Cristobal Balenciaga of Disney+ delves into the designer’s life in six episodes. But beyond being just a detailed biography (which it is), it also analyzes several of the most uncomfortable points of the Spanish artist’s context. Especially when the script by Lourdes Iglesias, Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño and José Mari Goenaga ponders the politics and sexual orientation of the renowned figure.
At the same time, in his rumored paranoid character and obsession with work. As you will remember, the great Spanish man of fashion was quite enigmatic and ambiguous about his personal sphere. Not only because he reached the height of his success at times when the culture was especially conservative. Also, for being part of the way Balenciaga understood art.
The Disney+ production does not ignore any of the above and explores it carefully. This, despite the fact that there is little direct testimony about Balenciaga’s life and his opinions on especially controversial topics. Even so, it is evident that the series tries to give historical context and a realistic point of view to the most controversial elements. Did he really ignore the Civil War occurring in Spain while he struggled to achieve success? Did the pressure on his sexuality in a particularly repressive time affect you? Did he know how to sew, at least in the way the plot shows it, in which his Parisian workshop appears full of sewing machines that he uses with skill?
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We leave you the three most controversial points that the series presents and that are part of the designer’s unauthorized history. Something that is incorporated into the story with an elegant tone, but also, special care and detail when telling the life of one of the great couturiers of Spain. At the same time, a man who not only analyzed the meaning of fashion from art, but turned it into a visual heritage that is still celebrated and admired as works of textile and design art.
The inspiration of Cristóbal Balenciaga
In the series, one of the most debated elements of the different collections of the famous couturier is shown, in different sequences and chapters. Namely, that most of his ready-to-wear dresses and suits came from direct inspiration from several well-known pictorial works. The idea has become part of a kind of myth about his talent and classic cut, but in the Disney + production it is given a more elaborate meaning. In other words, that Balenciaga (played by Alberto San Juan), He included in several of his most famous collections the reinvention of some of the great paintings of the world of universal art. True or false?
This is a true fact. Although Balenciaga’s different references also included sculpture and the various fashion movements in Europe, his main source of inspiration was art. She proved it more than once. In his 1960 collection, he included a suit with a red satin dress, with metallic threads and beads, directly inspired by the painting Cardinal Don Luis María de Borbón y Vallabriga by Francisco de Goya.
In the same collection, you could see a wedding dress, made of white satin and mink details, that emulated, almost detail by detail, the work Fray Francisco Zúmel by Francisco de Zurbarán, painted 1628. But one of her best-known dresses, with the most notable influence, was included in her 1967 work. One of the pieces on display is a night capeline combination, in metallic yellow and column shape, which immediately reminds us of The Annunciation by El Greco. The latter, painted in 1576 and one of the couturier’s favorites.
In the argument, it can be seen that the artist takes references even from more contemporary works such as Guernica by Pablo Picasso. Which gives the whole of his work a more elaborate and aware of the artistic and social set that surrounded his work as a creator.
A designer who also knew how to sew
It is often insisted that Cristóbal Balenciaga was admired by other big names in the world of fashion —including Coco Chanel— for knowing how to sew. In other words, he didn’t just design his lavish suits. He often participated in the making. In fact, this version of Balenciaga’s life is part of the Disney+ series. The production shows the Guipuzcoan’s workshop in Paris on several occasionss, as well as, demonstrating their abilities to differentiate fabrics, weaving shapes and the trace of darning machines. Is that almost idyllic image of Balenciaga real?
It is. In fact, Balenciaga’s mother was a seamstress who taught her son all the secrets of the art of sewing. Which allowed the designer not only to participate in every part of the creation process of several of his best-known dresses. Also, becoming famous among the different Parisian fashion houses for a type of skill not too common among the most recognized names in the business.
The sexual and political life of a myth
Cristóbal Balenciaga was a mysterious man. In many biographies he is described as obsessed with his work, paranoid and anxious. But rumors about the influence of politics and power in Spain during the peak of his career have never been fully explored. In particular, the moment he went through on a personal level, when in the middle of the Civil War, he had to close the doors of his workshops in San Sebastián, Madrid and Barcelona. To later flee to Paris. He was accused of being apolitical and even leaving behind the country and the harsh conflicts that afflicted the society of the time. What is true in all that version?
In reality, the plot reflects the same opinion of the historian Javier González de Durana in his book Cristobal Balenciaga. Fashion, politics and society during the Civil War, 1936–39 (San Sebastián and Paris). That is to say, the designer was neither oblivious nor indifferent—as he was accused on several occasions—of what was happening in Spain. Only in the middle of the conflict, he was forced to make extreme decisions to save his life and his career.
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Which leads to the next point: Balenciaga did not hide his sexual orientation, which would have put him in danger in the middle of the war. The Disney+ series doesn’t delve too deeply into both points — it uses them, rather, as context — but it still doesn’t ignore them. In fact, two of the designer’s couples are part of the story for the small screen. An interesting step to narrate the intimate scenarios of a man known for being enigmatic and, especially, reserved in the personal sphere.