In Paris, Glimpses of Azzedine Alaïa’s Unrivalled Fashion Archive

PARIS — Gathering and preserving vogue, was for Azzedine Alaïa, about greater than archiving his inspirations. It was a “cooperative perspective, a mark of solidarity in direction of those that, earlier than me, wielded their scissors with pleasure and exactingness,” the late designer as soon as mentioned. “It’s my tribute to all of the trades and all of the concepts that these garments convey.”

Alaïa started accumulating in 1968, when he had the chance to amass beautiful items from Cristóbal Balenciaga when his couture home closed. He went on to amass as many as 20,000 items, throughout key intervals in vogue historical past, from the start of high fashion within the late nineteenth century to the rise of latest innovators like Comme des Garçons and Jean-Paul Gaultier.

The gathering, which was constructed nearly totally in secret, was bequeathed alongside along with his house within the Marais, to a basis created by Alaïa to protect his legacy. Two vogue exhibitions in Paris, on the Palais Galliera and on the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa — now provide glimpses of the sprawling assortment which got here to comprise the equal of a real-life backup disk for twentieth century vogue.

Along with being a virtuoso cutter, Alaïa was a “secret historian,” mentioned Olivier Saillard, director of the Alaïa Basis and the Palais Galliera’s curator. “He advised me he had ‘some’ Alix Grès items — he had greater than 1,000.”

Alaïa was fascinated by Madeleine Vionnet, in addition to accumulating iconic designs by Maison Value, Jeanne Lanvin (500 items), Jean Patou, Paul Poiret, Gabrielle Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli and Christian Dior. He purchased items from Adrian (Adolph Greenburg), and at one level owned extra Chanel fits than the home itself. On the Palais Galliera exhibition, marvels reminiscent of Barbara Hutton’s costume by Balenciaga for the Beistegui Ball in Venice are displayed alongside attire by the American ready-to-wear pioneer Claire McCardell, and coats by Paul Poiret that includes silk linings designed by artist by Raoul Dufy.

Impassioned by Elsa Schiaparelli, Alaïa purchased not solely her designs however paperwork reminiscent of wartime correspondence and sample materials from her workshops.

The present options favorite designs by Alaïa’s contemporaries, too: designs by Charles James — whom he found in New York at first of the eighties, and in whom he “in all probability recognised his personal architectural sense of line” says Saillard — in addition to Jean Paul Gaultier, Rei Kawakubo, Junya Watanabe, Alexander McQueen, Yohji Yamamoto and Thierry Mugler.

“He saved this heritage for France and for vogue. He was consumed by the concept all the pieces may disappear,” Saillard mentioned.

Whereas the Galliera exhibition covers the breadth of Alaïa’s passions, the exhibit presently on show on the Fondation Alaïa zooms into the dialogue between Alaïa and seminal Paris couturier Alix “Madame” Grès. Each designers had been disciples of a sure type of misleading simplicity, and their creations usually conceal excessive complexity in reduce and design. The exhibition evokes a world of thriller, magnificence and extraordinary technical talent.

Simply as their works in chiffon, velvet and crepe silently correspond, so do the designers’ biographies. The enigmatic Grès modified her title a number of occasions (Germaine Emilie Krebs, Alix) and even her dying was hidden by her household for a yr — amplifying the magical dimension of her work. Likewise, it’s been found that Azzedine Alaïa was in reality born 5 years sooner than he claimed for many years, and altered the spelling of his title upon arriving in Paris to understand his dream.

Alaïa’s strategy to vogue was intimate, instinctive, exacting. “My work consists of following, of discovering the physique. I discover the place for a shoulder pad by feeling the bone there and there. I crumple, I pull in order that it takes the form of the physique,” he mentioned. “My pleasure is to have the ability to save, to make lovely.”