“[Balenciaga is] the only couturier. He is the only one who knows how to cut a fabric, and mount it and sew it with his own hands. The others are just draughtsmen.” — Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel
From a placard at Balenciaga: Spanish Master, at the Queen Sophía Spanish Institute.
“In a machine age, dressmaking is one of the last refuges of the human, the personal, the inimitable. In an epoch as sombre as ours, luxury must be defended inch by inch.” — Christian Dior, 1957
As found in one of my favorite books, Couture and Commerce, by Alexandra Palmer.
