Azzedine Alaïa showed his new collection for Fall/Winter 2013 at a private viewing at the designer’s headquarters after the end of Paris Fashion Week. That has become an original strategy of his, and one that reflects his ambiguous relationship with the modern fashion world, where more is always better and creativity runs on a tight schedule. The designer showed longer lengths, the mid-calf, as well as fuller skirts that make us want to dance and twirl in them. It is a shame though that the exquisite 3D quality of the knitting cannot be portrayed in the images of the collection. It was all about knits and polka dots that were everywhere from baby dolls with matching leggings to gloves and trousers with matching tops. The polka dots were in fact raised like embroidery and among the sophisticated techniques were a series of vertically striped dresses made of ribbons of lacework backed by a shimmery knit; honeycomb pleating and most of the garments had minimum seams, showing once again Alaïa’s incredible talent to express through one single form.
It is going to be a busy year for the designer. In September, Paris' Galliera fashion museum will re-open after four years of renovation with France's first Alaïa retrospective, curated by Olivier Saillard. But before that, Alaïa is designing the costumes for Mille et Une Nuits, a ballet based on A Thousand and One Nights by Angelin Preljocaj in Aix-en-Provence at the end of April. In May, Alaïa will design costumes once more, this time for the Los Angeles Philharmonic's production of The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart's comic opera. The production, which will be performed at Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall, also feature sets by Prtizker-winning architect, Jean Nouvel. About his costuming assignments, Alaïa says only that he enjoys getting away from fashion, and that it is much more challenging to design for opera than for ballet.
