Hamish Bowles was a recent guest of honor for a luncheon hosted by Neiman Marcus San Francisco, who recently launched his book “Balenciaga and Spain.” Neiman Marcus is one of the main sponsors of the upcoming Balenciaga exhibit (of the same name as Bowles’ book) that is now taking place at the de Young Fine Arts Museum.

The exhibition was conceived by Oscar de la Renta, a protégé of Balenciaga’s who began his own stellar career working at Balenciaga’s Madrid couture house in the 1950s. De la Renta invited Bowles to curate the exhibition who loaned several pieces from his own private collection, among them a bullfighter’s jacket he picked up at a vintage shop years ago. Other items have been borrowed from museums and other private collections around the world, including an unprecedented loan of 30 pieces from the House of Balenciaga in Paris.

To view more photos from this event, visit Haute Living’s Events Gallery.

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