There may be countless fashion exhibitions out there, but sometimes the most original ones aren't necessarily organised in the best known museums around the world or by famous curators. There is indeed a very interesting temporary exhibition at the moment at the Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum entitled Balenciaga Ezartzen (until 5th January).
A group of students from the Architecture School (Gipuzkoa campus) of the University of the Basque Country analysed from the architectural perspective various designs by Cristóbal Balenciaga.
The students then proceeded to design and build prototypes of 11 chairs or seats inspired by them. The results of the methodology employed by the students are currently exhibited in the museum’s multipurpose room.
The principles the students followed are more or less the same ones characterising Balenciaga's creations: emphasis on volumes, complex simplicity, precise lines, minimalist geometric shapes, elegant silhouettes and strongly sculptural outlines.
Some of the students reinterpreted day wear from the '50s, others focused on evening wear from the '60s; some moved from trademark pieces such as the "Tulip" dress or the "Baby Doll" line, others were inspired by a specific motif or feature, but all the designs look intriguing.
An evening dress from 1962 inspired for example a rigid wooden bench; the iconic black evening silk dress from 1967 that enveloped the wearer framing her head and shoulders, developed into a stainless steel chair with a structure based on the "rigid Vs softness" dichotomy.
The colour of some of the designs taken into consideration became the starting point for a few projects: a 1939 black and ivory satin evening dress was transformed into a black chair with a white frame; the 1965 indigo blue silk evening dress led instead to an electric blue modernist armchair.
Some students focused on futuristic shapes: Balenciaga's iconic 1967 solemn silk gazar one seam wedding gown matched with an extremely large hat with an elliptical brim was turned into a modular chair, while an orange wool crepe day dress from 1968 with an oval motif around the arm inspired an armchair in Joe Colombo's style.
All the designs compare the structure of the body and the structure of the object in space, taking into account paramenters such as strength, surfaces and mobility.
This isn't the first project of this kind that employs Balenciaga's designs to create pieces of furniture and interior design: for a previous project students reworked Balenciaga's pieces to create lamps and light fixtures.
Looking forward to see what the architecture students will come up with in the next Balenciaga-inspired project.
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