Balenciaga rejoins Paris haute couture

Balenciaga said Monday that it intends to enter the elite ranks of Paris haute couture -- more than half a century after the founder of the storied fashion house staged his last couture show.

Despite being called "the king of couture," the Spanish-born designer Cristobal Balenciaga spent years feuding with the French Federation of Haute Couture, whose members decide which houses are allowed to call themselves haute couture under French law.

he Basque creator, whom Christian Dior deemed "the master of us all," pointedly held his shows a month after the official couture presentations, before shutting his workshop in 1968.

But Balenciaga's current designer Demna Gvasalia told Le Figaro that "relaunching haute couture is my mission for this house."

"This is where we came from, and after 50 years we're coming back," he said. The federation told AFP they could not confirm if Balenciaga was being admitted to the elite body, which currently counts just 16 haute couture practitioners.

Haute couture shows are held twice a year, in January and July, separately from the presentations of ready-to-wear collections.