful Google translator.
DeleteI like the use of capes in his designs. I wonder if today his house is staying true to his style or not.
DeleteIn the article I wrote on him I included some of the monstrosities that now bear El Maestro’s name such as the outrageous costume they designed for Kim Kardashian for the Met Gala. The current House of Balenciaga has soiled his name and legacy.
DeleteBut elegance died with Givenchy and Oscar de la Renta. Elie Saab, Vera Wang, and Carolina Herrera have tried to keep up some standard, but the pandemic delivered the final blow. Now you see people wearing sweats and leggings to do officce work
I imagine us wearing sweats, flipflops and shorts has a lot to do with changed temperatures as well. The temps have changed so much that I really could not imagine myself working in an office or a school with temps over 40 degrees Celsius now in the summer. It is an obstacle I would not know how to cross. I imagine that in the future we will all be wearing some leotards and slim space suits made from elastic materials.
DeleteWhen I was a kid (in the 60s) looking at the fashion excesses in magazines, I would wonder if by the 21 c, we would go around naked. So far, we haven’t, in fact maxi dresses are still a summer trend. I don’t think the weather is the issue in the demise of fashion (and by fashion, I mean personal style and elegance). I’ve never wore leggings in my life (Baruch Hashem!) but can’t think they will provide coolness in hot weather, neither would spandex nor astronaut suits.
DeleteMost office buildings, public buildings and schools here provide air conditioning, so the climate is not an excuse to look disheveled. I had in the past taught summer school, here and in Chile, in classrooms with no AC, and yet I turned it an occasion to wear my finery. At least in women’s fashion there is no need to fall back into flipflops and dinghy rags. It’s all a matter of light fabrics, right colors, short sleeves or sleeveless dresses and tops. There are dressy sandals and espadrilles, no need to go for huaraches or tennis shoes, Mind you, here in New York (since I was still Orthodox at the time) I wore short sleeves and stiletto shoes with hosiery!)
In my country, men are allowed to work in banks and offices in the summer wearing light trousers (not jeans); short sleeve shirts (no T shirts) and dispense of jackets, but still wear a tie. So, you can reach a compromise. The British (and Australian &New Zealand) army, even before WWII, devised a uniform for tropics that included shorts and short sleeved tops, even for formal occasion, but it was supposed to be neat and tasteful.
Today’s sloppiness in clothing has more to do with sloth than sweltering weather. We have become morally lazy, intellectually lazy, and physically lazy and it applies to our wardrobes as well. I’ve learned that age and weight can lessen our sense of good taste, but to give up the joy of well-dressing (I’m talking about the young, the healthy, the slender, the good looking) out of sheer carelessness, reeks of desperation
We don't have AC here in public buildings, hospitals, schools, just in shops in richer offices and banks, factories not, but even where they have AC it is mostly not cool enough to be overdressed in the summer. While I was still teaching ten years ago the weather still wasn't so bad, so I did not wear shorts while teaching LOL but I would not survive today as schools have no ACs and even if they had I do not imagine the temps would be bellow 20^C to wear long pants and shoes. Of course, you are a woman so it is easier for you to wear a skirt and even sandals nobody would tell you anything. And men always feel hotter than women which is why we are usually not comfy at temps over 21 degrees. Of course, I have style so I can dress myself in shorts and still look elegant if you consider walruses elegant that is LOL But in this day I would allow for male teachers and office clerks to wear navy or beige and kaki shorts with matching shirts or button down shirts with sleeves rolled up and maybe nice light moccasins instead of flipflops. We just have to adjust to the hellish weather of today. Of course I understand who you have in mind and such laziness is not acceptabale in my book either. I've seen high school girls accepting student awards from principal in ripped jeans or with their bellies naked or dressed like hobos. That is clear sign of neglect from their parents. And this new trend of singers promoting slutiness as an empowering thing is just disgusting.
DeleteI can sympathize since I come from a country that has no AC culture (we need central heating more than air conditioning) and that I lived and worked for more than 20 years in NY with just useless fans to cool off. I also feel that overdressing is unnecessary, and as you said, there are perfectly decent shorts to wear to work (as I mentioned before The British Army gave us the lead in shorts as formal wear.) And yes, it is the premeditated sluttiness (by the way the original term” slut” referred to untidy maids) of the young that saddens and irritates me. It's a waste of youth and beauty not to explore the possibilities of creating styles that make them more attractive and sophisticated and helps shape identities. But what we have just shared is considered today “patriarchal talk” that seeks to turn women into “óbjects” Whatever, it’s why the Balenciaga House designs garbage that would have shamed El Maestro.
DeleteYes, objects even though it is them who turn themselves into objects by expressing themselves through tities and bums something that everyone has to larger or smaller extent. Instead of expressing themselves through style, uniqueness, talent, wit, education, kindness etc.
DeleteLike you, I went over to Google to see what his fashion looked like. I've never seen his clothes before!
ReplyDeleteWe probably have but haven't connected them with him, Audrey Hepburn wore a lot of his clothes, for example.
DeleteI usually stick to dresses in the summer. I am not a fan of many of the current Balenciaga styles. However, there are quite a few from the ‘50s that I wouldn’t mind owning today.
ReplyDeleteThey were ever so pretty and very ladylike.
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