1958 Balenciaga Cocktail Dress

This dress, designed by Cristobal Balenciaga for the philanthropist and socialite Rachel Mellon in 1958, is a seemingly strapless cocktail dress, created from a slightly floral silk brocade fabric. The first challenge of making this dress was, of course, the part of the dress that rises above the bust line. How does it stay there and what is the structure. To help answer this question I got in contact with Igor Uria Zubizaretta, the Director of Collections at the Museo Cristobal Balenciaga in Spain. He was able to provide me with a copy of one of the sketches provided to Ms. Mellon during the creation of her dress that detailed that the dress was not, in fact, a strapless dress but rather a very clever halter. With instructions to wear a sturdy string of pearls that would then keep the neckline of the dress up through the use of a hidden clasp. 

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However, given the shape of this dress, it was advantageous for me to go through the process of creating the understructure of a strapless dress rather than just relying on a halter. I created an underbodice out of two layers of navy blue silk organza, cut on alternate grains, and quilted together every 1/2 inch. It then had custom bra cups put in, and was boned with German plastic boning. The rest of the dress is a very simple bodice shape attached to a dirndl skirt gathered all the way around except for the center front, where there is two box pleats on either side of the center front to create a flat section as shown in the images of the original dress. 

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It should be noted that as of this time, this dress is still in production, still needing the trim of the two bows, as well as the matching coat. This will be completed in the coming Spring 2025 semester and this page will be update to reflect the project as it continues.