Gertrude Stein on Pierre Balmain’s 1945 Couture Debut—Plus, a Look Back at the Designer’s Best Looks in Vogue

Laird Borrelli-Persson

This season, Olivier Rousteing will add couturier to his résumé as he relaunches the category at the house that Pierre Balmain built. Now a shadowy figure of fashion history, Balmain was born in 1914 in Savoy and came to Paris as a young man to study architecture, which he soon abandoned in favor of his first love, fashion. He trained at the house Molyneux and worked alongside Christian Dior chez Lucien Lelong. Though Balmain and Dior discussed a joint venture, in the end they forged individual paths. Both are credited with helping revive the French fashion industry postwar, with varying aesthetics. While Dior dreamed of a femme fleur, Balmain was perfecting the chic, if staid, jolie madame look, which was conservative, correct, and aimed at a mature woman. “A garment made by Pierre Balmain was the very quintessence of haute couture,” noted Diana Vreeland.

Balmain worked with big stars including Marlene Dietrich, Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, and Josephine Baker on their various creative projects; he is most remembered for his work during the golden age of couture. Respected and hardworking, he sketched his last collection on his deathbed.

Today, the house of Balmain is known for glamour and shine and sex. While it’s true that Pierre Balmain was not averse to some glitz—he designed a dress for Queen Sirikit of Thailand made of 24-karat gold embossed in crystal, and a character in Judith Krantz’s 1978 novel, Scruples, worked at the house—this designer was solidly on the side of the establishment. The stars of his front row were Gertrude “A rose is a rose is a rose” Stein and Alice B. Toklas, American expats associated with the intelligentsia. Rousteing’s shows are draws to the trendsetting Kardashians. New day, new approach. Still, then as now, new entries on the couture calendar are few, and cause a stir. In advance of Rousteing’s star turn, we reprint the essay that Stein penned for Vogue, 74 years ago when Pierre Balmain made his debut on Rue François 1er.

Below, the full text of Gertrude Stein’s essay and a look back at some of Pierre Balmain’s best appearances in Vogue.

<cite class="credit">Portrait by André Ostier; illustrations and fashion photograph by Cecil Beaton, <em>Vogue</em>, December 1, 1945</cite>
Portrait by André Ostier; illustrations and fashion photograph by Cecil Beaton, Vogue, December 1, 1945

“Pierre Balmain—New Grand Succès of the Paris Couture Remembered from Darker Days...” by Gertrude Stein, was first published in the December 1, 1945, issue of Vogue.

There were dark days when we first knew Pierre Balmain. We met his mother in ’39 at Aix-les-Bains and she said she had a son up there in there in the army in the snows of Savoy and he read my books, would I dedicate him one, naturally I was pleased and then came ’40 and the defeat, and we wondered about Pierre Balmain whom we had never seen but who was up there in the snows, and then at last we heard he was safe and then he was back and then we met him. He used to come over on his bicycle, we were many miles away but nobody minded that and the winter was cold and we were cold and he made us some nice warm suits and a nice warm coat, and Alice Toklas insists that one of her suits was as wonderful as any he was showing at his opening and there was no reason why not, after all didn’t he design it and didn’t he come over on his bicycle to oversee and was it not as it all just is in dark days, there are high spots. Well we got to know him better and better, some children played some of my plays and he showed us the chic of making a very tall girl taller by putting her on a footstool. These were nice days in those dark days and then Pierre used to go to and fro from Paris, and he brought us back a breath of our dear Paris and also darning cotton to darn our stockings and our linen, that was Pierre, and then he kept moving around as young men had to do in those days, not to be sent away into Germany and then there was the liberation and then in Paris here we all were and Pierre just full of what he was going to do and we were sure he would do it and he has. I suppose there at the opening, we were the only ones who had been clothed in all those long years in Pierre Balmain’s clothes, we were proud of it. It is nice to know the young man when he is just a young man and nobody knows, and now well I guess very soon now anybody will know. And we were so pleased and proud. Yes we were.

