Coat
Brand
Balenciaga
(French, founded 1937)
Designer
Cristóbal Balenciaga
(1895 - 1972)
1961
Wool
Gift of Wendy Jackson
Object number78.75.1
The great couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga possessed an unparalleled mastery of tailoring. A brilliant example is this deceptively simple, one-seamed coat made of ivory and navy blue wool plaid. Crafted of a single piece of fabric, the coat morphs from a simple, flat garment into a three-dimensional form with trapezoidal gussets inset at the shoulders and a collar shaped with 20 irregular darts. Each seam is so meticulously pieced to match that the grid pattern is never misaligned.
DescriptionOne seam coat in light grey wool coating with overscaled navy blue plaid; engineered, draped and cut in single major piece, with all darts, seams and bound buttonholes coinciding with grid of plaid; double breasted cocoon coat with roll collar shaped with 18 darts invisibly placed between lines of plaid; vertical slit pockets; coutureCollections
Exhibitions