Balenciaga is a luxury fashion house founded in 1919 by the Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga in San Sebastián, Spain and currently based in Paris. Balenciaga had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as "the master of us all" by Christian Dior. His bubble skirts and odd, feminine, yet "modernistic" silhouettes became the trademarks of the house.