Alaïa S/S 2025 New York

[liberty33r1b]

so unappealing why did they even bother

 

[FashioNarrating]

Not to me. Vaccarello is the most uninspired and most basic designer ever, most empty, most “insta/aesthetic/generic thing and he has 0 substance. He doesn’t even try either. He can send 300 sheer skirts/dresses, all the same, in one show.

To me he is the insta designer, like if one of those basic insta girls that think they like fashion started being a designer.

Ugh, I'm not even a Vaccarello fan, but if he's basic, then we don't even have a word for Slimane's countless parades of black skinny jeans, bomber jackets and little dresses with no twist whatsoever.. if it weren't for his name/the brands he worked for during the last 10+ years and the production that comes with it, no one would lose a word abt his clothes.

 

[VogueDisciple93]

The location, the shoes, the beauty, and the cast were superb….

 

[lookatme]

I would say that my issue with his Alaïa is that I don’t know what it is trying to be or what he is trying to say.
The Alaïa woman was multifaceted because he dressed very different kind of women but also because some of those women evolved in their lives. Farida Khelfa did not wear Alaïa the same when she became the studio director of the brand to when she was a model. The same for Victoire de Castellane.
Even me, prior to Azzedine’s death, I was more leaning to his re-issues than the very beautiful expected dresses he did maybe from 2013…
When I see the looks on MariaCarla and Binx, I say to myself that this is a believable direction for Alaïa. It looks sexy, confident and right.
But the man loves to over design. Sometimes, an allure, an actual vision of a woman is enough.

Those spiral dresses screams design contest. I wish he went more on the Madame Gres, effortless route than that.

Exactly. This is what I meant when I said I feel as though his work exists only for the catwalk, wearable or not. He’s most concerned with “the look,” and not “the woman.” But this is the same problem MOST designers working now have.

And that doesn’t mean being “commercial” necessarily - it does mean having a believable, compelling and clear idea of who this is all for and why.

I also think it’s symptomatic of this current crop of designers that their work feels so insulated and out of touch…their work just reads like a curated Instagram feed of tasteful fashion, art and cinema references. But everyone’s reposting the same things over and over.

Where’s the idiosyncrasies? What makes Pieter Pieter? I don’t know? He’s just a tasteful gay? Like the rest? What makes him laugh? What makes him smile? What makes him dream?

If he’s not in touch with those things, his work is never going to illicit a smile or a dream from any of us.

 

[PDFSD]

Indeed! But I get almost the same vibes from his TFS threads than the ones from Sabato’s trainwrecks.

I don’t like his Alaïa either, because it’s too lifeless and a little bit pretentious for me, but it’s also quite… neutral. Like you can’t say it’s amazing but I feel it’s also not fair to say it’s terrible, imo. It’s like maybe not in tune with the brand, too boring, too cold… but it’s not something extremely bad. It’s just there. To me it doesn’t bring any strong feelings, and I’m usually quite opinionated. Something that I appreciate from him is that I kind of see the effort, even if it’s not working, and effort is something that’s missing these days.

Maybe it’s because we live in a world of Pharrels, Jacquemuses, Sabatos, Vaccarellos… that these kind of clean/boring offerings do not bother me much.

Let me put it this way Peter is creatively better than Ancora guy or even Jacquemuses, but at the capability level of Peter's his ALAIA is not great either also the house has far more RTW history and technique as part of the codes and its history.

So in context of the house and his lack luster output i feel people have more exceptions and higher standards as the founder evokes more emotion in fans of the house.

But i can speak only for myself, i think he can do better and be more profound, but i see a pride or unwillingness off some sort in his decisions of looks and design choices to think to out master the founder of the house, i think the sooner he truly humble himself and dive more deeper into the mindset of ALAIA he will learn more about what it means to dress a ALAIA woman and wont resort to visual indulgentment only.

or maybe this is his best efforts and one should also let it be.

at least the house is not totally cheapened there are attempts to keep a certain high brow connection with art and modernity in the choices of store design and show venue etc.

-Pharrell's LV for what it is he pushes his capability to the max and it's better than Ancora ´s Gucci , for that i don't mind it it's like the underdog outdoing the experts (it's not for me but i get his LV and the clients it's meant for)

-Vaccarello´s YSL well done for his mediocre talent, he stretched it out and knew well to just use the Hedi template and slowly tweak it to his more sexy wet dreams but it's still a stolen identity, i can't appreciate its the luxury Khaite for me, i rather give props to Virginie Viard´s Chanel or the lady at Dior for at least being themselves at the maximum of their capabilities and still sell without copy another creative directors whole recipe.

