LA Perse by Cristobal Balenciaga: An Historical, Scientific and Conservation Study

Abstract

The Kunstmuseum Den Haag (hereafter KMDH) in the Netherlands holds one of four known La Perse Cristóbal Balenciaga jackets made in 1946. Previously owned by the opera singer Else Rijkens (1898–1953), the bolero-style jacket is richly hand-embroidered and constructed from white satin silk in the front and a contrasting black crepe silk in the back. The jacket has a matching toque, and a black crepe silk evening gown is visible under the two white satin silk bands at the front of the bolero, completing the set. La Perse is now considered one of the most emblematic pieces that Cristóbal Balenciaga made after the Second World War, with its rich hand-embroidery traditionally attributed by different fashion experts to the Lesage atelier. Through international collaborations between museums, conservators, curators, and cultural research institutions, this research will suggest that this attribution is inaccurate. The jacket has been part of the KMDH collection since 1956, but conservation issues with the embroidery motifs were not identified until 2020. Conservation research and historical interpretation were carried out in close collaboration between KMDH and the Instituto Valenciano de Conservación, Restauración e Investigación de Bienes Culturales in Spain (here after IVCR + i). The resulting data, collated with comparisons with embroidery samples found at the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris (hereafter MAD), as well as the assistance of the Balenciaga archives and of the historical embroidery house Hurel, leads to the conclusion that the embroidery work was made not by Lesage but by the notable embroidery house Rébé.

Keywords:

• Cristobal Balenciaga
• La Perse
• fashion conservation
• haute couture
• Lesage
• Rébé
• Embroidery

Acknowledgments

The authors would especially like to thank all the people who have been involved in this research project, but, first and foremost we would like to express our gratitude to Madelief Hohé and Doede Hardeman. We would also like to extend our appreciation to Marie-Sophie Carron de la Carrière, Marie Pierre Ribère, Gaspard de Massé, Sofie Parikka, Miren Arzalluz, Stephanie Wood, Elizabeth-Anne Haldane, Joanne Hackett, Rachael Lee, Kaelyn Garcia, Adriana Rizzo, Mme Marie-Andrée Jouve, Hamish Bowles, Rosie H. Cook, Alazne Porcel and Enrico Quinto for their kind help and guidance during this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Two other almost identical jackets are preserved in Spain at the Cristóbal Balenciaga Museoa in Getaria (accession number CBM 2012.11 and CBM 2002.12, both labeled with “Balenciaga Paris”) and another one belonging to Museo del Traje in Madrid (accession number CE112894. Label “EISA”).

2 Commercially known as celluloid, it was made of natural materials in combination with highly flammable components. Chemicals, such as camphor, were sometimes used to reduce this instability. As of 1920, celluloid was forbidden due to its extreme hazardousness, and was replaced by cellulose acetate after 1950 (Matthews David 2017, 464, 493).

3 For more specific information about its degradation components and conservation measures: Plastics Historical Society. Accessed 9 December 2020. http://plastiquarian.com/?page_id=14326.

4 Acid-base indicator papers that turn from blue to green to yellow when acidic vapor is present. The more yellow the color, the more acidic vapor is present. The quicker the color change, the higher the acid concentration.

5 The Espacenet website is an historical archive of all patents registered in Europe. The last registration for Chenille threads was made in 1941 by DuPont. Espacenet. Accessed 24 December 2020. https://worldwide.espacenet.com/.

6 The boteh pattern, commonly referred to as paisley, can be traced back to ancient Babylonian civilizations. It is thought to be a representation of a floral spray combined with a cypress tree, a symbol of life and eternity. In the Persian language the design is known as Boteh Jegheh and it has been used in Iran since the Sassanid Dynasty (AD 224 to AD 651), and later by the Safavid dynasty (1501–1736). Balenciaga included them in his collections from a very early stage.

7 From 1974 to 1984, Bégué made a series of donations, parting with his archive which contained more than 5000 embroidery samples. These donations were made to five different fashion and textiles museums in France and Spain: the Palais Galliera and the MAD in Paris, the Musée des Tissus in Lyon, the Musée du Pays Rabastinois near Toulouse and the Design Museum in Barcelona. Those collections are representative of the work that Bégué did after 1934, under the new house name “Rébé.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

César Rodríguez Salinas

César Rodríguez Salinas has been Head of the Fashion and Textile Conservation Department at the Kunstmusuem Den Haag, in The Netherlands since 2018. He studied Fine Arts at the University of the Basque Country specializing in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage. Awarded an MSc on Analytical Techniques applied to the Preservation of Cultural Heritage by the University Pablo de Olabide in Sevilla (Spain), since 2011 he has worked solely on textiles and dress at different international institutions including the Cristóbal Balenciaga Museoa (CBM) in Spain and Mode Museum of Antwerp (MoMu) in Belgium among other institutions. [email protected]

Nadia Albertini

Nadia Albertini is an embroidery designer and archivist at Maison Hurel, the oldest embroidery atelier in Paris. She has designed embroideries for historical houses such as Chloé, Chanel and Balmain and has also collaborated with American brands Jason Wu, The Row and Gabriela Hearst. She is author of the first monograph on the embroidery atelier Rébé, titled Broderies: Haute Couture (forthcoming Gourcuff-Gradenigo, 2021). [email protected]

Livio Ferrazza

Livio Ferrazza, PhD, Science Conservator has worked at the Instituto Valenciano de Conservación, Restauración e Investigación de Bienes Culturales (IVCR + i) since 2008. He studied Chemistry at the Universitat Jaume I of Castellón (Spain) and a degree in Sciences for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage at La Sapienza University in Rome. In 2014 he received an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation research grant for the conservation programme at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, where he evaluated the risk of using various cleaning systems for polychromy on stone. He has worked for different heritage institutions, such as the Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España in Madrid (IPCE). [email protected]