AZZEDINE ALAIA | PALAIS GALLIERA

The Palais Galliera is honouring Azzedine Alaïa with its opening exhibition. 

Alaïa’s formative years were intimately linked to the clients who fell under
the spell of his made-to-measure garments, among them such legendary figures
as Louise de Vilmorin, Arletty and Greta Garbo. Encouraged by his friend Thierry
Mugler, he presented his first signature collection in 1979, already adopting an
approach to leather that rendered it more fragile and more sensual. His draping
of bodies with jersey and stretch fabrics is an allusion to his sculpture studies at art
school in Tunis: ‘When I’m working on a garment, it has to flow over the body,
in profile and in back view.’ Zips make their way around the dresses, eyelets pierce
the coats, stitching accentuates the curves of the suits. Alaïa fashioned a new
body, like a sculptor working with muslin and leather. He was, too, one of the rare
couturiers to master every step in the making of a garment: drawing a pattern,
transferring directly onto the cloth the forms and volumes he saw in his mind’s
eye, then cutting and sewing the fabric as he bends it to his will.
Inventing new shapes out of simple interplay between complex stitchings, Alaïa
became the creator of a timeless body of work. His influence on today’s fashion
is fundamental.

In many ways Alaïa’s approach to form,
volume and material resembles the work of a painter or sculptor, his constant
adjustments and experiments reflecting a tireless creative spirit, blurring the
boundaries between fashion and art.

In the middle you see a leather dress from Fall/Winter 1983-1984.

The writer Michel Tournier, wrote about this in the foreword to a work devoted to the couturier, specifying:  " Azzedine Alaia's stretch creations , like all brilliant inventions, have all the appearance of a material object, yet the possess a dimension that is psychologically ad morally elating"

Just next to this leather piece, you see a pleated silver/white dress with leather detail on the waist.

This dress comes from 1981, when that dress came on women said that "Alaia has given us back our body".

Azzedine Alaia in the early 90's was inspired by Africa. For the Spring/Summer 1990, Alaia, also a collector of African art, metamorphosed his dresses into idols" When I see an object I like, I am entranced, it's like voodoo". The way the Masai drape their fabrics of their loincloths also interests me, it's really amazingly beautiful."

In his next collection for Fall/Winter 1991-1992 he continued his African inspiration. 

"Africa is present" he said. Playing with the rosette pattern on leopard fur, the designer gives women the splendor and wild character that he wants.

"The best moment of work is  when I watch wild life documentaries in TV for inspiration but I am never satisfied with what I produce first" - Azzedine Alaia said.

One of the keys to his success was the the leather with metallic eyelets that he created for Fall / Winter 1981-1982. 

Alaia entered fashion with "a snap of the fingers" via a pair of leather gloves hammered with eyelets that proved to be a great success with journalists in 1981.

Alaia's dresses hug the silhouette of the woman wearing them so perfectly that we are tempted to think that she had grown into them! The couturier knows the body in its nudity and the sartorial techniques with flatter and correct it. "The shoulder is essential, just like the waist. The behind and the curve in the small of the back are capital, better looking hiked up than low down. They have to be enhanced by the cut e with high heels. As for the neck, if its short , it's best to avoid high collars and shoulder pads whichever it look even shorter "

Transparent dresses: alaia is one of the rare couturiers to express himself with the same virtuosity in the tailoring technique as in the one commonly known as the "flou", designating dresses and other such fluid creations. Without making any distinction , he subjects the fabric to the topographical sage that he alone masters. "I didnt learn in any fashion school, I dressed women directly on the body, by intuition. This is how I got my experience".

For the Spring / Summer 1992 collection, Alaia makes knit a distant memory of the skin by playing with motifs that recall as tattoos. In this way, a speech bubble announcing " Mon coeur est a papa" ( my heart belong to daddy), covers the hips or the arm while a graphic and mischievous triangle deftly alights on the tummy.

The silver bra and skirt worn by Naomi Campbell, is one of Azzedine Alaia's most emblematic styles.

Alaia has turned his technique into an art, his know-how into an aesthetic.

 This exposition gives you an amazing experience passing through the years of fashion and celebrating the woman body. From 1957 that Alaia came to Paris. His fashion don't go out of style, you cannot understand when a piece was designed. They are simply always in fashion and that, is genius.

** Special thanks to Palais Galliera. **

References: 

Palais Galliera

Palais Galliera - Press Release