Fashion photograph of Hiroko MATSUMOTO for Balenciaga

Fashion photography portrait for House of Balenciaga depicting a model captured from behind, standing on a rug in a graceful three-quarter pose. Her hands rest lightly on the ornate wrought-iron railing of a classic staircase. Her profile face, wearing a bold expression, is slightly turned away. The background features a muted interior wall complemented by a large decorative sunburst-style mirror. She is dressed in a refined marbled pattern couture ensemble consisting of a form-fitting midi skirt and a matching sleeveless top adorned with a prominent fabric bow at the back. She completes the look with classic black heels and sophisticated accessories, including long evening gloves, a wide-brimmed draped hat tilted to the side, and a collar necklace of multiple rows of pearls.

The photographed model is Hiroko MATSUMOTO (French, born Japanese, Tokyo 1935 — 2003 Neuilly-sur-Seine), later Hiroko CATHALAN, was a Japanese fashion model and actress, muse and house model of Pierre CARDIN. Already a model in Tokyo, she met CARDIN in 1957 and joined his couture house in Paris in 1960, where she directed his cabine and became known as Mademoiselle Hiroko, the first Japanese top model in a French ready-to-wear collection. She retired from modelling in 1967, the year she married Henry BERGHAUER, an executive of the CARDIN group, and gave birth to their daughter Olivia. In 1970 she played Kyoko in François TRUFFAUT’s Domicile conjugal, dressed by Hanae MORI. She later married Jean-Claude CATHALAN, president of Revillon-Luxe, with whom she had a daughter, Maxime, whose kidnapping in 1975 made the front pages of the French press. She died in 2003 at the age of sixty-seven.