In January, Disney+ premiered the series Cristóbal Balenciagaa narrative inspired by the life of the Spanish designer during his years in Paris since his arrival in 1937. The plot tries to discover the character, his character and his concerns, highlighting moments core topic of his life staff and professional life, such as his relationship with illustrious designers, the creation of the fabric gazarThe design of the wedding dress for Queen Fabiola or the making of uniforms for Air France stewardesses.

Although fashion is undoubtedly present throughout the six chapters, the designer's creations are placed in the background, giving way to personal experiences with family, friends, colleagues and employees.

However, several scenes in the first episode deal with the influences that will mark his work. Balenciaga is portrayed consulting the book Spain. Types and Costumes by José Ortiz-Echagüe, which shows, through the author's photographs, regional and popular costumes of the country. According to the bibliography published about the Basque designer, much of his inspiration comes from Spanish culture, painting and tradition.

For example, her bolero in blue velvet with black felt decoration and beads (1947) is an interpretation of the costume of lights, characterized by the chromatic contrast and the rich work of embroidery and trimmings. And the dress with black stripes on a red background (1949) is similar to the female regional costume of the Pas Valley in Cantabria.

These influences were also reflected in the exhibition Balenciaga and Spanish painting. There, some pieces by the couturier from Guetaria were presented along with a selection of works by national painters such as Velázquez, Murillo, El Greco or Francisco de Goya.

Among them were the silk chantung wedding dress embroidered with silver thread (1957) and the painting Isabel de Borbón, wife of Felipe IV by Rodrigo de Villandrando (circa 1620). Or the evening ensemble of cotton tulle dress embroidered with metallic thread on rayon satin and silk taffeta overskirt (ca. 1951) and Saint Elizabeth of Portugal by Francisco de Zurbarán (c. 1635).

The subtle similarities that are sometimes created between his innovative garments and his influences have their true value in the non-literality of their forms. This reinterpretation would not be possible without an element contemporary to the master: abstraction.

News from the world of art arrives

At that time, abstract currents were emerging as a reference in painting, moving the seat of art from the traditional city of Paris to New York, in contrast to the fashion world where the French capital was consolidated as the epicenter of haute couture.

Unlike the avant-garde movements of the early 20th century that expressed the new values for the new world, the abstract-based currents developed in the 1940s and 1950s (abstract expressionism, geometric abstraction, among others) showed new forms of individual expression.

Artists such as Ad Reinhardt or Mark Rohtko proposed chromatic compositions that offered an interesting field of experimentation and results applicable to fashion.

In Rothko's case, his apparently simple works achieve complexity through the superimposition of color fields. They stand out for their careful compositional balance, achieving visual harmony with a select palette of colors, such as intense reds, deep blues and occasionally soft tones.

On the other hand, Reinhardt, known for his extreme abstraction and minimalist approach , dispenses with any non-essential elements. His subtle work is achieved through an extremely limited color palette, emphasizing mainly black and dark tones. His compositions, geometric and rigorous, generate a sense of order and structure in his creations.

Translation in Balenciaga

Some of these characteristics concerning color, composition, precision and formal synthesis can also be seen in Balenciaga's work. Examples include the orange wool crepe day dress (1968), the black wool sack dress (autumn-winter collection, 1957) or the model 125 from the 1965 summer collection, produced at the Maison Balenciaga in Paris.

That abstraction that also developed in a plastic way in the architecture of the mid-twentieth century generated sculptural forms that evoked new languages, as shown in the works of architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Oscar Niemeyer or Felix Candela, among others.

These works were characterized by the sincerity in the use of materials, showing their natural texture and color. At the same time, they presented solid and geometric forms, such as hyperbolic paraboloids, of evident functionality. These sharp lines and defined volumes dispensed with the ornamentation and compositions of past constructions, where architectural elements were clearly identifiable. Instead, they propose a sculptural plasticity based on abstract forms.

This context undoubtedly influenced Balenciaga in the creation of new formal and volumetric proposals. During the second half of the 1960s, several evening and bridal gowns designed by Balenciaga featured warped geometric shapes and sculptural lines typical of the aforementioned architecture. Other dresses, such as the balloon dress (1958) and the summer collection dress (1959), were characterized by generous volumes and pure lines, elements also present in that same architecture.

A work that brings together all the arts

In this sense, the couturier's work is marked by a significant change in his career, which began almost in parallel with the proposal of the New Look. New Look (1947) by Christian Dior, which once again emphasized the female silhouette. Balenciaga, on the other hand, offered an image for the woman of the time that was far from the traditional canons.

After the Second World War, the Basque couturier dictated the rules of fashion with his innovative shapes(barrel line, babydoll...), babydollsack, balloon dresspeacock tail, among others). These creations were the result of an excellent geometric manipulation, standing out for their formal purity and supported by a deep technical knowledge of official document. The result was an extraordinary plastic expressiveness, product of an exercise of abstraction.

Therefore, it could be said that the Basque designer not only proposed a reading of the past, but also a look at tradition with the keys of the present. Abstraction is used in his work, on the one hand, as a filter in the reinterpretation of Spanish culture; and, on the other, as a language shared with works of art (through color and composition) and architecture of the time (through form and volume).

Although this artistic context often goes unnoticed in writings and research on the Basque designer, it is essential to understand his excellence not only as a fashion designer, but as a true genius of his time in terms of artistic disciplines.

Perhaps this is how the famous phrase attributed to him makes sense: "a good couturier must be an architect for patterns, a sculptor for form, a painter for color, a musician for harmony and a philosopher for measure".

This article has also been published in English in The Conversation Europa.

This article was originally published in The Conversation. Read the original.