Founder Cristóbal Balenciaga opened his first boutique in Spain in 1918, but it was forced to close at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. So he relocated to Paris – and his loyal customers braved the difficult journey just to see his work. Today, his visionary genius lives on in the House that still bears his name, with Creative Director Demna Gvasalia filling each collection with the avant-garde shapes that set Balenciaga clothing apart. Boxy cotton T-shirts, baggy jeans and oversized hoodies bring stand-out profiles to our selection of favourites. Look out for the brand moniker embroidered on cuffs, splashed across shirts and even etched into the glimmering gold frames of sunglasses.

Look for an introduction to tender violet, aldehydes, and coriander. Diverse middle notes include lily-of-the-valley, sweet rose, and lilac. The dry down is timeless, an upbeat vintage mix of sandalwood, Peru balsam, and musk. Like so many, Balenciaga fled the Spanish Civil War – in his case, moving his HQ to the world’s fashion capital of Paris, in 1937. A year later, he opened his beautiful neoclassical flagship store at 10 Avenue George V, which you can still visit today. Cristóbal Balenciaga was born in the Basque region of Spain, and had the choice or becoming a fisherman like his father, or a priest like his uncle. But Cristóbal wasn’t having any of that: he desired to work with clothing, in the footsteps of his dressmaker mother. Completely self-taught, he opened his salon – Balenciaga y Compañía – in 1918, and almost from the word go royalty and aristocrats were beating a beautifully-shod path to his door. Then Rosabotanica – in an equally striking contemporary bottle, again with Kristen Stewart as its ‘guardian angel’ – was unveiled: ‘the second flower in Balenciaga‘s magical garden’, taking florals into positively futuristic territory with this: ‘an enchanted spicy vegetal rose, lightened up by drops of green and milky fig leaves, with an “experimental” rose accord.’ And Balenciaga B: a green fragrance with a dark, woody flair, touched by notes of lily and green leaves and in a bottle inspired by the marble flooring of Balenciaga’s original Parisian salon. Some drugs may have Authority Required (Streamlined) status which does not require an explicit approval from Medicare, instead the doctor can use the Authority code found in the published Schedule for a given drug/indication.It says everything about couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga that Christian Dior himself once commented: ‘ Haute couture is like an orchestra, whose conductor is Balenciaga. We other couturiers are the musicians and we follow the directions he gives.’

Prescriptions must be written on an Authority Prescription Form, and the approval number must be noted on the prescription. Pharmacists cannot dispense the item as a pharmaceutical benefit unless it has been approved by Medicare Australia (indicated by the presence of the approval number). Opening the scent is a head note of delicate violet. Next a middle note of carnations takes the lead. The fragrance climaxes with a base of erotic patchouli and cedar. The mingling of notes in this eau de parfum is sure to please those with a floral signature. This fragrance belongs to the powdery olfactory group, which is demonstrated in the warm and soft result. Bottles for all Needs at an Average Price It wasn’t until the tenure of Nicolas Ghesquière – who took over in 1997, the first designer truly to fill Cristóbal Balenciaga’s shoes, after the couturier retired – that the house turned its creativity to fragrance once again. First came Balenciaga Paris, its elegant, pared-down bottle promising a ‘delicate mystery’, and with Charlotte Gainsbourg – a new Balenciaga‘muse’ – as its face. (Charlotte was actually involved in choosing the final fragrance, out of the final trails, opting for this version of the spring-like, violet-rich scent because ‘there was something more frank about it,’ as she told WWD.) As Ghesquière commented at the time, ‘We really put ourselves in the shoes of biologists discovering enigmatic plants whose secret we wanted to uncover. And take samples of the flowers for our research. We created a bottle that would express the whole scientific technique, clean lines and play on mirrors like those slides you find in laboratories.’ And Florabotanica went on to win a 2013 Fragrance Foundation Award for Fragrance of the Year.

Extreme Femininity

If you’re looking for something that will complete your retro outfit, see if you can get your hands on a bottle of Quadrille. Lauded for its solidly-balanced scent and incredible longevity, Quadrille is a classic that starts with plum, peach, and lemon. Some PBS medications are restricted and require prior approval from Medicare before a doctor is able to prescribe them on the PBS. This prior approval to prescribe grants the doctor the Authority to prescribe the desired medicine and have it funded under the PBS. This scent is rounded out with outdoorsy, fresh notes of moss, cloves, and cardamom, with a dry down of absolutely classic musk.