With 6,000 pieces spanning the fashion house's history, the Haute couture Balenciaga house located on Avenue George V is like a sacred temple that preserves the artistic values of fashion that have survived through time.

Among those 6,000 pieces from the 100-year-old fashion house were a &quot;sculptural silk ball&quot; wedding dress and &quot;cocoon-shaped&quot; jacket as well as a tobacco-brown chenille-embroided lace gown that belonged to Princess Wallis of Windsor - all Stored in a silk bag. In particular, the details are covered with special acid-free paper to prevent dirt and insects, in separate boxes shaped like a &quot;coffin&quot; carefully.

Spring 2017, Balenciaga&#39;s Fall 2016 collection designed by Demna Gvasalia has just arrived. The archivist&#39;s staff, under the management of Gaspard de Mass&eacute;, were wearing white cotton gloves (acid on the skin of the hands can damage the textures) unpacking the costumes. These contemporary pieces are also treated as couture pieces made by Crist&oacute;bal Balenciaga, the founder of the fashion house in 1917. Here, these garments are transformed &ndash; from modern outfits to preserved specimens.

The archival team discusses how to stabilize specific sections: for example, by blocking from waist to hips to keep the curves of the dresses, preventing them from distorting. They are often placed neatly in a &#39;coffin&#39;, such as Gvasalia&#39;s evening gown, designed in sequin-embroided material from Swiss textile company Jakob Schlaepfer. Attached boots are also stored in the room for modern accessories. The conservation team&#39;s mission is to make sure Balenciaga&#39;s clothing - past, present and future - survives the ravages of time.

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Paris is a city with a sacred history &ndash; perhaps more than it does today &ndash; where the oldest (and largest) fashion empires were founded. Sequences like the Balenciaga are carried out by fashion brands around the world, but the archives of the fashion houses in Paris are especially &quot;impregnable&quot;. Others are kept in museums &ndash; like Lanvin&#39;s archive at the Palais Galliera, the fashion museum is also known as the Mus&eacute;e de la mode de la Ville de Paris. Some other fashion houses are &ldquo;Off the Avenue Montaigne&rdquo; &ndash; Christian Dior&rsquo;s archive of clothing from 1947 (when Dior was first launched) housed in temperature-controlled, temperature-controlled display cabinets for&nbsp;brand heritage exhibition.

In an industry that is constantly changing and always on the lookout for the &quot;new&quot;, this fervent reverence for the old doesn&#39;t seem to fit very well. In the archives &ndash; dark and cold, with &ldquo;coffin&rdquo; linings and covers &ndash; nothing more than a morgue, nothing but cataloged outfits. While they are dedicated to preserving those outfits with care, those outdated trends are not merely relic, but also the foundation for future creations.

While they are dedicated to preserving those outfits with care, those outdated trends are not merely relic, but also the foundation for future creations. 

Christian Dior's iconic dress is in the archives, with Dior currently storing 9,840 pieces throughout the brand's history.

Today, the repository is the &quot;stem cell&quot; for future designers. History within reach of homes becomes something of great value, which can open the door to commercialization, which cannot be bought in an urban culture. This past winter, the Fall 2017 collection in Paris was distinguished by its attention to original form, transliteration and branding. Saint Laurent&#39;s Anthony Vaccarello created a velvet dress with a covered bust in the style of the Haute Couture Fall 1992 collection from Yves Saint Laurent; Julien Dossena of Paco Rabanne often uses materials like metal and necklaces created in 1967; and Maria Grazia Chiuri used Christian Dior&#39;s legacy in navy, as well as the brand&#39;s jacket (the Bar was made in 1947 and stands to this day). Likewise, Demna Gvasalia&#39;s Balenciaga show made its final statement &ndash; he rejected the present and closed with nine remade dresses, from the &#39;30s to &#39;40s. Ghosts of the past resurrected.

