Vogue on Cristobal Balenciaga, by Susan Irvine, examines Balenciaga's influence on fashion from the 1930s through to the 1960s. Known as the 'couturier's couturier' he revolutionised women's silhouette in the Fifties experimenting with the semi-fitted shape, the sack dress, the cocoon and the baby-doll. His designs were famously easy to wear, with one diplomat's wife quipping that she could play gold in her Balenciaga gown. Always something of an enigma, he preferred to let his clothes speak for themselves.