Elevate your closet with Alaïa’s timeless creations

Not many labels can turn their backs on fashion’s relentless schedule, which demands that brands show anywhere from four to eight collections per year, and still claim the cultural relevancy Alaïa can – but then eponymous founder Azzedine Alaïa wasn’t like most designers.

Tunisian-born Alaïa was a design prodigy. He initially studied sculpture at the local École des Beaux-Arts – after lying about his age to gain admittance. He made the transition into fashion when he moved to Paris in 1957, however his artistic practice continued to inform his work until his death in 2017. In the 1980, after cutting his teeth at Christian Dior, Guy Laroche and Thierry Mugler, Alaïa started his own maison and presented his first collection. Alaïa’s designs were a hit from the off, but he became a household name in the mid-80s when he popularized the body-con silhouette.

In light of this, you’d be forgiven for thinking only Supers could wear Alaïa’s clothes. And while a lot of them did, what truly made Alaïa a sensation was how his beautifully constructed clothes could sculpt, support and elevate any body. A master of cut, the trained sculptor constructed his pieces so that women who weren’t models could also wear his work and achieve his distinctive hourglass silhouette.

In a crowded fashion landscape, it’s a testament to the strength of Alaïa’s identity and the world’s seemingly insatiable appetite for his designs that he could turn his back on the fashion calendar, showing sporadically and often years apart, only when he felt he had created a collection worthy of all the fuss. Inevitably, they always were, and the SS20 collection that the deceased designer’s in-house team has created in his honor is no exception.

As ever, the ready-to-wear is so beautifully conceived and crafted that it could rival couture. If you’re looking to make an entrance at a black-tie gala, nothing could be more effortless yet impactful than shrugging a ruffled cape over a simple, streamlined dress. Similarly, an organza polka-dot coat has the power to elevate even the most understated outfit, such as jeans and a form-fitting sweater, into a sartorial statement.

Unsurprisingly, the dresses are luxuriously classic yet thoroughly modern – making them utterly covetable investment pieces. A waist-cinching midi dress cast in beige, this season’s must-have hue, will not only enliven your 9-5 look, it’s also a failsafe choice when it comes to weekends spent gallery hopping and lunching with friends. If it’s a summer garden party or spring wedding on the agenda, a boat-neck mint midi dress strikes the perfect balance between feminine and fuss-free. It’s this elusive mix that has attracted clients as illustrious and diverse as Greta Garbo, Grace Jones, Michelle Obama and Lady Gaga over the years.

Of course, it would be remiss to discuss Alaïa without touching on the maison’s lust-worthy accessories. The house signature is laser-cut leather, which is endlessly recreated in the form of practical-yet-pretty tote bags, minimal slides and sultry waist-belts – all of which speak to Alaïa’s almost architectural approach to fashion.

The term ‘investment piece’ gets bandied around rather liberally these days, but Alaïa is one house whose designs are truly deserving of the title. When he burst onto the scene forty years ago, the way Azzedine Alaïa championed women’s bodies changed the way we think about clothes forever; to own a piece of his label’s work is to own a piece of fashion history.