According to Jean Cocteau, 'fashion dies young'. But Balenciaga is an exception. He became the most creative couturier of his time, living for and by an unequaled body of work, searching for the most sober elegance. Throughout these years, he never stopped creating. Often contradictory, his creations wre balanced between the simple, the measured, and an eccentric, abstract boldness. His Spanish roots combined the austere with a beautiful baroque violence. He remains today the couturier of reference in haute couture history.