Pierre Balmain’s Best Looks in Vogue

“Mlle. Laure de Noailles in Balmain’s white tulle ball dress. . . . [She] is photographed here in one of the most beautiful debutante dresses in Paris, by Balmain, new sensation of the Paris couture. The dress has a foaming full skirt; its pleated, strapless bodice is crossed with a deep-colored spray of holly leaves and berries; its waist is knotted round with a narrow green velvet cord.”
Balmain’s nipped-in cutaway coat with matching slim pencil skirt, striped button-down cardigan, topped with a hat trimmed with a striped bow.

Pierre Balmain’s Best Looks in Vogue

Balmain’s nipped-in cutaway coat with matching slim pencil skirt, striped button-down cardigan, topped with a hat trimmed with a striped bow.
Drawn by Eric, Vogue, April 1, 1946
“Paris Soir: The ballet skirt. Paris alternative to the hobble skirt. First, dinner tutu of Lelong. Second, Balmain’s ankle-length Petrushka.”

Pierre Balmain’s Best Looks in Vogue

“Paris Soir: The ballet skirt. Paris alternative to the hobble skirt. First, dinner tutu of Lelong. Second, Balmain’s ankle-length Petrushka.”
Drawn by Eric, Vogue, April 15, 1946
“Young Beauties from France: Mlle. Douce de Fraguier, daughter of the Marquis and Marquise de Fraguier, studies Hindu art. She swims, plays tennis well, rides superbly—week days in the Bois; week ends in the country. For her shining prettiness, her model’s figure, she chooses this straight beige and white wool jacket, straight beige skirt, from Balmain.”
“New Look from Paris: At Madame [Helena] Rubinstein’s request Pierre Balmain designed [this look]. A cast of a perfect figure; Balmain blue rayon crepe. Worn here with pailletted shawl and bag of black chiffon. The jewels, John Rubel.”
“The long, long coat: Long coat: Paris, this winter, has a new country coat—big raglan shoulders, big cuffs, and a new full length, almost to the ground. Balmain designed it in beige wool, lined it with light greens. Here, Princess Cyril Troubetzkoy wears it. Young and chic, with waves of light hair, she tosses the long coat easily over dark grey flannel trousers, a grey flannel shirt.”
“Loelia, Duchess of Westminster: The Duchess of Westminster is tall, of uncontrived distinction. She is the very model of a model housekeeper, does skilled quantities of needlework, which decorate her Grosvenor Square flat, her Queen Anne house in Surrey. She is a contributing editor of British House & Garden. Like many Englishwomen, she wears tweeds and ball dresses exceptionally well, is photographed in grey net dress made for her by Balmain. Jewels from Van Cleef & Arpels. French & Co. background.”
“Paris Evening Ideas: The Fur-Bound Sari. Balmain wraps a day-time sari of fabric and fur. Here, a leopard-hemmed length of black wool broadcloth. It is worn over a plain black dress with a jab of knife-pleats behind the knee. Close, deep hat of peaked gold lamé.”
“Paris Dressed to the Nines for Eight and After. Mermaid skirts. Left: Jacques Fath tops a sinuous velvet skirt with a satin bodice, squared and slit, pearl-bead-embroidered; attaches a trailing satin stole; adds a feathered evening cloche of stitched net. Right: Balmain designs a close-clinging mermaid dress in brown velvet, the strapless bodice topped by a bias fold and big, jutting bow of beige satin, the skirt curved up in front, flipping out below the knee in back—his new line.”
“For the First Time Original Models from the Paris Collections. By Balmain: Vogue Pattern No. 1054. Here, one of the liveliest suit-dresses of the collection: a scarlet wool jacket-top, tab-buttoned, snug-waisted; a black wool skirt with scarlet insets. The top angles out over the skirt.”
“Balmain: Flat back; front drapery. The eventful skirt, a Balmain specialty, based this season on a simple sheath. Back view: flat. Front view: a twist winds up in a flying fold, taffeta backed, side swung.”
“Balmain Ball Dress: R.S.V.P. to the best invitation of the season. The bodice laces up the back to make perfect a near-perfect young figure. Skirt, a bold plaid polonaise of taffeta.”
“Paris Compliments . . . Spoken in the Evening: Mrs. Thomas (Mary) Phipps of New York, photographed, on her recent visit to Paris, in the Galerie des Glaces at Versailles, wearing Balmain’s wide satin ball dress of shining pearl grey, the bodice and the hip-low sash, white satin—no better tribute possible for Mrs. Phipps’ blond good looks.”
“The Flower Image: Further Analyzed. A pretty picture of Infanta-ilism here—a dress of poppy cotton organdie puffing wide over a taffeta underskirt. Designed by Pierre Balmain–New York. (The setting [by Marcel Vertès]: the studio of a mythical and most contrariwise painter—out of a surrealistic still-life, he creates a portrait of alive and classic beauty.)”
“Paris Furring, Sealskin slip-cover cape: Balmain. The new movement at the shoulders of Balmain’s darkly striped tweed dress—a close-shaped cape of black Alaska sealskin, that slips over the head and closes invisibly via a hidden zipper. The head it’s slipped over here, wearing one of Paulette’s new “cagoulard” caps, a black jersey hood cut long enough to form a gilet.”
Balmain dress with skirt of Ducharne silk velour and richly embroidered top with 3/4 sleeves in satin by Lesage.

