The Master of Us All: Balenciaga, His Workrooms, His World
Mary Blume, a veteran Paris-based reporter for theInternational Herald Tribune, offers a peek at the atelier of the haute couture of yore. Blume elegantly weaves vintage gossip together with cultural history and interviews with Balenciaga's last living chums. Like a Balenciaga suit designed to skim the body rather than hug it, Blume's artful blend of history, reporting, and chat conjures the designer's world, if not the man himself.   —Rhonda Lieberman