The venerable House of Alaïa made quite the impact at New York Fashion Week with its Winter-Spring collection show, which took place inside the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Aside from it being the first time a fashion collection has been shown in the museum’s rotunda, the show was a homecoming of sorts for the brand. In the 1980s, Azzedine Alaïa opened his first store; in 1982, he showed in New York for the first time; in 2000, Alaïa’s pieces were placed in conversation with works by Andy Warhol at the Guggenheim Museum’s temporary space in SoHo – an exchange of art and fashion that was unprecedented at the time.
Some of Alaïa Creative Director Pieter Mulier’s silhouettes were influenced by the building and the knowledge that they would be shown in an art museum in America. Geometric shapes, circles, squares, and fabric spirals wrap the model’s body in double-face cashmere, fine knit, sculpted poplin, and silk taffeta. The pieces do not have zippers or buttons; they are held in place by their own structure and form.
Mulier describes the clothing as “couture studies, of an American vernacular of dress—denims, t-shirts, sports pieces.” It is a fantastic collection, made all the more impactful by its presentation in the Guggenheim Museum.
Watch the full presentation above and a closer look at the individual pieces below.