-Jacquemus is the level of IQ of the time we live in its what the public deserves and wants, great marketing to give 5 seconds of pleasure and buy a bag and feel smart about and get on with their ig perfect curated happy lives.

-Ancora gay , i would say is the crescendo of waves of nr 2 at nr 1 positions that embodies the state of corporate fashion decision making with total lack of creativity inducing directionless merch and marketing.
ever so setting the bar lower lower and lower.

 

[tricotineacetat]

Contrary to a lot of opinions raised here, I do happen to think this collection has a lot of good pieces and looks, it’s less complicated and pretty straight forward compared to the last Alaia show, which had quite a few pieces that steered too much in the 'conceptual' territory.

Let’s start with the puffer jackets that have already been mentioned to reference a design by Charles James that Rick Owens also did his take on. I think all of these pieces came out beautifully, providing a sculptural solution for an outerwear garment that’s usually worn only for practicality and warmth. While those require perhaps a bit of acquired taste where full-skirted shearlings might have previously been easier on the eye at Alaia, it‘s nice that he does something here that is both pure in line and new within the Alaia context. I think those would be great to keep in the collection, they would be wise to establish them as winter essentials!

He seems to have worked with wadding or down filling on those long skirts in the passages following these outerwear pieces which would look quite a bit better when worn either with a crisp white poplin shirt (á la Carolina Herrera), a simple rib tank top or a second skin cashmere jumper (as seen multiple times at Dior during Raf‘s tenure).

Such simple swaps in styling would suddenly make a few looks easier to pull off and perhaps lended itself well to conjure the notion of ease, especially as an ode to American Sportswear. I don‘t consider that a flaw though, as it‘s up to the customer and buyers to translate the collection into a retail-friendly proposition.

I see now in almost every designer discussion as much the debate over casting and styling as I do about the design itself, I find that very confusing coming from the background of retail buying and design which have taught me to look at runways in a much different way, seeing the beauty and possibility of pieces.

Alaia was a one-of-a-kind creator much like Cristobal Balenciaga, Madame Grès and Madeleine Vionnet. We acknowledged when it took Nicolas Ghesquière years of doing his own thing until he did a direct reference to Cristobal’s archive. I thoroughly believe Pieter is moving im the right direction doing enough of his own that doesn’t put him in the direct comparison with Azzedine, which would put almost any designer to shame. They have archival pieces continuously on offer for those who want it but Pieter’s job is to provide a new direction the house can move into as it is moving forward.

 

[tourbillions]

he has had many seasons in alaia but is failing to sell a dream... the talent is there but theres no signature or dream being sold.

For example how in the world was he able to show at the Guggenheim and still the photos from the runway look as if they did it in some empty corner of a department store?

 

[tricotineacetat]

he has had many seasons in alaia but is failing to sell a dream... the talent is there but theres no signature or dream being sold.

For example how in the world was he able to show at the Guggenheim and still the photos from the runway look as if they did it in some empty corner of a department store?

Alaïa is not a lifestyle brand, it has never been about selling a dream but creating highly sculptural and technically acclaimed designs that were famously presented in a very low-key, private manner. With Alaia, it was all about the clothing and the only thing that created a spectacle was the stories of his famous friends who were seen wearing his clothes.

 

[PDFSD]

Alaïa is not a lifestyle brand, it has never been about selling a dream but creating highly sculptural and technically acclaimed designs that were famously presented in a very low-key, private manner. With Alaia, it was all about the clothing and the only thing that created a spectacle was the stories of his famous friends who were seen wearing his clothes.

If Alaia is not about selling a dream (which we can have another discussion on this), but about creating.... technically acclaimed ideas then Peter is falling short on this end as well.

Because it's flat its not improving on the already existing great technical constructed clothes, its cardboard naive copy of the original disguised with concept. very intellectual easy digestible modern clickbait much like Jackmuse guy.

 

[Lorenzogi]

This looks like Raf's Jil Sander S/S 2010 to me :

 

[tricotineacetat]

Say what you will on the matter of taste or how much it aligns to original Alaïa, but these designs are certainly not lacking in finesse or technical acclaim. It’s cut well, it’s not playing it safe and the pieces I mentioned about would look stunning when styled in the right context.

