Evening Dress

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Artist/Maker	Eisa (maker) Balenciaga, Cristóbal (designer)
Place of origin	Spain (made) Madrid

Pink gazar silk evening dress with lace bustier. There is a built-in brassiere which forms the bodice section at the front. The dress itself is bagged out with a second layer and is cut from one rectangular piece of silk gazar. The gazar is mounted under the front skirt sections. The bow at the back is double folded with pleated tabs. The shoulders also have pleated tabs.

Object details

Categories	Fashion Evening Wear Formal Wear Womenswear Lace
Object type	Evening dress
Materials and techniques	Gazar silk with lace Gazar Silk Lace Lace Making
Brief description	Pink gazar silk evening dress with lace bustier, designed by Cristóbal Balenciaga for Eisa, Spain, winter 1965
Physical description	Pink gazar silk evening dress with lace bustier. There is a built-in brassiere which forms the bodice section at the front. The dress itself is bagged out with a second layer and is cut from one rectangular piece of silk gazar. The gazar is mounted under the front skirt sections. The bow at the back is double folded with pleated tabs. The shoulders also have pleated tabs.
Dimensions	Centre front length: 139.3cm Centre front seam length: 2cm Neck line circumference: 48.4cm Armscye circumference: 47.6cm Bustline circumference: 36in Skirt waist circumference: 68cm Skirt centre front length: 69cm Skirt centre back length: 133.56cm Skirt hem length: 6cm Bodice centre back length: 15.27cm Bodice side back length: 24.96cm Front neck drop length: 24.29cm Dimensions measured in LCF collaborative project May 2016
Gallery label	The strong architectural shape of this dress relies on its fabric: a stiff silk gazar which stands away from the body and holds its form. The main dress is made of a single piece joined at the back with no side seams – a characteristic of Balenciaga’s designs. A second panel of fabric hangs from the shoulders and is secured with bar tacks under the arms, creating the illusion of a loose, unstructured garment. Underneath, however, a stiff corset ensures a secure fit. As in many Balenciaga designs, the plain front of this ‘Tulip’ dress (as critics soon dubbed it) reserves interest for the back, with its large bow reminiscent of Japanese kimono. Evening dress Silk gazar Cristóbal Balenciaga (Eisa label), Madrid, 1965 Given by Miss Ava Gardner V&A: T.435-1985
Credit line	Given by Miss Ava Gardner
Object history	Registered File number 1985/1585. If the cost of his Paris salon was out of reach, there were other ways to buy a Balenciaga design. Some were sold less expensively under Balenciaga’s label Eisa in Spain, where labour costs were lower and cheaper fabrics might be used. Ava Gardner moved to Madrid in the 1950s. She found Spain ‘unspoiled . . . dramatic . . .and so god-damn cheap to live in, that it was almost unbelievable’. She bought Balenciaga designs both in Paris and at Eisa, which may have appealed to what she called her ‘frugal side’. Gardner spent her final years living around the corner from the V&A and donated several of her clothes to the museum. Gardner referred to her couture garments as her ‘babies’ and insisted on opening her wardrobes daily to let them ‘breathe’.
Association	Gardner, Ava Lavinia
Bibliographic references	Hamish Bowles, Balenciaga and Spain, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/Skira Rizzoli, 2011, pp. 46-7 (house photographs of back and front of model, no. 76 from winter 1965 collection in Paris; note that the jewelled strap holders are missing from the V&A example) Jouve, Marie-Andrée, and Jacqueline Demornex. Balenciaga. New York: Rizzoli, 1989. This dress appears in a photograph by Kublin, showing the back of the dress as being worn by a model. It is described as an 'Arum-lily' dress in pink marquisette, from Lucia's atelier, winter 1965. The Balenciaga Archives. The following excerpt is taken from Jouve, Marie-Andrée, and Demornex, Jacqueline. <i>Balenciaga</i>. New York: Rizzoli, 1989. "The collaboration with Gustave Zumsteg was [even more] important. During the sixties Abraham cloth was used for one third of his collections. Like other manufacturers, Zumsteg created materials especially for Balenciaga, complying with his needs and wishes. Balenciaga was able to select exactly what he wanted from hundreds of similar versions. On certain occasions they joined creative forces. Gazar, produced by Zumsteg in 1958, and Zagar (super-gazar, made in 1964), were more than simply materials. Zumsteg provided Balenciaga with a texture, a thickness, a stiffness and a weight as essential to the Master as Carrara marble to the sculptor". The following excerpt is taken from Miller, Lesley Ellis. Cristóbal Balenciaga (1895-1972): The Couturiers' Couturier. London: V & A Pub., 2007: "Another American client, whose dark beauty echoed that of so many Spanish women, was Ava Gardner... Sadly, in her autobiography, she does not mention that Balenciaga caught her attention, but he did - and the prices at his Spanish house [around half the price of pieces bought from his Parisian fashion house] may well have appealed to her 'frugal side'. Many of her clothes from the 1950s and 60s carry the EISA label, although some carry the Parisian label. Black dominates her surviving 'Spanish' wardrobe - a colour so beloved of Balenciaga that he made a single black dress with his own hands for each of his collections... Ava Gardner's black 'rags' often had dramatic trims (diamante bands of decoration on one garment from 1967, feathers on another) or were teamed with such striking contrast such as the ecru lace evening coat. Her wardrobe therefore embraced certain Spanish institutions: the bolero, lace and heavy embroidery."
Other numbers	1985/1585 - RF number 76 - Model number
Collection	Textiles and Fashion Collection
Accession number	T.435-1985

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Record created	June 24, 2009
Record URL	https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O357270/evening-dress-balenciaga-cristóbal/

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