EXHIBITION – ALAÏA COUTURIER AND COLLECTOR

On the occasion of the exhibition “Azzedine Alaïa, couturier collector”, the Parisian Galliera museum is offering a selection of 140 exceptional haute-couture pieces, drawn from Alaïa’s personal collection which amounts to nearly 20,000.

This fabulous collection reflects the immense admiration that Azzedine Alaïa had for his predecessors – from the birth of haute couture at the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21st century. In fact, the garments on display include dresses by Worth, Charles James, Paul Poiret, Jacques Doucet, Jeanne Lanvin, Lucien Lelong but also dresses by Thierry Mugler, Yohji Yamamoto, Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood.

And this is only a tiny part of the creators exhibited by the Galliera museum.

Alaïa begins his collection in 1968, when Cristobal Balenciaga closes his fashion house. Mademoiselle Renée, Balenciaga’s deputy general manager, invites the young 33-year-old couturier, whose technical reputation is already indisputable, to come and choose freely from the master’s models so that Alaïa’s dexterous fingers can cut other silhouettes. Instead, Alaïa religiously preserves Balenciaga’s garments, and without any speculative intention, constitutes a prestigious personal collection, which he will never mention and which will never be revealed during his lifetime.

For fifty years, he visits the auction houses, most often alone, to outbid other buyers and win fashion treasures from prestigious couturiers like Worth, Callot, Fath and Poiret.

Unlike his colleagues who sometimes buy old haute couture garments to find the inspiration they lack, Alaïa puts together his collection as a lover: he perfectly understands the need to collect, document and preserve this fashion heritage.

Passionate about fashion history, he never stops spending to enrich his collection – whether he has money or not and can spend up to two million euros per year on it.

His only competitors are museums, because haute couture houses are hardly interested in their own historical heritage.

The masters Vionnet, Grès and Balenciaga fascinate Alaïa: their talent as sculptors or architects echoes his own technical talent.

But there are also pieces created by couturiers whose names have been forgotten: Raphaël, the son of a Madrid tailor whose fashion house was active from 1924 to 1959 or Jenny, active from 1911 to 1940 and as famous at the time as Coco Chanel.

The exhibition is absolutely fabulous and perfectly echoes the exhibition dedicated by the Parisian Alaïa Foundation to the work of the Tunisian designer.