Twenty-two years after Azzedine Alaïa’s thunderous return to the runway, the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa in Paris revisits that defining moment through an exhibition curated by Carla Sozzani, Joe McKenna and Olivier Saillard who is known for his performances with Tilda Swinton.

Open until tomorrow, the show unfolds beneath the foundation’s iconic glass roof, the very space where Alaïa’s Summer–Autumn 2003 collection first struck the fashion world with its quiet force. What emerges is not a retrospective but an immersion into the charged calm of a couturier who worked against time, against convention, and often against the logic of fashion itself. A video, by the entrance, featuring a young Naomi Campbell and Nicolas Ghesquière captures this atmosphere with remarkable clarity.

When Alaïa reappeared in 2003 after eleven years of silence, the industry was enthralled by minimalism and velocity. He chose the opposite. With Carla Sozzani at his side and new financial backing, he withdrew into his studio on Rue de la Verrerie and returned to the discipline that shaped his life: cutting, sculpting, refining. The collection that emerged reminded the world that craftsmanship, not spectacle, is what survives.

From the 1950s, when he learned from the women he dressed in private fitting rooms, through the triumphant 1980s when he dominated global fashion, to the contemplative decade of 1992–2002 when he stepped back from the industry’s relentless pace, each chapter leads toward the quiet precision that defined his later work.

Thirty outstanding pieces from the 2003 collection form the heart of the exhibition, its summit. Jackets oscillate between sharp structure and bias-cut fluidity; perforated and curved skirts render denim as airy as chiffon; iconic zip and bandage dresses appear with almost monastic purity. Leather becomes architecture in the form of elongated crocodile tails, while shirts, stretched, serene and impeccably cut, demonstrate Alaïa’s unparalleled rigour. And the chiffon dresses, weightless as breath, confirm his genius for lightness.

At the time, critics could only acclaim him: “Sublime, inevitably Azzedine.” “Alaïa Triumphs.” “Master Class.” Each headline acknowledged a designer who let his work speak where he preferred silence.

Archival films and videos recreate the atmosphere of that legendary show. Upstairs, beside Alaïa’s preserved studio is stunning with Bruce Weber’s intimate black-and-white photographs, originally commissioned for Vogue Italia, are exhibited publicly for the first time, deepening the sense of proximity to the couturier’s world.

The exhibition concludes with a focus on the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation, recognized as a public utility in 2020. Created by Alaïa with Christoph von Weyhe and Carla Sozzani, and bearing the distinctive logo designed by Julian Schnabel, whose porcelain portrait of the couturier features in the adjacent boutique, the Foundation safeguards not only Alaïa’s couture but also his vast collections of art, design and fashion history. It stands as both archive and pulse: the living testament of a life wholly devoted to creation.

An exhibition juxtaposing Alaïa’s work with Christian Dior’s will follow this incredible show.

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