ALAÏA & DIOR

Let’s speak not of one, but of two intertwined exhibitions devoted to two geniuses of haute couture: Alaïa and Dior: Azzedine Alaïa and Christian Dior: Two Masters of Haute Couture presented by the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation until April 24, 2026, and Azzedine Alaïa’s Dior Collection proposed by the Galerie Dior until May 3, 2026. As we know, Azzedine Alaïa, who tirelessly sought to unravel the technical mysteries of the dress, was an avid collector of haute couture. Even in times of financial difficulty, Alaïa always continued to buy, and as a great lover of fashion, he managed over the years to assemble an extraordinary collection of more than twenty thousand pieces, a collection that today reflects the immense savoir-faire of the great couturiers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The house of Dior occupies a privileged place in this dreamlike collection. Some six hundred pieces from the couturier’s iconic maison are now preserved at the Alaïa Foundation, and around one hundred of them are displayed as part of the exhibition presented by the Galerie Dior, whether they were created by Christian Dior himself or by his successors, from Yves Saint Laurent to John Galliano.

Christian Dior – 1953

Christian Dior – 1951 (model on the right)

Christian Dior – 1949 (model on the left)

Christian Dior – 1952

Christian Dior – 1956 (model on the right)

Christian Dior – 1955

Christian Dior – 1948

Christian Dior – 1951

Christian Dior – 1952

(The photos above were taken at the Dior Gallery. To be honest, I wish the Alaïa Foundation’s name had been a bit more prominently displayed – I hardly saw it anywhere, even though it is thanks to the Foundation that we can admire the wonders on display. This is unfortunate because Olivier Saillard, the director of the Alaïa Foundation, works tirelessly to preserve and promote Azzedine Alaïa’s dual legacy: his creations as such, but also his phenomenal work as an archivist of haute couture. Olivier Saillard is a fashion historian, a poet, and an extraordinary curator with an astonishing breadth of knowledge, and the Alaïa Foundation deserves far more visibility and visitors for its beauty and serenity. In short, let’s go to the Alaïa Foundation, which I find much more museum-like – and by the way, let’s buy the exhibition book, which is particularly beautiful and informative. Also, let’s support and promote small foundations which in no way have the means of a large group like LVMH.)

Christian Dior – 1957

Christian Dior – 1952

Christian Dior – 1956

Christian Dior – 1953

Christian Dior – 1955

Christian Dior – 1951

Christian Dior Boutique – 1948 – Created in the autumn of 1947, the Boutique line adapts certain models from the collections and foreshadows our current ready-to-wear

Christian Dior – 1948

Christian Dior – 1950

Christian Dior – 1957

Christian Dior – 1948

Christian Dior – 1957 – The Venezuela model is undoubtedly one of Christian Dior’s designs that has been most frequently reinterpreted in his ateliers. Alaïa admired it so much that he acquired it three times, and the model resonates in Alaïa’s iconic skater dress, crafted in jacquard knit with a voluminous skirt and a corset-style belt

As a result, Paris is being treated, in the Winter of 2025–2026, to two interlinked exhibitions that explore these two masters of haute couture, whose paths crossed – if only briefly.

Indeed, the very young Alaïa worked for a few days at Dior in 1956, arriving from Tunis with almost nothing, one year before the death of the master. It was a family acquaintance, Madame Lévy-Despas, a client of Christian Dior, who obtained for him an internship in the workshops on Avenue Montaigne.

Alaïa did not stay long. The Algerian War was raging, and the situation was difficult for those coming from North Africa. Alaïa had no papers and was simply dismissed. (The more diplomatic version – to quote the literature produced for the Dior–Alaïa exhibitions – reads: “Alaïa remains only a few days in the Dior workshops. Life sometimes decides otherwise for one’s destiny”. A graceful way of putting it 😏

Nevertheless, the young couturier would long carry an intense admiration for Dior and his cocktail dresses he saw as marvels of architecture. The thirty or so Christian Dior models collected by Alaïa clearly reveal the influence of the father of the New Look on the Tunisian couturier.

Alaïa would share with Dior a taste for cinched waists, sculpted hips, and voluminous skirts. These two architects of fashion each celebrated a radiant, triumphant vision of femininity.