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Balenciaga and
His Legacy: Haute Couture from the Texas Fashion Collection, to be
shown exclusively at the Meadows Museum in Dallas from Feb. 4 to June
17, is the first U.S. exhibition in more than 20 years to showcase the
work of Spanish-born designer Cristóbal Balenciaga. The Meadows
exhibition follows on the heels of a major retrospective in Paris dedicated
to Balenciaga, the man Christian Dior called the "Master of us all,"
and will be followed by another exhibition in Balenciaga's hometown of
Guetaria, Spain in late 2007.
Exhibition
- 70 original Balenciaga
designs as well as 20 original creations by Emanuel Ungaro, Hubert de
Givenchy, Oscar de la Renta and André Courrèges.
- This is the biggest
exhibition of its kind for the Texas Fashion Collection and the first
time many of these Balenciaga gowns have ever been publicly displayed.
- Dresses on display
include a black evening gown with a bustle trimmed with ermine tails,
a red velvet cocktail dress with pearl embroidery, and an evening cape
of double-faced pale pink silk constructed with only three seams. Also
included are a Givenchy-designed black silk damask ensemble worn by
Audrey Hepburn in the 1963 movie "Charade" and an ice blue
tulle gown sprinkled with crystals and an ice blue full length satin
coat made by Oscar de la Renta exclusively for Mrs. Laura Bush, which
the First Lady wore to the 55th Presidential Inaugural Balls in Washington,
D.C.
Balenciaga
- At its height the
House of Balenciaga employed 500 tailors, seamstresses, fitters, pattern
cutters, milliners and other specialists to fill thousands of orders
a year.
- Balenciaga designed
about 300 original ensembles a year.
- Clients included
Ingrid Bergman, Princess Grace of Monaco, Claire Booth Luce, Pauline
de Rothschild, Sophia Loren, Princess Radziwill, the Duchess of Windsor,
Countess Mona Von Bismarck, Doris Duke and Barbara Hutton.
- A Balenciaga dress
moved with the woman's body, placing attention on the woman wearing
the dress, not the dress itself.
Meadows
Museum
- One of the most
comprehensive and finest collections of Spanish art in the world, including
masterpieces by El Greco, Velázquez, Ribera, Murillo, Goya, Miró
and Picasso, among others.
- 10th-to- the-21st-century
Spanish Renaissance altarpieces, monumental Baroque canvases, exquisite
rococo oil sketches, polychrome wood sculptures, Impressionist landscapes,
modernist abstractions, Goya graphics and a selection of 20th-century
sculptures by Rodin, Giacometti, Maillol, Moore, Smith and Oldenburg
as well as works by Texas artists.
- Opened in 1965
as a gift to Southern Methodist University by the late Algur H. Meadows,
a Dallas oilman who amassed a collection of Spanish masterpieces during
his business travels to Spain. In 2001 a new neo-Palladian structure
with impressively lit painting galleries and extensive exhibition space
opened on campus. To learn more about the Meadows Museum, go to www.meadowsmuseumdallas.org.
- The Meadows Foundation
continues to support the museum and in 2006 bestowed a gift of $25 million,
the largest gift in the museum's history. To learn more about the Meadows
Foundation, go to www.mfi.org.
The
Texas Fashion Collection
- The Texas Fashion
Collection, part of the School of Visual Arts at the University of North
Texas, is housed in a 4,000-square-foot climate-controlled space on
the UNT campus.
- The collection
began in 1938 by Stanley and Edward Marcus to honor their aunt, Carrie
Marcus Neiman. It eventually merged with the Dallas Museum of Fashion
to create the extensive Texas Fashion Collection.
- The collection
was donated to UNT in 1972 and grew from 3,000 items to more than 15,000
today. To learn more about the Texas Fashion Collection, go to www.tfc.unt.edu.
Museum
Director and Exhibition Curator Bios
- Born in Madrid,
Mark Roglán is the first Spaniard to direct the 42-year-old Meadows
Museum. When he became director of the Meadows in 2005, he positioned
the institution for a new era of growth. His ten-year strategic plan
for the institution has helped it to secure the largest gift in the
museum's history. In one year Roglán has increased the museum's
membership rolls by 40 percent and attendance from 42,000 visitors a
year to nearly 60,000. He received his doctorate in art history from
the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and previously held curatorial
positions at the Prado Museum and the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University.
- Professor Myra
Walker has been the director and curator of the Texas Fashion Collection,
which is part of the School of Visual Arts at the University of North
Texas, since 1987. She teaches fashion history at UNT. Walker is serving
as guest curator at the Meadows Museum for Balenciaga and His Legacy:
Haute Couture from the Texas Fashion Collection. Walker is also curator
for a new exhibition space in downtown Dallas, Fashion on Main.
The
Fashionistas
- The Fashionistas
are a Dallas non-profit organization that is raising funds for a permanent
museum for the Texas Fashion Collection. Founded in 2005 by Heidi Dillon,
the Fashionistas organize a series of events each year that bring international
designers and other fashion professionals to Dallas for receptions,
book-signings and lectures. The Fashionistas are contributors to the
exhibition's symposium, Balenciaga and His Legacy, Saturday,
Feb. 10 at SMU.
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