Cristobal Balenciaga worked for over 20 decades in the design of female costumes. Now, the Balenciaga Museum and the photographer Pedro Usabiaga wanted to collect that relationship that the Modisto maintained with the cinema. Piéges (1939), Nuits d’alerte (1946), Anastasia (1956) and North by Northwest (1959) are some of these films. The list of the actors that Balenciaga wore is even more striking: Elizabeth Taylor, Ingrid Bergman, Marlene Dietrich, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly…

In one of the photographs, Marlene Dietrich appears in Paris When It Sizzles (1964), a ivory suit with a straight skirt and pocket jacket, just out of a car. In the photo of Anastasia (1956), Ingrid Bergman wears a silk dress of the same color adorned with two embroidered ribbons. One of the most beautiful pieces of the show is the evening dress that Ava Gadner wore with The Angel Wore Red (1960). Although the title of the film says that the angel was dressed in red, the dress that bears “the most beautiful animal in the world” (so called Ava Gardner) is black silk, a long neckline that ends in the vertex. On the right leash it carries an overall, from which a echarpe of the same fabric weighs.

But all of this can only be seen in the pictures, because it's a photo exhibit. You have to see the garments. Therefore, the exhibition is in a privileged location, as in the museum you can see (and almost touch) all the costumes you want from the getariarra. And because on the streets of Getaria we can imagine the little Balenciaga, fascinated by the dresses of the Marquis de Casator, who would someday design such costumes without suspecting that the greatest stars of the cinema would be canvases for their works.

Movies, a dream of Balenciaga

Exposition Where: Cristóbal Balenciaga Museoa, Palacio Aldamar, Getaria. Date: until 13 October.