Le ma?tre
As a 22 year old Basque boy Cristobál started his first Haute Couture House in San Sebastián 1917, Spain. That was the closest town from his village Getaria. He took the step to move to Paris 20 years later. The war came and Paris was occupied by the Nazis who made it hard for the designers to import textiles and was forced to design with limitations. The Balenciaga House survived and after the war he was already one of the most respected in Paris. The Americans started to copy his and Christian Diors Haute Couture collections which made them to boycott the magazines. The magazines showed pictures of the creations which made the design public and open for the American companies to copy. This forced the Haute Couture houses to start with Prêt-à-porter (ready to wear) which Balenciaga refused to start with. His last collection was presented 1968, 4 years before he past away.
Today Balenciaga is owned by the French luxury group Kering who acquired the House 2001. https://www.kering.com/en/ Kering owns 11 Houses plus their own 2 brands. Brands as Gucci, Brioni, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen etc. Its a public company with the ticker: 1KER