.
"A woman walking would displace the air so that her skirt would billow out just so much, front, back & sides would round out each in turn, imperceptibly ,
like a sea swell."
"That was the answer to these miracles of cut,
the black tulips he would send out across the floor.
Nothing held them out, neither whalebone or cages-
nor petticoats gave them any support.
Legs moved easily, the front of the long skirt running a little faster ahead than one's walk,
like the tides,
you were given the elements,
you could use them at will."
- Pauline de Rothschild wrote of Balenciaga
photographs-de Rothschild's own BALENCIAGA, from the Costume Institute at the Met
.