Hispanic DesignersCristobal Balenciaga
 
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Cristobal Balenciaga Eisaguirre (1895-1972) was born in Guetaria, a fishing village in the Basque region of Spain. His mother, a dressmaker, taught dressmaking to the girls of the village and to the young Balenciaga. His deftness with the needle was evident at an early age when he successfully copied a Paris-designed dress for one of his mother's wealthy clients.

After apprenticing with tailors in San Sabastian and Madrid, he opened his own shop in San Sabastian in 1919, frequently traveling to Paris to purchase couture dresses to study and to sell. Eventually he opened two more houses in Spain, naming them after his mother, Eisa. The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War forced Balenciaga to leave Spain in 1937 and to establish a fashion house in Paris.

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