A major retrospective of the life and work of master couturier Azzedine Alaïa just opened at the Design Museum

And it's co-curated by the late creative mastermind himself
The late Azzedine Alaïa
Peter Lindberg c/o Design Museum
Chloe Street11 May 2018

The late womenswear designer Azzedine Alaïa has been honoured with a large-scale retrospective at London's Design Museum.

Opened on Thursday and entitled Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier, the exhibition was co-curated by Alaïa himself alongside Mark Wilson, chief curator of the Groninger Museum. The exhibition took a year to develop, and went ahead as planned despite the designer’s untimely passing on November 18, 2017.

"The museum felt an Alaïa exhibition would be the most amazing first fashion exhibition for the new Design Museum," says the museum's co-director Alice Black. "His sense of form, of the shape of the feminine body, his ability to make it beautiful and powerful, his unmatched mastery in creating and making, his freedom of being who he wanted to be, his independence of thinking, resonated so well with the ethos of the museum."

More than 60 of Alaïa’s incredible couture creations - personally selected by Alaia from the archives - are on display alongside specially commissioned pieces of design and sculpture by Konstantin Grcic, Marc Newson and Kris Ruhs, with whom Alaïa collaborated in 2015.

Alaïa is also said to have spent time documenting his creative process for the exhibition, making it a must-see for fashion students.

Recognised throughout his life as a master couturier, Alaïa was famed for his ability to sculpt the female form using innovative fits, fabrics and tailoring.

He was an incredibly talented craftsman and one of the few couturiers to still painstakingly cut all his own patterns.

He designed garments by draping material directly around the human frame, and his sensual, form-fitting creations were loved by everyone from Lady Gaga, Tina Turner and Rihanna to Madonna, Michelle Obama and Victoria Beckham.

In July 2017, the Tunisian-born designer returned to the couture calendar after a six-year hiatus and was ready to open a long-awaited London flagship early this year.

Upon his death, an outpouring of tributes flooded social media, with countless celebrities acknowledging his talents as a designer and his warmth and brilliance as a person.

The most notable eulogy was delivered by Naomi Campbell, who took to the stage at the 2017 Fashion Awards, to pay homage her close friend. “Azzedine was able to transform a woman’s body into something special; make you look great and still like a woman. He captured the essence of femininity.” She goes on to note he was “the most generous, kind, compassionate and humble man I have ever known, with a mischievous sense of humour in the glint of his eye… he filled my life with light and joy.”

Alaïa had a broad and loyal fanbase, and a large celebrity following. As one of the final projects from one of the most important fashion figures of the past century, the exhibition at the Design Museum offers an amazing and unique opportunity to see Alaïa’s work as he intended it to be seen.

Book your tickets now.

Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier is at The Design Museum from May 10- October 7; designmuseum.org

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