Museum aims to capitalise on label’s current buzz with celebration of original designer’s ‘uncompromising creativity’
To Christian Dior, he was “the master of us all”. Oscar de la Renta believed he was the only fashion designer “who never did anything in bad taste”, and his protege, Hubert de Givenchy, called him “my religion”.
While Cristóbal Balenciaga is revered throughout fashion history, his name has been overshadowed on the world stage by the blockbuster names of Dior and Chanel. But Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion – which opens at the V&A on 27 May– aims to change that, channelling the fashion week buzz around Balenciaga’s current avant-garde designer, Demna Gvasalia, in order to make 2017, the house’s centenary year, a fashion moment.