Founded in 1918 by the Basque designer Cristobal Balenciaga, the house emerged as one of the great design establishments in the early decades of the twentieth century, and re-emerged around the turn of the new millennium as one of the greats of the twenty-first. Championed alike by actual queens (of Spain and Belgium) and the queens of café society and Hollywood (Babe Paley, Gloria Guinness, Marlene Dietrich), Balenciaga did nothing less than redefine the female silhouette. Throughout the mid-century years, he introduced forms that at first looked awkward or simply unattractive, but, as the eye adjusted, became the latest word in chic: the sack, the baby doll, the balloon skirt, the bracelet sleeve (a 7/8 length that hit just shy of the wrist)..
