I have just finished reading Fashion Climbing: A Memoir with Photographs by Bill Cunningham; to him true genius was Balenciaga. He wrote, “His designs were purely his own ideas, with no outside influence. He broke every rule in the fashion book, with new shapes and construction, then thumbed his nose at the phonies by throwing ropes of rubies over tweed suit jackets, adding two diamond necklaces at a time to an evening dress.” Cunningham had “found the rainbow pot of gold.”
This reminded me of Bruce Chatwin’s book, What Am I Doing Here. At the end of his interview with ninety-six year old Madeleine Vionnet in her home in the Seizieme Arrondissement in Paris, “she cherishes the memory of Balenciaga, ‘Un ami … un vrai!’”