"It isn't all Mink!"
The Jacket as a statement: defining Balmain.
"La Jolie Madame"
The man and his time
Pierre Alexandre Balmain was born in 1914 in Savoy, France.
He inherited his passion and talent for design from his family, as his aunts and mother owned a Boutique, where little Pierre used to play while the women were sewing dresses. After a wrong start in Architectural studies, Balmain started focusing on clothes design, obtaining great success from the very beginning, when Robert Piguet (famous swiss designer and parfumeur) bought three pieces of his collection.
He started working alongside Lucien Lelong, staying in Paris during the German occupation. The years of the Second World War caused a significant damage to the French fashion scene, as many couture houses were forced to close and the shortage of materials made the work of the few that remained opened even harder.
It was only after the liberation of Paris by the Allied Forces in June 1944 that the Parisian fashion industry resumed activity, and Haute Couture started to show collections again.
In 1945 Pierre Balmain finally opened his own Fashion House, whose long bell skirts and tight waist blouses soon became its signature.
It was a time of great change for Europe, as its citizens very strongly desired to go back to the pre-war normality and moreover, to have a fast recover from the great devastation and grief that WWII had brought.
Pierre Balmain
Going back to basics involved, ironically, a great amount of innovations in every aspect of life: society had changed its schemes and women had acquired more independence and they were achieving various civil liberties, such as suffrage.
It is really interesting to observe how, while the mind was wondering towards the future, the sense of style was highly influenced by nostalgia, with a narrow waist and a full long skirt that was later to become known as Christian Dior's "New Look".
Pierre Balmain had a really strong personality and knew exactly how he wanted the Balmain woman to look like: glamorous, chic and "as the situation wanted her to be". Being glamorous didn't come to the expense of being comfortable anymore, and Balmain's clothes seemed to prove themselves just as the right solution for a perfect everyday outfit for the perfect "Jolie Madame".
In 1949 Clifford Coffin immortalizes a mannequin in red hat and suit Balmain dress for Vogue Paris, proof of the established success of the line.
The Balmain jacket would become a sign of recognition for the Parisian Maison, defining the silhouette of the woman, as Balmain himself liked to shape its creations directly on the mannequin to make the fabric fit perfectly on the model's body. Looking at this red, tight waisted jacket, it is clear that his Mesdames were dressed to be seen, and were as well willing to pay a high price for their pieces of Haute Couture.
Clifford Coffin Photography
"I began to remember my pre-war self. I remembered I had once been chic."
Ginette Spanier
Pierre Balmain and actress Vivien Leigh during a fitting Ginette Spanier, directrise, with commercial buyers. A/w collection 1953-54
Roger Viollet / Georges Kelaidites photography
"Balmain would die rather than know beforehand how far Balenciaga's skirts are going to be from the ground. But every opening day the incredible happens, and there are all the great houses with (very roughly) the same shaped silhouette. Balmain explains this by saying that there is a natural evolution to line."
Ginette Spanier