It&#39;s important to note that designers are creating clothing under a different name, for a brand known as &#39;heritage brands&#39;. When you pay for their product - or that of a high-end corporation - you are paying for the history they carry. Many homes don&#39;t need recognition, because they already have it. This is very common in the fashion world, not a kind of contempt, but gratification. If customers are familiar with a name, they will prefer to spend more on it than on a brand new brand. This instant recognition makes many corporations choose talented young designers to join big fashion houses instead of investing in creating new brands.

This instant recognition makes many corporations choose talented young designers to join big fashion houses instead of investing in creating new brands. 

Karl&nbsp;Lagerfeld is said to be the first person to revive an old name, the designer of a well-known label took the position of creative director of Chanel in 1982. Lagerfeld offers products that read in the Chanel style, rotating around Gabrielle Chanel: tweed suits, pearls, chains, camellias. &ldquo;There would be no Chanel without Chanel&#39;s history. I don&#39;t do this on purpose, I do it unconsciously,&quot; Lagerfeld said. That&#39;s an interesting phrase, he probably meant that he wasn&#39;t trying to be Chanel because Chanel&#39;s style was so easy to explain - she invented the wardrobe, from the &quot;little black dress&quot; &rdquo; to a chain purse or &ldquo;two-tone&rdquo; shoes. &ldquo;There are a lot of things people think are natural in the house from the time I was born until I was there&rdquo; &ndash; Lagerfeld said: &ldquo;My job is to build trust. There is no other way for a fashion house to survive.&quot;

“My job is to build trust. There is no other way for a fashion house to survive.” – Karl Lagerfeld 

Lagerfeld&#39;s resounding success with Chanel&#39;s history has become a recipe for brands around the world. Today, designers often use styles from the past as anchors to tie their personal aesthetic to a brand&#39;s past. You might not recognize the name Maria Grazia Chiuri right away, but you do recognize the name and style of Dior that she designed for the house &ndash; the Bar jacket, the wide-spread skirt. Similar to Paco Rabanne: Julien Dossena is a famous designer in the world, however people are better remembered for Barbarella &ndash; Jane Birkin or Fran&ccedil;oise Hardy, plus Dossena. All of them, having become Paco Rabanne, are synonymous with 60s Space Age style. In a crowded and chaotic marketplace, instant recognition &ndash; Coco! Bar! Barbarella! - precious as gold.

Storing a Dior Heritage

From a business standpoint, this approach makes sense. But it also raises the big cultural and creative question: who is nominally the owner of history? Should a designer in the name of a brand be allowed to use heritage as a source of inspiration? The result is really, really refreshing. But perhaps, right now, we no longer desire something new, but something real. Some brands will create designs with slight variations &ndash; Chanel for example created 2.55 chain handbags based on Gabrielle Chanel&#39;s original 1955. Perhaps it reflects the craving &ndash; global to vintage, what existed only in the past.

But being able to look back is not the product of the theoretical or philosophical systems of our time &ndash; but a more practical matter of supply and demand, the need for speed. Fashion designers typically produce four collections a season, some designed for two or more different labels. (Gvasalia has Vetements, Lagerfeld in addition to Chanel also serves as creative director at Fendi.) &ldquo;Cribbing&rdquo; is an easily interchangeable term in an industry that demands more and more from designers, it has been used with more and more frequency since 1990. The staff has dropped the word &#39;&#39;revival&#39;&#39; used to describe a close reproduction of the old design of the vintage style. During the same period, the vintage clothing market exploded &ndash; another example of true thirst, perhaps a revolt against fashion&#39;s demise.

But perhaps, right now, we no longer desire something new, but something real. 

Image from Paco Rabanne's archives

“If you want to know a brand, you have to know the history. I decided immediately, when I arrived here a year ago, that I was like the steward of [Dior's] estate. And on the other hand, I try to incorporate my point of view.” – Maria Grazia Chiuri 

It&#39;s actually a delicate balance. Ironically, the power of a fashion house&#39;s archive (and its value) can only be measured by the contemporary designer&#39;s merits. Chiuri uses the term &ldquo;curator,&rdquo; a word many designers invoke to describe the uncomfortable relationship between present and past in their work. Part of their role, for these brands, is to provide a new perspective on a fully established aesthetic &ndash; to reinvent (or at least modernize) the reels. Designers are tasked with getting critics and consumers excited about something they may have seen before.

