But there were nevertheless two balenciaga sneakers womens very conspicuous absences at the inauguration: the former mayor of Getaria who spearheaded the project, Mariano Camio, and the architect who gave it its overall built form, Julián Argilagos. They were probably not invited because of the criminal charges they were facing in relation to the project. In 2007, when the building was semi-complete, a scandal broke out triggered by the apparent theft of some handkerchiefs and other pieces from the museum's collection. More revelations soon followed: serious irregularities in the awarding of contracts, embezzlement of public money, huge cost overruns, and an unlicensed architect (who was also rumored to be the mayor's lover).

The approach from the town is by way of a series of escalators that take the visitor from the main road passing through Getaria to a plaza in front of the palace and, adjoining it, an opaque, black metal end-facade belonging to the addition. A single, elegant angular pleat in the surface makes a minimal entranceway gesture. Upon entering one end of the longitudinal hall directly through the main doors beneath the pleat, balenciaga speed trainer the first thing that draws the eye are the long, gently curving canted glass walls on both sides. One of the glass walls faces north over Getaria's rooftops toward town, sea and horizon, but the other faces south, directly into the sunlight as well as onto a four-story high retaining wall only a few meters away from the glass.

This balenciaga shoes for men massive retaining wall, which is thankfully softened by vegetation, reveals that a steep, anything-but-symmetrical terrain had to be radically altered in order to accomodate the cross-sectional symmetry of Argilagos's design. "Ideally" intended for a flat site, Argilagos's design is essentially a utopian idea forced onto a rugged topography that had to make way. It is a pre-conceived architectural idea brought to a site from elsewhere. The only adaptation to the site occurs in the plan: the curvature of the building follows a topographic contour line. The Balenciaga Museum is thus ill-fitted to its site. With its long, drawn out form and symmetrically canted glass walls on both sides, it would be much more suitable as an airport terminal for a small balenciaga shoes women Spanish town such as, say, Ciudad Real or Castellón.

Inside the suspended exhibition spaces, a display architecture comprised of a single, continuous, deeply undulating wall creates smooth, seamless niches within which Balenciaga's work is sensually displayed, not unlike virgins in the chapels of a church. The undulating walls in each of the six different exhibition galleries vary in curvature and colour according to the museum's six different curatorial classifications: "Early Years, Day, Cocktail, Evening, Bridal and Essential. " The hidden lighting sources, the subdued lighting levels, and the unframed glass set into the smoothly curved niches amount to a simple but effective exhibition design strategy that displays Balenciaga's work with dignity and elegance. It is a miracle that this museum was completed in the end, in spite of all the problems it suffered.

The museum has become a popular attraction in Gipuzkoa, despite a building that disappoints for the most part. In the end, the problem is perhaps not so much the building itself as it is the missed opportunity that the building represents. It is what this building could have been that disappoints above all (a type of disappointment only ever suffered by architects and politicians). It could have been so much better; something Balenciaga might be proud of. Instead, he must surely be rolling over in his grave. ÿþParis fashion week this year was an unusually fretful affair, tainted by accusations of racism among casting directors and reports of models locked for hours in an unlit stairwell.

Yet 45 years after his death in 1972, his influence remains profound. Not balenciaga sneakers mens just in the acknowledgement of his legacy in the reinterpreted archive designs of recent collections, including Gvasalia's, but in the radical ideas about form and structure, and the technical innovations of fabric and cutting that descend in a direct line from his disciples Hubert de Givenchy, Emanuel Ungaro and Andrè Courrèges to contemporary designers such as Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, Phoebe Philo of Celine and JW Anderson. His rivals acknowledged his genius: a unique blend of technical skill, relentless perfectionism and bold originality. "Haute couture is like an
Questa immagine è nascosta agli utenti non registrati. Si prega di fare il login o la registrazione per vederla. orchestra, whose conductor is Balenciaga, " said Christian Dior.