Balenciaga

Cristóbal Balenciaga had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as "the master of us all" by Christian Dior and as "the only couturier in the truest sense of the word" by Coco Chanel. On the day of his death, in 1972, a newspaper ran the headline "The king is dead" (no one in the fashion world had any doubt as to whom it referred).

Lesley Ellis Miller is keeper of furniture, textiles, and fashion at the V&A.