The noir side of couture: Balenciaga and Luis Marquina’s Alta costura (1954)

Abstract

This article explores the multidimensional relationship between fashion and cinema by analysing the Spanish film Alta costura (Marquina, 1954). The film centres on a noir plot involving the investigation of a homicide during a couture show of garments designed by Cristóbal Balenciaga. The catwalk show becomes a structural pillar providing a framework for characterization and plot development, instead of a mere narrative digression. In addition, the show serves to display some of Balenciaga’s groundbreaking innovations in the female silhouette, while also making a surprisingly strong anti-fashion statement by encapsulating the film’s ethical message that is coded negatively. Fashion becomes associated with the negative effects of modernity, with death and destruction, to make a case for the conservative notions of gender roles that prevailed in the 1950s in Spain.