The gemlike colors of the silk! The borders embroidered with gold and silver threads! A flowing column of femininity, the sari is said to date back to between 2800 and 1800 B.C. It is a long strip of cloth that both wraps the body and artfully drapes from it, leaving bare bits of the waist and back (it’s the original peek-a-boo gown). Today, the sari has been reinterpreted as modest fashion, fantasy expression, and political statement. This exhibition presents saris past and present, historical and evolved. —Laura Jacobs