Four years after the death of its founder, the Alaïa maison is back with a new creative director, Pieter Mulier. The Belgian designer, better known as Raf Simons’ right-hand man – from the homonymous brand to Jil Sander, passing through Christian Dior and Calvin Klein – finds himself at the reins of a fashion house for the first time, taking on a not just challenge : to do justice to the legacy of one of the most iconic designers of all time, not surprisingly called “the sculptor of fashion”. Last night, inaugurating the Paris fashion week dedicated to Haute Couture – for the first time live, after a year and a half of stop due to the pandemic – Mulier showed the whole world his interpretation of the codes of the maison, that is how he managed to make the vision of the legendary Azzedine Alaïa his own.
Under the sky of Paris, as Edith Piaf intoned, and in an alley a few steps from the Marais – the Jewish quarter of the French capital, where the founder lived and worked – Pieter Mulier brought what appears to be a real letter on the catwalk of love to Azzedine Alaïa and her gaze towards women: one celebration of feminine beauty and energy, directly inspired by the archives of the brand and, in particular, to the period between 1983 and 1996. But not only that, because the designer was also influenced by the historic friendships of the maison, those who have been wearing Alaïa creations for decades, and obviously by his personal experience with womenswear, finding the right balance between preserving the dream represented by the maison and new business needs: the result is a surprisingly humble collection, which nevertheless falls neither into the banality of mannerism nor the ostentation of novelty, including crisp white deconstructed shirts accompanied by light hoods, cycling shorts, corset-belts and elegantly asymmetrical dresses.
Each volume, whether it was floating and projected outside or sewn on like a second skin, appears sculpted to the millimeter, demonstrating how the new creative director is able to resume the narration of Azzedine Alaïa where, unfortunately, the designer had interrupted it, passing through the essentials of his DNA and faithfully honoring the sensuality he always pursued in every detail, placing the woman and her maximum expression above everything. A healthy obsession, that of how the clothes had to appear on the body, which Pieter Mulier embraced with joy as in a tacit passing of the baton, focusing on the iconic silhouettes of the maison and introducing new elements that dialogue well with the past: from the incorporated bodysuits to trompe l’œil dresses to modernist denim. A splendid debut supported by the sparkling atmosphere of a post-lockdown Ville Lumière, and by a respectable parterre: among others, the stylists Raf Simons and Pierpaolo Piccioli, the actress Monica Bellucci, and the model and director Farida Khelfa, habituée of Alaïa. In the gallery, some shots from the Couture collection.
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