Webster Miami Welcomes Balenciaga.Edition

Last night the Webster Miami opened its gallery space for a special retail exhibition of Balenciaga.Edition pieces—the largest collection of archival interpretations shown to date in the U.S. While New Yorkers have access to an unprecedented Balenciaga retrospective at the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute, those who have the good fortune to be in Miami this winter can get an ample dose of the Spanish Master at the Webster through January 5.

Here, Laure Heriard Dubreuil—co-founder of the multi-brand boutique and a Balenciaga alum herself—took a few of the Edition pieces for a spin.

Do you have a favorite piece from the collection? Well, I’m partial to the embroidered dress. It reminds me of my grandmother’s first bal des debutante dress. It was exactly the same pale blue color and embroidered in silver, just like this. She gave it to my sister and I to play with when we were little girls and we’d spend hours up in her attic trying it on and running around in her shoes.

And how did you feel when you tried it on tonight? Like a princess going to my first ball!

Tell me about that stunning white dress you had on earlier. For me it’s the perfect wedding dress. It’s also an important design because it’s patterned with carnations, which were the favorite flowers of Cristobal Balenciaga.

You know quite a bit about the house. I worked at Balenciaga for many years and I was part of the team that started the Edition collection in Fall 2004. It was the first time Nicolas [Ghesquière] went into the archives to pick a few items to reproduce as they originally were. Some of the pieces are one of a kind, like the gold, sari-esque dress. It was completely hand-embroidered at Lesage. So much research went into sourcing the right fabrics and materials to recreate the pieces that some of them took years to reproduce. So needless to say, this project is very dear to me.

How many Balenciaga pieces do you own—in addition to the jacket, shoes and skirt you’re wearing now? [Laughs] I think have one of everything. I’m crazy for Balenciaga! It’s part of my DNA now.

Balenciaga Edition will be on view at the Webster Miami’s third-floor gallery through January 5. Select pieces from the collection will remain on sale through January.

Photo Credit: Camilo Rios