Balenciaga Is Now Dressing Academicians, Too
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SCHOLARLY CHIC: Couture clients can come from many walks of life, including academia. French literary critic, writer and professor Antoine Compagnon commissioned Balenciaga for the “habit vert” he will wear for his induction to the Académie Française Thursday.
The ceremonial garb includes a sword and a black or navy suit embroidered with green and gold olive branches. According to Balenciaga, which resumed making couture in 2021 after a 53-year absence, this is the first time since the house was founded by Cristóbal Balenciaga in 1917 that it was called upon to produce a bespoke suit for the academy, which was founded in 1635 to safeguard the French language.
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Created by creative director Demna, the black cloak, tailcoat and pants, white shirt, white vest and bowtie required 300 hours of work in Balenciaga’s couture ateliers in Paris. Meanwhile, the embroideries festooning the outer edges of the tailoring took 900 hours at Maison Lesage.
France’s Immortals, as inductees to the Académie Française are known, frequently call on couture brands like Dior and Givenchy to create their regalia.
Meanwhile, Boucheron, which like Balenciaga is controlled by French group Kering, realized the sword that is meant to represent Compagnon’s life and work — hence its feather-shaped handle and the hedgehog depicted in the cabochon. (The latter creature is associated with Greek poet Archilochus, who proclaimed “a fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one big thing.”)
François-Henri Pinault, chairman and chief executive officer of Kering, said he was “proud and honored by the trust placed in our houses.…These unique, custom-made pieces fully reflect Antoine Compagnon’s personality, a manifestation of creativity combined with the greatest skills and traditions that allow individuals to express what is unique to them.”
Brussels-born Compagnon is professor emeritus at the Collège de France and a specialist in French literature. He also taught at École Polytechnique, the French Institute of the United Kingdom in London, Columbia University in New York, and the University of Maine and the Sorbonne in France.
He has written numerous books on literary criticism, history and is considered an expert on Michel de Montaigne, Charles Baudelaire, Marcel Proust and Colette.
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