Alaïa RTW Summer-Fall 2023
Let's face it: Azzedine Alaïa was a real homebody. The rue de Moussy building, which still houses the original Alaïa Parisian boutique, is where the Tunisian-born couturier worked, cooked, ate, slept, entertained, stocked vintage haute couture and - only when he really felt like it - to organize fashion shows.
Extolling this legacy, but in a very 2023 way, Alaïa's creative director, Pieter Mulier , invited the international fashion pack to his hometown of Antwerp, up to the 21st floor of a 1970s apartment tower where he lives with his partner Matthieu Blazy, creative director of Bottega Veneta.
Surrounded by ceramics, contemporary art, tons and tons of concrete arranged in ramps, ramps , sloping ceilings and the heaviest bathroom sink imaginable, Mulier says that's where he's happiest.
Given its roof garden, giant windows and sweeping views of a charming harbor town, it's easy to see why.
Dries Van Noten, Raf Simons, Martine Sitbon, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Vincent Cassel were among those who snooped around the sprawling penthouse, sipping Mulier's favorite beer and searching for their seat cards on a hodgepodge of mid-century benches and chairs.
Three of the guests found themselves perched on the edge of Mulier and Blazy's bed, wrapped in an expanse of black leather, while others faced each other in narrow hallways, close enough together that ballgowns and trousers, bulging in semicircles with outseams like parentheses, brushed their knees.
The collection was smooth, sultry and subliminally dramatic: silver embroidery resembling shimmering straight pins around curved seams, or scattered on a tube dress; patent leather sculpted into a lattice-like fishnet stocking for a striking trench coat, and faux fur panels in front of handsome woolen coats.
The designs were austere and often black, characteristic of the Belgian fashion school, but Mulier had a sexual impulse and uninhibited sensuality. The body was covered, but in clinging fabrics, arranged to exalt the female form.
"It's all about the circle cut," the designer said, noting that most of the confection was made with knitted fabrics. “It's all about curves and sculpture. It has always been said that Azzedine was the best sculptor in fashion."
After the show, the guests went to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, which reopened last September after 11 years of complex restoration, during which a new modern building was integrated into the neoclassical monument.
Mulier guests were free to roam the new section's gleaming white floors and herringbone parquet of the old, bringing together six centuries of Flemish and European art. Eventually they made their way to the tall, blood-red gallery dedicated to Peter Paul Rubens, where two long dinner tables had been set, strewn with candles, bunches of grapes and crushed pomegranates.
It was a lavish night at the museum and Mulier proved to be a host with the most.< /p >
Let's face it: Azzedine Alaïa was a real homebody. The rue de Moussy building, which still houses the original Alaïa Parisian boutique, is where the Tunisian-born couturier worked, cooked, ate, slept, entertained, stocked vintage haute couture and - only when he really felt like it - to organize fashion shows.
Extolling this legacy, but in a very 2023 way, Alaïa's creative director, Pieter Mulier , invited the international fashion pack to his hometown of Antwerp, up to the 21st floor of a 1970s apartment tower where he lives with his partner Matthieu Blazy, creative director of Bottega Veneta.
Surrounded by ceramics, contemporary art, tons and tons of concrete arranged in ramps, ramps , sloping ceilings and the heaviest bathroom sink imaginable, Mulier says that's where he's happiest.
Given its roof garden, giant windows and sweeping views of a charming harbor town, it's easy to see why.
Dries Van Noten, Raf Simons, Martine Sitbon, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Vincent Cassel were among those who snooped around the sprawling penthouse, sipping Mulier's favorite beer and searching for their seat cards on a hodgepodge of mid-century benches and chairs.
Three of the guests found themselves perched on the edge of Mulier and Blazy's bed, wrapped in an expanse of black leather, while others faced each other in narrow hallways, close enough together that ballgowns and trousers, bulging in semicircles with outseams like parentheses, brushed their knees.
The collection was smooth, sultry and subliminally dramatic: silver embroidery resembling shimmering straight pins around curved seams, or scattered on a tube dress; patent leather sculpted into a lattice-like fishnet stocking for a striking trench coat, and faux fur panels in front of handsome woolen coats.
The designs were austere and often black, characteristic of the Belgian fashion school, but Mulier had a sexual impulse and uninhibited sensuality. The body was covered, but in clinging fabrics, arranged to exalt the female form.
"It's all about the circle cut," the designer said, noting that most of the confection was made with knitted fabrics. “It's all about curves and sculpture. It has always been said that Azzedine was the best sculptor in fashion."
After the show, the guests went to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, which reopened last September after 11 years of complex restoration, during which a new modern building was integrated into the neoclassical monument.
Mulier guests were free to roam the new section's gleaming white floors and herringbone parquet of the old, bringing together six centuries of Flemish and European art. Eventually they made their way to the tall, blood-red gallery dedicated to Peter Paul Rubens, where two long dinner tables had been set, strewn with candles, bunches of grapes and crushed pomegranates.
It was a lavish night at the museum and Mulier proved to be a host with the most.< /p >
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