What Is Gazar, the Fabric Invented by Balenciaga?

Is there a fabric that does not need boning or crinolines to create garments with sharp, geometric volumes? If we have one today, the credit goes to Cristóbal Balenciaga, who in 1958 developed gazar together with the Swiss textile manufacturer Abraham.

Gazar is made with a special plain weave construction and highly twisted double silk yarns. This structure gives it stability, shape memory and surprising lightness. The result is a fabric that does not fall softly like chiffon and is not as rigid as organza.

The egg-shaped silhouettes, sack dresses and many of the creations that made Balenciaga famous in the 1960s owe their existence precisely to gazar. Without this fabric, they simply would not have been possible.

Yet, precisely because it had such a strong “personality”, gazar was also extremely difficult to work with. The atelier seamstresses explained that it did not naturally follow the hands like traditional silk: it had to be understood, guided and almost “convinced” to take the desired shape.

Balenciaga continued to experiment with its potential and, in 1964, developed zagar together with Abraham, an even more structured variation of gazar, designed to push the research into pure and abstract volumes even further.

Today, gazar continues to be used by Balenciaga and other couture maisons for its precious qualities, as demonstrated by the collection designed by Pierpaolo Piccioli presented in Paris, where this extraordinary fabric becomes the protagonist of garments that create fascinating volumes without the need for internal supports, showcasing the maison’s savoir-faire.

The Italian designer also created a new version of gazar, neo gazar, which debuted on the runway of the Spring Summer 2026 collection: developed with the textile company Lorma on Lake Como, it incorporates a Lamiset weave, a silk and wool blend yarn that softens the typical rigidity of organza, achieving greater flexibility and fluidity.