Pierre Balmain’s Best Looks in Vogue

Balmain dress with skirt of Ducharne silk velour and richly embroidered top with 3/4 sleeves in satin by Lesage.
Drawn by Eric, Vogue, October 1, 1955
“Paris arrival—trains. From Balmain, the garnet red that punctuated the paleness of the Collections—like a comma, not an exclamation point. Softness, vapourous nature prints, chiffon, go with garnet often. What Balmain added: a sheath look that blouses over a leather belt, an air-vent of bareness at the back, a superbly cut train of paper-fan pleats.”
Mme. Monique de Nervo wearing Balmain’s black silk-jersey evening dress.

Pierre Balmain’s Best Looks in Vogue

Mme. Monique de Nervo wearing Balmain’s black silk-jersey evening dress.
Photographed by Karen Radkai, Vogue, November 15, 1958
“An Evening’s Worth of Feathered Tulle. Evening dazzle here . . . a tulle dress with a burst of pseudo-feathers, for a great ball anywhere in the world. Ball dress that could put a sonneteer back in business—white nylon tulle, scattered with gold paillettes, and rayed with iridescent pheasant-feather ribbons. Dress by Balmain. Coiffure by Carita.”
“Paris: Long velvet dinner suit. Seep brown for evening. Pale-peach chiffon blouse. Ostrich-feather waterfall. By Balmain. Glacé gloves, and rhinestone earrings.”

Pierre Balmain’s Best Looks in Vogue

“Paris: Long velvet dinner suit. Seep brown for evening. Pale-peach chiffon blouse. Ostrich-feather waterfall. By Balmain. Glacé gloves, and rhinestone earrings.”
Photographed by Irving Penn, Vogue, September 1, 1962
“H. M. Queen Sirikit of Thailand: On a gold-leafed Thai bed in the King’s coronation pavilion, Queen Sirikit in a dress of twenty-carat gold embossed in crystal, appears to be paved in diamonds. . . . This court dress, which the Queen wore to the Greek Royal wedding, was created for her by Pierre Balmain, who designs her superb Paris and Bangkok clothes, her shoes, her Royal umbrellas.”
“Balmain: the uneven hemline outlined in black ostrich. Balmain’s uneven hemline in black organza with deep zigzag points plunged in floaty black ostrich. . . . What might float into the room with it, unseen—a waft of Balmain’s come-hithery new perfume, Miss Balmain, due here in November. Dress, of Lesage organza. Earrings by K.J.L. Ring by Apex Art. Stockings by Bewitching. Shoes by Charles Jourdan.”
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