Closet Archaeology: Balestra House Puts Out the Call for Lost Couture

Sofia Bertolli Balestra, artistic director of the house, has opened an international search for pieces made by the late Italian couturier Renato Balestra, work that may be hanging quietly in closets from Rome to Palm Beach without anyone quite realizing what they own. The initiative, named "In Search of Balestra," asks collectors anywhere to come forward with garments so they can be identified and recorded. It treats each surviving piece less as a costume from another era and more as a document, one worth tracking down before it disappears into an estate sale or an unlabeled garment bag. No inventory yet exists to say how many pieces are out there, which is rather the point of asking.

With reporting from WWD Fashion.