The brilliant American designer Geoffrey Beene loved the female back. He called the nape of the neck “the geisha’s zone of erotica,” and the small of the back “still life distilled.” He never forgot a dress he saw at his first Schiaparelli fashion show: when the model turned, the very low back of her dress was a starburst of rhinestones. Trains, cowls, plunges, slashes, and the decorative nudity of lace—“Back Side” presents elegant and elevated views (the shock of buttock cleavage excepted) of the serenely classical back. —L.J.