Fashion’s premier sculptor Azzedine Alaïa spent a lifetime exploring the tension between masculine and feminine by draping materials directly on his fit models.
This season Maison Alaïa’s Edition collection revisits 15 of the master’s key suit silhouettes from 1988 (including a trompe l’oeil jumpsuit), plus a lineup of iconic pieces in leather, such as a biker jacket, a swingy black shearling cape, and draped, pleated skirts that look as sharp now as they must have 30 years ago. The short leather coat in Look 14 is embroidered with a broderie anglaise technique; the swing coat in Look 16 is not leather but a jacquard knit, hot-pressed to a leatherlike sheen.
Elsewhere, expressionistic floral prints plucked from the 1990s projected gravelly polish, while a series of fluid, draped chiffon dresses in desert hues changed color depending on the viewer’s vantage point. The fabric is one that Monsieur Alaïa chose for his 2003 couture presentation (the gown in the final look requires some 30 meters of fabric).
Caged pieces are trending, and in that vein the maison revived a semi-couture coat from fall 2016 that is arguably one of the most covetable pieces of this season (or any other for that matter). Entirely done in laser-sharp, lacelike cutouts, the high-gloss piece is not terribly practical—and heaven knows it’s not affordable, at least for most mortals—but what a showstopper.
