Following Azzedine Alaïa‘s passing one year ago, the loyal Maison Alaïa studio team pledged to carry on the designer’s everlasting legacy. The first order of business: Launch an e-commerce store stocked with the label’s largest offering, including ready-to-wear, footwear, and accessories, as well as an Edition collection that offers customers the chance to shop key pieces from the brand’s archives that date as far back as the 1980s.
Shortly after the launch of Maison-Alaia.com comes the brand’s Spring 2019 offering. In keeping with the vision of the iconic Tunisian couturier, who famously ignored the fashion week schedule and only presented his collections on his own terms once he felt they were ready, the designs came not through a catwalk presentation, but were presented to buyers in September. The accompanying look book was photographed by Karim Sadli and styled by Joe McKenna, who last year released a short documentary on Monsieur Alaïa.
Shortly after the passing of the designer, his house decided to not name a designer to succeed him under the belief that Monsieur Alaïa left behind enough designs and ideas to power the brand for decades to come. This proves to be true in the Spring 2019 offering, which is comprised of archive pieces that have been replicated as new ready-to-wear and with a label stating the year the design was first presented. This includes an hourglass, denim blazer that dates back to 1990 and a striped, sundress with a cut-out just below the breastbone from the Summer 1990 season, among others.
Meanwhile, in the main ready-to-wear collection, there were cotton shirt-dresses, leather, laser-cut belts, python jackets, a bustier with criss-crossing straps, poplin tops, and A-line dresses with fringed, raffia details, that could as well have been created by Alaïa himself.
Punctuating the line-up was a range of platform espadrilles that were designed in collaboration with Castañer and a capsule of dresses, T-shirts, and accessories emblazoned with the text, “Mon cœur est à papa,” an affectionate nickname that models including Naomi Campbell used for the late designer, whom they considered a father figure.