This idea of over-conceptualization is a bit overplayed. There’s more to Alaïa than cling-y dresses for glamazons, you would be surprised to hear how many women I served in my retail years, now in their 60ies or 70ies, own archival Alaïa that fits beautifully with the Yohji and Issey they have in their closets. Carla Sozzani would be a good role model for that.

 

[PDFSD]

Say what you will on the matter of taste or how much it aligns to original Alaïa, but these designs are certainly not lacking in finesse or technical acclaim. It’s cut well, it’s not playing it safe and the pieces I mentioned about would look stunning when styled in the right context.

This idea of over-conceptualization is a bit overplayed. There’s more to Alaïa than cling-y dresses for glamazons, you would be surprised to hear how many women I served in my retail years, now in their 60ies or 70ies, own archival Alaïa that fits beautifully with the Yohji and Issey they have in their closets. Carla Sozzani would be a good role model for that.

I beg to differ regarding technical finesse ...this all without reciting my CV :-)

I never mentioned glamazones but on the subject i find Peters is going for the 2024 version of that ...the ig luxury it girls that equally want to look sexy modern and chic -----the amount of nude flesh/fierce attitude and cut outs is that not galamzoneäian territory ?

Alaia had fun as well he had great sense of humor you saw it in his clothes and know it from the stories told about him i am sure your aware of this of course , so i don't think people that know his work see him as overconceptuazed person like a Raf is and Peter is a by product of that genre of creative very Belgique school.

Any ways we can agree to love or dislike his work at the house it's all good....till the next show :-)

 

[tricotineacetat]

No, but you generalized the Belgian school of design as being overtly conceptualized and in lacking of sensuality and feminity which I also found a bit lacking in taste, as that is very much an opinion based on cultural origin and socialization.

Pieter’s work is more austere, yes, as were Raf’s Dior and Jil Sander. It’s a very common idea to link that with coldness and a woman-unfriendly point of view. The point I was trying to make is that not every Alaia woman or design is about the allure of the curve. Alaia explored different territories in his career and the clothes I was shown by my clients were not at all what is most stuck with people as Alaia’s signatures.

I really hated those millefeuille pieces from Alaia’s last collection and much like showing latex coats, this is only about serving a stunt for the runway. But my background as a buyer taught me the importance of the bottom line, the clothes people actually buy from a brand, that really reveal the achievement of a designer.

That being said, there are quite a few pieces here that are very straight forward and worth keeping for many years. They aren’t difficult to wear and not very heavy-handed pieces. Are they very Alaia, I’m not sure - But they certainly look accomplished and not amateurishly constructed.

 

[PDFSD]

No, but you generalized the Belgian school of design as being overtly conceptualized and in lacking of sensuality and feminity which I also found a bit lacking in taste, as that is very much an opinion based on cultural origin and socialization.

Pieter’s work is more austere, yes, as were Raf’s Dior and Jil Sander. It’s a very common idea to link that with coldness and a woman-unfriendly point of view. The point I was trying to make is that not every Alaia woman or design is about the allure of the curve. Alaia explored different territories in his career and the clothes I was shown by my clients were not at all what is most stuck with people as Alaia’s signatures.

I really hated those millefeuille pieces from Alaia’s last collection and much like showing latex coats, this is only about serving a stunt for the runway. But my background as a buyer taught me the importance of the bottom line, the clothes people actually buy from a brand, that really reveal the achievement of a designer.

That being said, there are quite a few pieces here that are very straight forward and worth keeping for many years. They aren’t difficult to wear and not very heavy-handed pieces. Are they very Alaia, I’m not sure - But they certainly look accomplished and not amateurishly constructed.

To be genuinely kind means to have the courage to offend.

See you at the next show. xm

 

[PDFSD]

I know the Belgian school of design maybe i went there who knows :-) its besides the point being part of the culture one does not have ownership of it and there are nuances which one can´t write with every comment just to cover every possible assumption or reinterpetion on the given comment.

Sensuality is present in Margiela work and femininity as well and even more so in Dries´s work...the issue with Peter and even Raf and Blazy is the over reliance on concept as the end be all to modernity and progress with no tension further regarding other subjects that make a great collection or brand.
Current work developed into a creative modernity that feels fake and not authentic as its does not connect to culture for me, ist a personal feeling.

Please do buy and support the brand i can't wear it anyways, if someone i know wants it as a gift shoe or bag i would get it for them but critically i don't love the RTW work to praise it on or offline.