Balenciaga

Balenciaga SAS is a high-end luxury fashion house founded in 1917 by the Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga in Bilbao, Spain and currently based in Paris, France.

Balenciaga had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as "the master of us all" by Christian Dior.

His bubble skirts and odd, feminine, yet "modernistic" silhouettes became the trademarks of the house. Balenciaga closed in 1972 and was reopened under new ownership in 1986. The brand is now owned by the luxury group Kering.

Several designers who worked for Balenciaga would go on to open their own successful couture houses, notably Oscar de la Renta (1949), Andre Courreges (1950), Emanuel Ungaro (1958), but his most famous and noted protégé was Hubert de Givenchy, who was the lone designer to side with Balenciaga against the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne and also the press over the scheduling of his shows.