Pierre Balmain Overview

Pierre Alexandre Claudius Balmain (b. St. Jean de Maurienne, France, May 18, 1914 – Paris, France, June 29, 1982) was a French fashion designer. Known for sophistication and elegance, he said that "dressmaking is the architecture of movement." Balmain's father, who... [more]

Pierre Alexandre Claudius Balmain (b. St. Jean de Maurienne, France, May 18, 1914 – Paris, France, June 29, 1982) was a French fashion designer. Known for sophistication and elegance, he said that "dressmaking is the architecture of movement." Balmain's father, who died when the future designer was 7 years old, was the owner of a wholesale drapery business. His mother and her sisters operated a fashion boutique. After studying at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, he went to work for the fashion designer Edward Molyneux, for whom he worked from 1934 until 1939. He joined Lucien Lelong after World War II and opened his own fashion house in 1945. Balmain also created perfumes, including Vent Vert (1947), his first successful scent and one of the best-selling perfumes of the late 1940s and early 1950s, Jolie Madame (1953), Ivoire (1979), and Eau d'Amazonie (2006). His first perfume bore his company's address, Elysées 64-83. Balmain was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Costume Design and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design for Happy New Year (1980). Additional Broadway theatre credits include costumes for Katharine Hepburn in The Millionairess (1952) and Josephine Baker for her eponymous 1964 revue. He also was a costume designer for 16 films, including the Brigitte Bardot vehicle And God Created Woman, and designed on-screen wardrobes for the actresses Vivien Leigh and Mae West. Balmain's 1964 autobiography was titled My Years and Seasons. His companion was the Danish designer Erik Mortensen, who worked as a designer at Balmain from 1948 until 1991. [show less]