his long time partner was Franco-Polish millionaire Władzio Jaworowski d’Attainville, who had helped set him up and fund him. When d'Attainville died in 1948, Balenciaga was so broken he considered closing the business. His next collection after d'Attainville's death was designed entirely in black to mourn his loss. Expositions On 24 March 2011, San Francisco's M. H. de Young Museum celebrated the opening of "Balenciaga and Spain", a 120-piece fashion retrospective of his career. "You can't even measure it", said Rodarte designer Laura Mulleavy, of Balenciaga's influence. The $2,500-a-ticket fund-raiser for the museum drew 350 guests, including Marissa Mayer, Jamie Tisch, Gwyneth Paltrow, Orlando Bloom, Balthazar Getty, Maggie Rizer, Connie Nielsen, Maria Bello and Mia Wasikowska. On 7 June 2011, the Balenciaga Museum was inaugurated in his hometown of Getaria by Queen Sofía and with the presence of Hubert de Givenchy, who is honorific president of the Balenciaga Foundation. The museum has a collection of more than 1,200 pieces designed by Balenciaga, some of them donations by disciples, like Givenchy, or clients, like Queen Fabiola of Belgium and the heirs of Grace Kelly. His most famous clients were Mona von Bismarck, Grace Kelly, Ava Gardner, Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy. Retirement and death Balenciaga retired from the high fashion world in 1968. First, he decided to retire from active life in May 1968 and, a few months later, on July 1, the newspapers broke the news of his headquarters in Paris and his studios in Madrid closing. The closing down of his business was by surprise, like a bombshell; not even his employees knew. Balenciaga justified the closing with his habitual clinical brevity: “High fashion is mortally wounded”. On one hand, the intense imposing burden of the French taxes blew through the largest part of the profits and, on the other, the Americans stopped buying French high fashion, largely because of General De Gaulle’s Anti-American politics. The Americans had succeeded in signifying close to 70 percent of the Balenciaga clientele. Balenciaga returned to Spain. He ended his days living in his Altea house, where he enjoyed painting, talking, and eating in the company of some of his Spanish assistants. As an exception, four years after his retirement, he accepted the job of designing a gown, Carmen Martínez-Bordiú’s wedding dress, the daughter of one of his most important clients, Carmen Franco Polo, and hence, the granddaughter of dictator Francisco Franco. The