Azzedine Alaïa, of sculpted silence

Presented on 23 January 2003, the couture collection for the Summer-Autumn of the same year embodied Azzedine Alaïa’s creative and stylistic renewal. The couturier had not presented a fashion show for eleven years. Having distanced himself from the fashion system he prophetically contradicted, no longer recognising himself in an era that celebrated minimalist fashions, Azzedine Alaïa stuck to reworking iconic designs season after season, whose technical perfection and craftsmanship confirmed them as classics that became his signature.

In 2003, when his fashion house was going through a period of financial vulnerability and the architectural heritage of his lifetime’s work on Rue de la Verrerie and Rue de Moussy was sometimes putting its economic stability at risk, Azzedine Alaïa found new financial backers. Accompanied by his loyal friend and collaborator Carla Sozzani, he isolated himself for weeks in the silence of his studio and began to design a collection that would once again place him at the top of the fashion world. (…)

In 2003, at the age of almost 68, the couturier was about to embark on the final period of his career, which would showcase the excellence of his work in all its glory. Azzedine Alaïa no longer had to prove his technical superiority over his contemporaries. His research, motivated by the quest for the ultimate cut, became quieter and more abstract, even more skilful because it was less visible on the surface. From this perspective, all the designs he was preparing to show in his Summer-Autumn 2003 collection, marking his return, were manifestos of the technical virtuosity that only he could master. Seemingly effortless, the jackets, coats and dresses were the culmination of a lifetime spent in the atelier. (…)

GUIDED TOURS OF THE EXHIBITIONS

The Foundation offers guided tours of the current exhibition at 18 rue de la Verrerie in partnership with the cultural mediation agency Des Mots et des Arts  which organizes tours led by professionals specializing in fashion history. They offer visitors an overview of the current exhibition, the life and work of Azzedine Alaïa, as well as the location’s history and architecture.

Jackets and frock coats swing from straight to bias cuts, perforated, curved skirts tame denim as if it were precious chiffon, and zip dresses, guided by a desire for extreme purity, impose themselves with deliberate asceticism. Leather elongates the back in black or white crocodile tails. Shirts, in which the couturier excels in the exercise of restraint, are elongated. They shine in lily-white and English embroidery. Chiffon dresses, lighter than a breath, cry out his genius.

The exhibition brings together around thirty of the collection’s masterpieces in the exhibition space itself, under the glass roof where the fashion show took place. Videos and films accompany the presentation.