My Top 10 Christobal Balenciaga Favorites From 1950

Since I am in the middle of another big batch of outfits, I am taking a break to share my favorite fashions by Christobal Balenciaga.

This jacket is stunning!  I was able to see it with my own eyes a few years ago in San Francisco.

Sandra Stillwell created a version of this jacket for her "Golden Gate Glamour" convention in 2011. The jacket was part of a huge collection of  separates called the "Cristobal Collection".  It is reversible, with a black side. I need to play around with this jacket more.

I love this look.

Sandra Stillwell also included this green wrap and red velvet hat in her "Cristobal Collection"

Photo by Lori Richards

I am running out of words to describe all these wonderful outfits.

 

This gown was also recreated for the 2011 convention.  I wish I had had the $$$$$ to buy it and the doll.

Balenciaga was having a big puffy sleeve moment in 1950 because I found three designs with them.

I love them too.

If I could find the right fabric, I would love to make this gown.  It would probably have to be custom made. I really need to learn how to use the embroidery part of my sewing machine.

LOVE!

The bodice detail in this dress is beautiful.

And of course there is this design.  I just finished a batch of these suits earlier this year.  What a job!

My Patriotic Modes Royale Collection

I know it isn't exactly the right time of the year to be posting these photos, but I just recently did this photo shoot and I didn't want to wait until July to blog about them.  Know myself, I will probably be distracted doing something else by that time.

These three outfits were inspired by Modes Royale patterns from the 50's.  My lovely blond beauties from left to right are:  Distant Venus restyled by me, Blue Avenue, and Suited For Fur restyled by Kathy Johnson.

Independent Miss

This outfit is adorable!  It was on my "to do" list, but when I saw Sandra Stillwell's version at last Summer's "Every Day Is a Holiday" I snatched one up for myself.  It is from Spring 1950.

I love that there is a photo and a drawing of this dress in the catalog.

The ensemble included the dress, belt, hat, gloves, and jewelry.  The shoes were borrowed from a different Sandra Stillwell outfit.

Liberty Belle

OK, I just made up the name of this outfit.  I never name my clothes, but since the other two outfits have names I needed one for mine.
 

 

  

This is from the Spring/Summer 1952 catalog.

The bow on the dress is pulled through a buttonhole on the jacket.

I made a large batch of these back in 2009.  It has been one of my most popular outfits ever.  I still get request from time to time to make more of them.  It is also the first pattern I created to sell.  I now have 24 patterns in my collection.

Firecracker

Sandra offered this outfit as a pre-order at last Summer's convention.  I knew I needed it to complete my collection.

This design is from 1950 also.

I love that Sandra changed the jacket to navy and added the navy straw hat.

This outfit included the dress, jacket, hat, gloves, belt, shoes and jewelry.

 Hopefully by Summer I will take more photos of my other red, white, blue outfits together.

The Balenciaga Collection

I just finished my very last batch ever of the Balenciaga suit with peplum style!  This time I made it in plum jacquard.

 I decided to photograph all three suits together before I shipped off all the plum suits.

I really need to learn how to photograph the JAMIEshow Genes without washing out their faces. Have I mentioned before that photography is not my favorite thing?

The hat is a pin from Jo Ann Fabrics.  I need to stock up on these.  They are fabulous! 

There are a lot of awesome possibilities for turning pins into high fashion doll hats.  I bought these two "hats" at Hobby Lobby

I love this new backdrop!

This morning I was excited to find this photo of a 1954 Balenciaga design on Pinterest.  I have more of the jacquard that I used for the other three suits in a dark red.  I will be making this suit out of the jacquard in the future.