Azzedine Alaïa S/S 2017 Paris | the Fashion Spot

Azzedine Alaïa S/S 2017 Paris

Azzedine is absolutely incapable of doing any wrong; this collection is wonderful! The studded dresses in the beginning are extraordinary! The semi-diaphanous skirts/dresses with the patterned underlayer are also noteworthy. Definitely a best of the season for me.
 
Not gonna express my opinion on this because I don't wan't to get TFS-bashed like last time.:arrow:
 
Don't know if it's because of the styling and the casting, but this feels way too Victoria Beckham/Valentino for me. It's a very nice collection and there are some great pieces for sure, but it's a little too mundane. For the past few years I've noticed that the collections are getting more and more young, girly even. I wonder how present he still is in the process? Because it really feels like there's a hand of a creative team pushing the brand to a different direction. Perhaps there's a plan for his retirement already in motion and they're trying to figure out a way to move on without him? Whatever it is, I'm sure if this the way to go. I'm missing the lushness and strength that makes Alaïa.
 
^^
LOL IloveDiorHomme!:lol:
Feel free to express yourself...


I'm an Alaia fan. This collection is not bad and neither good. It's a classic Alaia summer collection. It's a formula that works.
However, this doesn't give me the kind of emotion i want and expect from Alaia. It has nothing to do with relevance because i think that good clothes last forever.

The clean black pieces are the best thing in this collection. The show could have been only about the first look, the fourth look (That asymetrical leather skirt:wub:) and the last 5 looks. They are both the best and yet freshest things while being totally Alaia. They remind me of the sensual body-conscious Alaia that i love and chase everytime i'm buying his vintage stuff.

It's almost a pity that a designer who is so celebrated for celebrating "women curves" choose to present his clothes on such a cast...
I'll not talk about the diversity as it's not the place.


I think i'll go watch his spring 2003 Couture show...
 
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I think i'll go watch his spring 2003 Couture show...
YES. Now that's an Alaïa collection to love. Unbelievably sensual, unbelievably confident and absolutely timeless....I'll never get over those full alligator skins running down the back of the tailored coats and blazers. Truly to die for!!

This is far too cutesy and young for my taste...and certainly for Alaïa. And I always have a bit of a hard time when the only colors in a collection are red and blue...it's very department store oriented.
 
It's a lovely collection, in which I find the most simple looks to be the most appealing ones - all the palazzo trouser/skirt hybrids that come either as jumpsuits or paired with a classic tailored jacket, or the long column dress with mock neckline and poet sleeves. Those pieces have a sensual flow that must be a joy to wear in warmer climates. On the other hand, I can do with a lot of the looks exposing printed layers worn below - who exactly is gonna buy those? How much wear do you get out of a dress that gives you a headache as per what underwear to wear it with?
 
It’s always comforting to see a designer like Alaia plugging away— and still successful, and still keeping true to his creative vision (as tame as it all seems), in these days of musical chairs where even strong talents are fired in place of the latest hype and gimmick.

Having said that, if these designs didn’t have the Alaia name attached to them, this would be easily dismissed as another London-label doing proper girls in awkward, stiff and basic silhouettes. Like Lola, I really liked the last handful of black silhouettes— if only because they do bring back a whiff of that classic Alaia-hotness that seems to be all but missing in his current design nowadays. And, I do love those flapper-style fringes with a new twist pieces that are at once playfully innocent, and also tehno-savvy looking.

A couple handfuls of strong designs with the remaining pieces so forgettable/unflattering/generic doesn’t really seem worthy of an Alaia collection to me.

(And God— do I miss that unreal, surreal and beyond gorgeous cast of Supers that came to define the Alaia image (particularly Naomi in that Alaia signature white lace tennis dress and Nadege in the shimmering snakeskin black trench). These castings of meek watercolours just doesn’t do anything for me. It’s all good that he no longer cares for the Super-image, but you can cast fragile and delicate girls— like what Calvin Klein did with his ushering in the waifs back in the early-90s, and still excite and inspire. Or, Gigli’s gentlewomen all resembling Byzantine princesses sleepwalking [in the words of Tim Blanks)… But this brand of softness— even blankness here, is so… lifeless. What a boring-looking show.)

Thanks sixtdaily for the pics!
 
Count me among those who find the first and last handfuls of looks to be the best here. That short black belted number with the bandana-looking neckline at the end -- that's the Alaia I enjoy. It's got a Roman gladiatrix vibe to it without being remotely referential. The rest of this...yes, I have no doubt that the knits are incredible, that the leathers are top notch, and that the women who buy each piece will love them for many years, but it just doesn't have a pulse to it. So much of his current output lacks that singularly imposing vision of grown womanhood which he managed to imbue in every piece he made, and it lacks that sort of cheeky sense of play that he threw your way once in a while too (butterfly intarsia knits, anyone?).

It just frustrates me because when you see his vintage pieces they have such power to them, such drama, such an unapologetic quality. And they are very much timeless. The designer himself hasn't lost those qualities but I feel like a large portion of his designs have.
 

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