The temperatures were running in the high 30s, a sticky situation in Paris given that no one believes in air conditioning. And yet editors were considering getting out of their cars and swinging a leg over one of the city’s vélibs – a pay-as-you-go bicycle – in order to get through deadlocked traffic and to the Azzedine Alaïa show across town at the Tunisian designer’s atelier in the Marais neighborhood.
Azzedine Alaïa Fall 2017 Couture. Courtesy of Azzedine Alaïa
After a six-year couture hiatus, the Alaïa invitation, sent discreetly via email, was one of the week’s hottest tickets. Inside the main hall and under the glass and iron ceiling that Alaïa now also uses for his gallery showings, anticipation was high. Vogue Arabia editor-in-chief, Manuel Arnaut, and Vogue US editor-at-large Hamish Bowles chatted in the front row, along with former model and French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, director Farida Khelfa, Institut du Monde Arabe President, Jack Lang, and Louis Vuitton designer Nicolas Ghesquière. The show opened to applause.
Azzedine Alaïa Fall 2017 Couture. Courtesy of Azzedine Alaïa
Naomi Campbell, Alaïa’s “daughter” through love and loyalty, opened the show in a short black and white A-line shearling coat, hair wrapped in what appeared to be duct tape and styled high like Nefertiti. There was a 1960s mod feel to the coat and this was echoed in the following looks: wide collar jackets with big round buttons, swinging skirts cut above the knee, and trompe l’oeuil patterns in primary colors. And yet, nothing felt nostalgic about Alaïa’s work. As per usual, the clothes, though they were not revealing per se, were incredibly sexy. Cue the midi-length fire engine red python coat or over-the-knee wildcat-spotted boots.
While this couture show had no embellished trains, it did serve eveningwear in the form of swinging black and blush A-line skirts, and a platinum-haired Karlie Kloss wore a number with structured ribbing whose folds exercised the eye from every angle. One dress featured a crinoline A-line skirt layered with red roses that brought romantic drama for its ruffled tiers.
Azzedine Alaïa Fall 2017 Couture. Courtesy of Azzedine Alaïa
Azzedine Alaïa is not an abstract designer who sketches a collection and then hands it over to a head of atelier to produce his vision. He is the architect, the mathematician, and the man behind the research to offer women new materials that let her breathe, move, live, and love in his clothes. To echo the words of actor and Pedro Almodóvar muse Rossy de Palma, E viva. See the full collection here.
See the Vogue Arabia runway archive of the Fall 2017 Couture shows here.
