Azzedine Alaïa F/W 12.13 Paris

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Does Azzedine Alaïa have a sixth sense for knowing when poor old fashion is baroque?

For fall, he offered clean lines, erasing the gold trims and tapestry patterns that surfaced during the Milan and Paris shows. With Mr. Alaïa, the cutting overrides everything else, and you have to look closely at wool coats and jackets to see where he has placed the seams and set the pockets. His designs often invite you to turn and give the model a second glance as she passes — go ahead and look. This season his knitwear includes a zip-front catsuit and flared skirts that feel almost like wool felt.

nytimes.com

 

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viralfashion, idonline, wsj.com, oystermag

 

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Paris Fashion Week ended several days before designer Azzedine Alaia decided to stage his latest runway show last week. He presents his collections according to his own whims. Last year, for example, he showed during Haute Couture week.

But his newest offering was smack in line with the trends that emerged from the recent catwalk marathon. If there was any doubt fall will be a season of pantsuits after Prada and Louis Vuitton both clogged their runways with them, Mr. Alaia secured the trend by showing mannish trousers with thigh-grazing jackets.

Yet Mr. Alaia spiced things up with velours catsuits and layers of pointy-tipped peplums overlapping to form short and long skirts on dresses. He amped up the drama with ankle-length coats buttoned all the way up to the neck.

Mr. Alaia’s newest collection riffs on many of his greatest hits. There were timeless, sleeveless dresses with flouncy skirts and his usual range of jewel colors: deep green, garnet, sapphire and black like onyx.

Those flouncy skirts make Mr. Alaia a favorite choice among fashion editors and buyers for their own wardrobes. And his prices are about as high as designer ready-to-wear gets. Even with tricks such as a patent leather trench coat stamped with a crocodile print, instead of using actual crocodile skins, the collection’s signature pieces will easily run into the thousands of euros.

wsj.com

How about a sleeveless catsuit in black, or billiard green peachskin knit with a matching pair of peek-a-boo pointelle stripe gloves reaching up towards the shoulders, or a patent leather croc-embossed curvy tailored double-breasted jacket? While so many other designers are pushing themselves and their teams beyond the limit to keep up with today’s frantic fashion schedule which now includes four or more full collections and shows per year, Azzedine Alaïa is working at his own meticulous, snail’s pace. And this is working for him. Alaïa is dressing some of the most alluring women in the world from Sofia Coppola who wore Azzedine for her wedding, To Dior Joaillerie’s Victoire de Castellane who pours her generous Parisian curves into Alaïa’s flirty skater’s skirt dresses which she likes to wear with one of Olympia Le-Tan’s witty book bags. In this world where almost everything can be had, provided you have the cash, Alaïa is an acquired taste, a designer for connoisseurs of the far and few between.

There was no about face revolution in the elegantly tailored collection, predominantly in knit, which Alaïa presented this time around in his 60-exit show. When what you do is this good there’s no need to hurry up change. Instead, Alaïa played to his strengths showing predominantly knits, some with a light peachskin texture which from a distance looked like second-skin suede. The cap sleeve, zip front hourglass dress in bordeaux, billiard and black opened the show and formed a base. There’s a new a-line tent dress, his own undulating take on Fortuny pleats in tiered skater’s skirt dresses and a series of man-tailored redingotes cut to the floor worn with boyish crisp cotton shirts. Cropped biker jackets with gleaming gold zips offered a new version of an old standby and he’s found a marvellous new shade of violet-hued royal blue. My personal favourite was a floor-sweeping dress with a skirt in a series of mini ruffles- 13 or more in all- a contemporary example of wearing the curtains.

idonline

 

[Psylocke]

Thanks for creating a thread for this. I tend to forget to look up his collections and find it a bit annoying he usually stages his show off-schedule. The presentation here looks so stale and it doesn't flatter the outfits at all. Plus it looks quite poorly styled. The coats are quite lovely. I love the clean lines and the fit looks amazing. But the jumpsuits are vile. And I'm not a fan of the frilled skirts. I find this rather disappointing overall, especially because the shoes aren't that great either.

 

[Crying Diamonds]

I was just thinking "If he can cut these coats to absolute perfection, why does he feel the need to keep doing these strange tiered dresses?" and then I saw the detail shot - the tiers are entirely seamless. That's incredibly clever.

 

[saann]

This is stunning.. not a fan of the jumpsuits but I love how clean this is. The silhouette stays the same but it's done in a much sleeker way this season. I think I prefer this to the furry things he did last..

Is it a zipper on that first skirt?

 

[Heroin_Chic]

Terribly out-dated.

 

[HeatherAnne]

Weird to see those pants/weird jumpers from him. This collection does absolutely nothing for me.