Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion

Cristóbal Balenciaga was one of the few couturiers who could do it all—sketch, drape, cut, sew, finish. His last two decades, the 50s and 60s, were his most brilliant, a period when the mystery of his cut, the volumes he created with a single seam, were like annunciations—generative in their influence. More than 100 iconic garments and hats from those last decades, plus X-rays and digital patterns that reveal the mysteries, make up this show. —L.J.