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How Cristobal Balenciaga Became King of the Paris Fashion Scene (part two)
number 020
LaToya Allen
October 21, 2024
Hey team,
LaToya here! Welcome back to The Strategy Files, the newsletter where I study the most successful people in, art, music, fashion, and culture. You apply it to your startup, agency, or side hustle. It’s a team effort!
Today’s Strategies:
Always take advantage of luck - it doesn’t last
Reinvest profits so you can expand your business
Learn from people who your peers consider greats in your industry
From 1914 to 1918, most of Europe dealt with World War One. Non-essential businesses struggled to retain the raw materials, labor, and capital needed to stay in business. But once again, luck was on Cristobal’s side; Spain was a neutral country. He had everything he needed to keep moving forward.
In 1916, at just 21 years old, Cristobal was hired to dress the Queen of Spain. In 1919, he opened his first shop in San Sebastian; six years later he opened another. Finances were tight, but he did something you and I have talked about before: he reinvested the profits back into the business. He opened two more fashion houses - one in Madrid and another in Barcelona.
Even with his level of success, Cristobal was still committed to learning more about his craft. He found a friend and mentor in designer Madeleine Vionnet; Madeleine was from the generation of designers that came before him and one of the most successful designers of her generation. Dior admired her work, saying, “no one has carried the art of dressmaking farther than Vionnet”. Vionnet invented the bias cut, which, according to the author of Balenciaga's biography was fashions version of “inventing the wheel."
When they met, Cristobal was an expert at tailoring clothes and working with a high-end clientele. But it was Madeleine who taught him how to stop recreating existing designs and start being more creative. It was this relationship that took him from being a craftsman to an innovative genius.
But everything changed in 1936 when Cristobal fled Spain as a political refugee.
Til next,
LaToya