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- Accessories
Then: Balenciaga on the runway, 1968. Now: Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière’s duppioni silk and calfskin bag, $1,375, at Balenciaga, balenciaga.com; Barneys New York, barneys.com.
Round Two
November 2010
In 1968 Richard Nixon was elected president, Jacqueline Kennedy married
Aristotle Onassis, and Hair debuted on Broadway. It was also the year
when, five decades after opening his atelier in San Sebastián, Spain,
Cristóbal Balenciaga presented his final collection and retired. (As an
act of mourning, Countess Mona von Bismarck shut herself behind closed
doors for three days.) While his career was lengthy, Balenciaga designed
only a few handbags. One of his last, a simple tote free of hardware and
bling, is a favorite of the company’s current creative director, Nicolas
Ghesquière. When researching his prespring 2011 collection, he
discovered a 1968 photograph of a Balenciaga runway model carrying the
bag and wearing a giant basket hat and a striped shorts set. Now, as
part of his Edition series, Ghesquière has designed a replica in
duppioni silk with the same classic leather flap closure and roomy
silhouette (he also added three new colors). “It truly stands the test
of time,” says Ghesquière. “There is something about the round,
voluminous cocoon shape that is part of Balenciaga’s DNA.”
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