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Ms. Murphy, 53, is famously meticulous in her preparation, and wearing a long black dress and white overblouse, her long auburn hair perfectly parted in the middle, she radiated a force field of stillness and concentration.

The lacy blouse fell into place quite naturally, and it did look boyish, while the overblouse of black velvet completed the Fauntleroy picture.

But this is a show about more than Jackie's trademarks: the boxy jackets and pillbox hats, the three-quarter-length sleeves, the lace mantillas, the overblouse dresses and the sleeveless A-lines.

A man's white cotton overblouse can be tied in 58 ways, each with its own social connotation.

Some designs were legitimate, some looked more like gags: Micia tore holes that left a knitted overblouse looking like supersized Swiss cheese, showed a G-string bikini beneath to any mouse man enough to peep.