Balenciaga presented his first Parisian collection in 1937.
Cristóbal Balenciaga had already built a successful couture business in Spain, with houses in San Sebastián, Madrid, and Barcelona. The Spanish Civil War forced him to close those businesses and relocate to France, where he established his Paris couture house at 10 Avenue George V in August 1937.
His debut collection drew heavily on Spanish Renaissance influences and won immediate attention. Within two years, the fashion press was describing him as a revolutionary designer, helping establish the reputation that later earned him the title “the couturier’s couturier.”
A common mix-up is confusing 1937 with 1919, the year associated with the founding of his Spanish fashion house, or with 1939, when he expanded his Paris premises by acquiring the neighboring former Mainbocher space. His Paris career began in 1937, before the Second World War reshaped European fashion.