Balenciaga, Cristóbal Pink Silk Dress

Long pink silk shantung evening gown with embroidered bows of pink, white, and black silk thread. Short kimono sleeves and shallow scoop neckline. Hand stitched back zipper and shoulder seams covered at intervals with applied bow motifs (snap closed over the zipper). Lined in pink silk.

HCT.1970.1.28

1955-1965

This dress belonged to Mrs. Harvey S. Firestone Jr. Born Elizabeth Parke in Decatur, Illinois in 1897 she was the daughter of Guy James Parke and Gertrude Chambers Parke. As a girl she attended Leed's School in England and Rosemary Hall in Greenwich, Connecticut, and graduated from Miss Wheeler's School in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1921, Elizabeth married Harvey S. Firestone Jr., the heir to the The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. They lived in Akron, Ohio and Newport, Rhode Island. Each year Mrs. Firestone traveled to Paris to purchase her clothes directly from designers and during the 1950s she was nominated for The Couture Group of the New York Dress Institute Inc.'s Best Dressed Women's list several times. Mrs. Firestone passed away in October, 1990 at the age of 93.

Balenciaga, Cristóbal

Kimono Sleeve, A-Line Dress, Trapeze Silhouette

fiber content=Silk

1950-1959, 1960-1969

Pink light