How Balenciaga's couture travelled in the 1950s: toiles, patterns and models bought to copy under Chambre Syndicale rules; a spring 1951 ensemble bought for Wanamaker's; an Amsterdam licensee's 1951 Balenciaga
Cristóbal Balenciaga (@balenciaga), born in Getaria in 1895, opened his Paris house at 10 avenue George V in 1937. In the 1950s his couture travelled the way Paris couture did: department stores and foreign houses bought finished models, toiles and paper patterns, with the right to reproduce them a set number of times. The Philadelphia ensemble came into the museum as a gift of John Wanamaker in 1951. The Amsterdam cocktail dress was given to the Rijksmuseum in 1986.