Pierpaolo Piccioli, Creative Director of Balenciaga, has reshaped the house's curved handba,, softening its rigid angles into a pliable frame. The Balenciaga Hourglass Avenue Bag is an arched-base handbag featuring a folding top flap, dual handles, and a magnetic lock engraved with 10 Avenue George V. A cutout bottom preserves the negative space underneath, preventing the base from resting flat against tables or shelves.
A hinged handle pivots on the exterior for hand carry, accompanied by a secondary handle tucked beneath the upper flap. The supple flap folds downward to enclose the interior handle, pitching the silhouette as, per Balenciaga, "a boldly elegant, practical bag that favors grace of form over rigidity." A magnetic clasp seals the compartment, stamped with the address of the label's Paris headquarters.
Cristóbal Balenciaga relocated his workshops from San Sebastián to Paris in 1937, pulling Basque folkloric references into French couture. Summer 1943 introduced his peplumed jackets, building an exaggerated hip line with internal padding. In those early suits, per the brand, "the appearance of restriction came from precise hidden seams that allowed room for movement inside the garment."
Voluminous coats and lightweight jackets carried the silhouette forward for decades before the label applied the shape to accessories in Winter 2019. The original Hourglass Bag pulled the flare of the 1943 suits into a scooped bottom panel that hovers above flat surfaces. Piccioli loosens the shell, keeping the curved base suspended in the air.