But does looking to the past satisfy the designer&#39;s artistic need to create something new? Anthony Vaccarello said: &ldquo;If you think too much about the gentleman Saint Laurent, I think the weight will be heavy and you cannot do anything. It&#39;s too &#39;homemage&#39;, too old.&quot; Vaccarello&#39;s approach was to combine different elements from Saint Laurent&#39;s &quot;looks&quot; &ndash; for example a 1992 &#39;redux&#39; dress, with a 1960 Saint Laurent-style mini skirt, instead of stars copy the entire original. He &#39;remixes&#39; them, instead of making a complete copy. Chiuri said: &ldquo;It is okay for me to live with the heroic history because I was born in Rome. I love archives, I love history, I love memories, but I&#39;m not nostalgic. I want to use it now.&rdquo; Her collection is in fact linked to specific Dior styles &ndash; her fall 2017 &#39;couture&#39; collection was inspired by Dior specific dresses from 1947 to 1957, the year Christian Dior passed away. References in the archives help Chiuri make the connection between the new and the old, weaving a seamless story so that it can evolve continuously.

On the mirrored stairs leading to Chanel's haute couture boutiques at 31 Rue Cambon - designed a historic site by the French Ministry of Culture - are two dresses, one of which is Gabrielle Chanel's signature fall black dress. 1954 (left), right is a new model from Karl Lagerfeld's Fall 2017 Haute Couture collection (right). The Chanel archive, in the northeastern Paris suburb of Pantin, employs about 15 people and holds more than 50,000 products.

This is not the case for all French heritage homes; The Balmain label, founded in 1945, has been revived only with a forged connection to the historic style of its founder Pierre Balmain, a lesser known contemporary of Christian Dior. His outfits are more conservative and decorative &ndash; the latter perhaps the only link to his successor, designer Olivier Rousteing, who also loved intricate patterns. Louis Vuitton didn&#39;t have a background in apparel when Marc Jacobs sat at the helm of creative director in 1997.&nbsp;To stay inspired, Nicolas Ghesqui&egrave;re mentions Vuitton&#39;s past as a luggage maker &ndash; a departure from the idea the fashion house would host an NYC exhibit dedicated to its legacy &ndash; as well as the brand&#39;s excellence in leather and functional abstractions.

Respect for history is important, but when respect turns into devotion, it can lead to paralysis. Take a look at the major changes to the fashion chart over the past century and observe creative reversals from the past. Getting rid of existing styles is almost a prerequisite to creating something new and remarkable. Even when Dior was born in 1947, a collection based on nostalgic notions of femininity filled with Victorian accents and techniques, made a breakthrough in fashion: miniskirts and square shoulders. Soon, it was called New Look. Gabrielle Chanel&#39;s black dress was similar in the 1920s and its punk and rebellious styles. Everything was new at the time.

Balenciaga's archives

However, history should not (and cannot) be abandoned. It can act as a Trojan horse, a disguise for radical uprisings, for beautiful revolutions. 

But it&#39;s the moments that make up the aesthetic, the concept of luxury as well as beauty. These developments are few and far between, and there is no reason to imagine that red fashion takes them away. However, history should not (and cannot) be abandoned. It can act as a Trojan horse, a disguise for radical uprisings, for beautiful revolutions. Old &#39;tags&#39; can hide new tricks &ndash; like &#39;new look&#39;, the word Maison Dior previously used.

Demna Gvasalia once, described Balenciaga&#39;s fall collection as an homage, but he also contrasted it as an adopted ritual. &ldquo;I needed to prove that I could get into a fashion house and not just start building my stories without even knowing them,&rdquo; &ldquo;them&rdquo; here means archives. &ldquo;I know that Crist&oacute;bal will probably keep an eye on many of the things I do, but now I feel free to write my own story.&rdquo;

Source: According to NYTimes

L'Documentary: Archives of Major Fashion Houses - Golden Heritage

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