Exactly 64 years ago, Link Baudouin and Fabiola, King of Belgium This is marked before and after in the wedding industry. It was the first royal wedding to be televised live and the furore the bride’s dress caused was unprecedented at the time. Its creator? Nothing more and nothing less than Maestro Balenciaga. On December 15, 1960, the couple married at the Cathedral of Saint Michael and Saint Gudula in Brussels and, without knowing it, immediately created a myth around the impressive looks of the Spanish aristocrat.
© Getty ImagesThe dress Balenciaga designed for his friend Fabiola, the Spanish Queen of Belgium
Fabiola de Mora y Aragon (Madrid, 1928) was not known mainly for his smile or his charisma. Those close to her confirm that she almost always had a sullen or depressed look, but her impeccable dress and that eternal card on her head were reasons enough to inspire admiration among many women of the time. A love affair with fashion inherited from her grandmother, Micaela Elio y Magalone, Marchioness of Casa Torres, is authentic. Discover the genius of Cristobal de Balenciaga. It is not insignificant, then, that is great couturier Our country was the architect of her wedding dress, an intricate and majestic design that set a trend and continues to have people talking 64 years later.
© Getty ImagesBasque admitted this in an interview Paris match In 1968: “My father was a fisherman, my mother a seamstress. I was lucky that in my small town (Getaria, Guipuzcoa), near San Sebastián, there was a summer residence of a great woman, The Marchioness of Casa Torres“. One day, the young couturier plucked up courage and asked her to see her closet, a request she gladly accepted.
“I was 12 years old when the Marchioness allowed me to make her first model. You can imagine my joy when, the following Sunday, the kind lady came to church wearing my dress. Thus I made my first foray into haute couture and high society.“. Since then, the Balenciaga name has been introduced to some of Spain’s most luxurious womenswear.
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Fabiola was the bride of the century. Media expectations surrounding her outfit are the highest, never seen before. Although we were still far from being able to capture photos via mobile phone or instantly share information on the Internet, such rumors spread like wildfire in European newsrooms.
© Getty ImagesThat’s why it was decided to conduct the tests at Balenciaga’s home and not at his workshop in Madrid, where dozens of photographers and journalists would be snooping around for clues. Fabiola moved from Zurbano Palace in Madrid to San Sebastián, then the residence of her parents, the Marquis of Casa Riera, Gonzalo de Mora y Fernández Riera and Blanca de Aragon y Carrillo de Albornoz Barroeta-Aldamar Ilio.
© Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum
© Cristóbal Balenciaga MuseumA museum piece
To make the dress, 24 meters of silk were used and another six meters for the train, bought from Cederius Jorge Fabregas in Barcelona. Seamstress Felisa Irigóen and the Cariches Urias sisters, highly trusted Balenciaga employees, collaborated on the creation, which was completed a month and a half later.
With a slightly dropped waist, long skirt, bateau neckline and Japanese sleeves, the design historically stands out from the shoulders to form a long train. Basque Couturier was inspired by the 18th century Rococo clothing or as it is called in French, Robey Allah Watteau.
© Cristóbal Balenciaga MuseumWhat happened to the white mink strips?
There is a dress White mink strip which borders the entire neckline, covers the collarbone and continues in line with the cape, a regal contribution that emphasizes her presence and bearing as the future queen of the Belgians. It should also be noted that Baudouin and Fabiola were married in Brussels on December 15, which must have contributed to the decision to add this hair appliqué.
© Getty ImagesIt is said that Fabiola from Belgium recycled pieces of white mink For her wedding dress, a practice widespread in the 20th century, when natural furs were cared for until they wore out, the furrier’s profession was one of the most sought after in fashion. This was confirmed by Sonsoles Diez de Rivera, daughter of the Marchioness of Lanzol, who is also a member of the Balenciaga Foundation: she said that, when the design was sent from Laeken to Getaria for display in the Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum, they came across the surprise that Some leather pieces were missing.
© Getty ImagesThe recovery was difficult. They talked to an association of furriers and that they gave new pieces Lorenzo Caprile, who was in charge of the arrangement, incorporated the dress in his Madrid atelier. “The wedding dress of Queen Fabiola of Belgium is one of Maestro Balenciaga’s iconic creations and one of the most copied bridal models of the 20th century”The famous couturier assured, as reported in the newspaper the world In a report published on the occasion of the death of Dr royal, In December 2014.
© GTRESTiara of the Nine Provinces
Fabiola would become queen of the Belgians in a fleeting moment, so she had to wear, as was tradition, the most important diadem of the groom’s family: Baptism as a tiara Nine provinces. It was a jewel given by the Belgian government to Princess Astrid of Sweden, the bride’s mother-in-law, when she became engaged to then-Crown Prince Leopold in 1926.
© Getty Imagesstyle tiara Art DecoIn keeping with the trends of the Roaring 20’s, made with a base painted with Greek meanders, topped with eleven stems. round diamond. Nine of these represent the Belgian provinces that existed at the time, the other two represent the now-defunct Belgian colony of the Congo and the Royal House.
© Getty ImagesThe gems with which the jeweler van Bever created this spectacular tiara in Antwerp, designed to be worn by a queen, came precisely from the Congo. In 1934, long before Baudouin and Fabiola said ‘I do’, the upper diamonds were set into removable Gothic arches, which to this day allow the base of the tiara to be converted into a choker.
© Getty ImagesWhen King Baudouin died in 1993, Fabiola left the precious diadem to her sister-in-law, the new Queen Consort Paola, who, upon the abdication of her husband, Emperor Albert II, in 2013, passed it on to her daughter-in-law. Law, Queen Matilda, wife of the current King Philip. The Balenciaga dress, for her part, was donated by Fabiola herself to the Balenciaga Museum in 2003, with which she has been closely involved since the beginning. So much so that the headquarters are located in Aldama Palace, the former residence of his grandparents, the Marquis of Casa Torres, in Getaria.
