Vintage Designer Clothing - Featured Designers

Vintage Designer Clothing
Featured Designers - Pierre Balmain
"Couture is architecture in movement."  Pierre Balmain
Pierre Balmain was born in 1914.  He first trained as an architect, and then received his training in fashion working under two of the preeminent designers of the era, Molyneux and Lucien Lelong.  He collaborated closely with Christian Dior while working for Lelong.   Balmain opened his design house in Paris in 1945.
Balmain sought elegance without lavishness in his couture, eschewing ornamentation and often using fur for hoods or trims.   He was a leading practitioner of the "New French Style" (or "New Look") of Paris couture following World War II and the "Jolie Madame" style of the mid-1950s, but was not hemmed into the heavily draped and embroidered styles of his early designs, as he changed to structural, uncluttered designs in the 1960s.  Balmain claimed that he, not Dior, deserved credit for the small-waisted, bell-shaped skirts that were a key component of the "New Look".
Balmain popularized the fur stole as an accessory.
He received the Neiman Marcus Award in 1955, and was awarded the Cavaliere Ufficiale del Merito Italiano by the President of Italy and named an Officier de la Légion d'Honneur by the President of France.
"Keep to the basic principles of fashion and you will always be in harmony with the latest trends without falling prey to them."  Pierre Balmain
Balmain was couturier to many film legends, and is most famous for designing the clothes Brigitte Bardot wore in And God Created Woman.
Balmain died in 1982, and the house of Pierre Balmain has continued, first under the leadership of Eric Mortensen (of whom Pierre Balmain said "He is more Balmain than me."), and then to Herve Pierre, Oscar de la Renta, Laurent Mercier, and now Christophe Lebourg.

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Featured Designers
Giorgio Armani
Balenciaga
Bally
Pierre Balmain
Burberry
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Pierre Cardin
Oleg Cassini
Roberto Cavalli
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Streets Ahead
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Diane Von Furstenberg
Stuart Weitzman

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