In a 1969 New York Times article Rachel Lambert Mellon - American horticulturalist, garden designer, stylesetter, philanthropist, art collector and heir to the Listerine fortune - stated that "nothing should be noticed." This remark was referenced to garden design, her life passion, but in a way it could be referred also to her life in general (she was a reserved woman and gave rare interviews) and to her personal style. Among her favourite designers there was Cristóbal Balenciaga.
The Getaria-based Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum is currently remembering her with a dedicated event: "The Rachel L. Mellon Collection" exhibition (until 25th January 2018) celebrates this grand dame of American society as a client and longtime personal friend of Balenciaga. The exhibition is also part of the events that celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Balenciaga shop, opened in Calle Vergara, San Sebastián, in 1917.
Known as Bunny, Rachel Lowe Lambert was born in 1910 and was the eldest child of Gerard Barnes Lambert, president of the Gillette Safety Razor Company, whose father founded Lambert pharmaceuticals and invented Listerine.
Married to wealthy businessmen (her second husband was art patron and philanthropist Paul Mellon, son of Andrew W. Mellon, one of the world's richest financiers and treasury secretary to three presidents), Bunny led a carefree life of parties and travels, but her real passion was gardening, even though she never received a formal training.
Her first professional job, at 23, was a garden for the designer Hattie Carnegie, who paid her with a coat and dress. Many other clients followed, among them also her friend Jacqueline Kennedy.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy asked Mellon to redesign the White House Rose Garden and, after Kennedy died, she focused on the White House East Garden (later called the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden). In France, Mellon created a landscape design for the home of Hubert de Givenchy and assisted with a restoration of the potager du Roi in Versailles.
She also designed landscapes for many of the Mellons' properties: her main residence, Oak Spring Farms - a 4,000-acre estate - was a botanist's paradise, it included a vast garden, greenhouses and a library with an extensive collection of rare botanical and horticultural books, manuscripts, prints and illustrations.
Her refined taste and practical expertise are combined in the exhibition at the Balenciaga museum that features around 90 garments and other collector pieces such as original sketches, accessories and photographs.
Most of the objects displayed are part of the museum's archive and come from Bunny's last legacy of 400 pieces (this is the most important collection originating from a single donor in the museum's archives).
The Rachel L. Mellon Collection exhibition - under the direction of Hubert de Givenchy and with the collaboration of Eloy Martínez de la Pera and Igor Uria as associate curators - presents to the public a careful selection of garments and documents and offers a different perspective of Balenciaga's Haute Couture, through the personal filter of this extraordinary lady's taste and way of life.
Mellon loved beauty and collecting art and rare books, she therefore also had a passion for her wardrobe. They say that, once when she visited Balenciaga's atelier, she found him sewing a bolero jacket and asked to buy it. The couturier told her it hadn't been made for her and it wasn't her size, but she insisted, explaining she wasn't going to wear it, she just wanted it to be the first thing she saw every morning when she woke up. Haute couture was therefore a form of art for Mellon.
Bunny met Balenciaga through a mutual friend - Jean Schlumberg, who designed jewels for Tiffany & Co. Their friendship lasted for 12 years - from 1956 to 1968, the year the couturier retired and Balenciaga recommended the glamorous client to Hubert de Givenchy, who started making designs for Mellon. According to the records at the Balenciaga Museum, Mellon bought from the atelier 120 day suits, 50 coats, 40 cocktail dresses and 25 evening gowns, just to mention a few of the pieces in the collection.
Mellon often ordered from the couturier more copies of the same design to keep them in her mansions in Antigua, Nantucket, Oyster Harbors, Cape Cod, New York, Oak Spring Farm and Paris to avoid carrying her luggage around. The house of Balenciaga also produced for Mellon accessories and underwear.
Balenciaga created some pieces especially for her (floral prints and flower motifs obviously abound) or adapted a few of his most famous designs for Mellon (the pattern of an evening gown may have been altered for example to create an ample blouse with wide pockets that the horticulturalist could use while working in her gardens), so that the exhibition offers a different perspective on Balenciaga's work.
Highlights of this exhibition include a blue coat with a matching dress, both characterised by a sculptural bubble-like silhouette; a cocktail dress with a balloon-skirt with a print inspired by Renaissance decoration motifs; an evening dress with an asymmetrical skirt in a luxurious blue fabric adorned with black velvet floral motifs; a sculptural dress made with gazar by Swiss manufacturer Abraham and a pink gown from 1961 inspired by the dress donned by Santa Casilda in Francisco de Zurbarán's painting.
Mellon represents the glamorous and glorious times of Haute Couture, but this exhibition also reminds visitors that Balenciaga was for Bunny a genuine friend and fashion artisan. As she stated about him: "One of the special joys of my life was knowing Cristóbal Balenciaga. He was a dear friend. He designed my clothes for more than ten years. He understood luxury and simplicity with profound sensitivity. His evening dresses and coats were indescribably fascinating. His daytime designs perfectly adapted to the life of his clients. Being a working gardener, I had big cotton or linen blouses with plain blue denim skirts. His charm, smile, and dedication to design were reflected in his calm presence."
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