Cristóbal Balenciaga Eizaguirre was a Spanish fashion designer and the founder of the Balenciaga fashion house. He was referred to as "the master of us all" by Christian Dior and as "the only couturier in the truest sense of the word" by Coco Chanel. On the day of his death, in 1972, Women's Wear Daily ran the headline "The king is dead" (no one in the fashion world had any doubt as to whom it referred). -wikipedia