I traveled yesterday to San Francisco to see the Balenciaga and Spain exhibit at the De Young Museum. Coco Chanel said of Balenciaga, “He is the only couturier. He is the only one who knows how to cut a fabric, and mount it and sew it with his own hands. The others are just draughtsmen.” While walking through this marvelous exhibit and looking at all beautiful pieces that were representative of his long and brilliant career, these words came to life for me. Balenciaga created clothes that are classic and timeless. So many of his designs could be worn today. He understood how to dress a woman's body. He understood fabrics. His clothes are truly works of art which reflect his deeply rooted connection to his country, his culture and his religion.
Balenciaga created 93 collections before he closed his fashion house in 1968. Just as Alfred Hitchcock made a cameo appearance in each of his films, there was alway one black dress that was cut and sewn entirely by Balenciaga. One of the exhibit pieces, a jacket and skirt in the blackest black I have ever seen, was cut and sewn by him. The jacket had only one seam! The fabric was molded around the shoulders and had one zigzag seem in the center of the jacket. I stood, for the longest time, in complete fascination. How does one do this? How does one even consider it?
Balenciaga apprenticed designers that went on to become famous themselves such as Oscar de la Renta, André Courrèges, Emanuel Ungaro, and Hubert de Givenchy. His creations, which often resemble sculpture, must have been created in much the same way. I stood and imagined myself in Mr. Balenciaga's atlier watching the master at work.
I next toured the Pulp Fashion - The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave at the Palace of the Legion of Honor. Ms. Borchgrave, who is a painter by training, has created a collection of historical costumes entirely from rag paper. Her creations are taken from early European paintings or iconic historical dresses from museums around the world. She paints and manipulates the rag paper into astonishing realistic renditions of original fabrics. I was struck by the careful attention to detail, imagining how tedious and time consuming it must have been to create these amazing pieces.
Finally, I visited my favorite fabric shop - Stone Mountain and Daughter in Berkeley. This store is a mecca for true sewists. They carry everything from the simplest cottons to exquisite woolens. They have an incredibly large selection of silks of all kinds and their linen selection is amazing. I selected a pattern which was a recreation of a 1940's blouse (having been inspired by Balenciaga's earlier pieces). I found an beautiful linen/cotton blend by Echino in purple which resembles a vintage print. I am anxious to begin my project.
By the time I arrived home, the Sabbath was fast approaching. It had been a day filled with physical beauty; of are and of creativity. It was a healing day for me, a day that I was able to put aside my sadness at Boris' departure. It was, it seemed to me, a day that which was not a spiritual one at all and I tried to quiet my mind and prepare to light the Shabbes candles. I lit the candles and said the prayers but I was unable to completely remove myself from the beauty I had seen that day. I wanted to escape to that world, to create something physically beautiful. It felt very wrong to be thinking these things, yet the thoughts were inescapable. I decided to sit and do some reading to try to focus on things spiritual rather than temporal. I pulled a book from our library by Robert C. Fuller, and came across the following passage:
"Spirituality exists wherever we struggle with the issue of how our lives fit into the greater cosmic scheme of things. This is true even when our questions never give way to specific answers or give rise to specific practices such as prayer or meditation. We encounter spiritual issues every time we wonder where the universe comes from, why we are here, or what happens when we die. We also become spiritual when we become moved by values such as beauty, love, or creativity that seem to reveal a meaning or power beyond our visible world. An idea or practice is "spiritual" when it reveals our personal desire to establish a felt-relationship with the deepest meanings or powers governing life".
It occurs to me that the love of beauty, in any form, is an acknowledgement of the abundant blessings which have been given to us by our creator. Whether it is the beauty of creative mind, the beauty of a sunset, the beauty of a child's laughter, the beauty of the Torah or the beauty of tradition, recognizing that beauty is a way of saying, "Thank you for all blessings you bestow on me". Perhaps God understood that I needed to focus less on what I had lost and more on what I have. And while a museum exhibit of couture clothing might seem an odd way to interpret his message, I believe that my day of seemingly shallow pursuits was God's hand on the steerage of my course.
Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting - a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
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