ALAÏA

History

Tunis and Paris, 1935–1963

Azzedine Alaïa was born in Tunis on 26 February 1935, according to the chronology kept by the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa, and was raised there by his grandparents while his parents lived in Siliana, where the family grew wheat.^[5] A French midwife who had become a second mother to him enrolled him at fifteen in the city's School of Fine Arts, where he studied sculpture; he later credited the clay casts of hands and feet with teaching him anatomy.^[5] He paid for paper and charcoal by finishing dresses for Madame Richard, a Tunis dressmaker who copied Paris couture for local clients.^[5]

He moved to Paris in June 1956, by the Fondation's account, and was taken on in the workrooms of Christian Dior, which let him go after four days.^[5] From 30 June 1958 he worked three seasons at Guy Laroche, until November 1959; at the end of that year Countess Nicole de Blégiers took him into her household, where he looked after her children and made her clothes while his private clientele grew to include Cécile, Lina and Marie-Hélène de Rothschild.^[5] In 1960 he met the hairdresser Frédéric Somigli, who introduced him to the actress Arletty; he made her clothes, including a pink jacket, and later said his zip dress grew out of dressing her.^[5]

Rue de Bellechasse, 1964–1979

Between 1964 and 1966, by the Fondation's chronology, Alaïa moved into an apartment at 60 rue de Bellechasse, set up his first workroom there for a private clientele and changed the spelling of his surname to Alaïa; the flat was his home and studio for twenty years.^[5] Richemont, the house's owner, gives 1964 as its founding year.^[3] His clients included Louise de Vilmorin, Cécile de Rothschild and, from the early 1970s, Greta Garbo, who ordered oversized coats, and in 1965 he made the prototype of Yves Saint Laurent's Mondrian dress.^[5] He was admitted to the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne in March 1971.^[5]

In the late 1970s he also took outside commissions: perforated dresses for Pennel & Flipo in 1976, costumes for the dancers of the Crazy Horse cabaret in 1979, and tuxedo suits for Thierry Mugler's autumn-winter 1979–80 collection.^[5] A leather ready-to-wear line he designed for Charles Jourdan, with eyeleted dresses, berets, gloves and skirts, was rejected as too provocative; he kept the pieces, which became early signatures of his own.^[5]

New York and the 1980s

Fashion editors wearing his clothes brought the first wider notice: Women's Wear Daily published Bill Cunningham's photographs of Paris editors in Alaïa on 23 November 1981, and in September 1982 Bergdorf Goodman staged his first New York show.^[5] Sources date the label differently: FashionUnited puts his first ready-to-wear collection under his own name in 1980, while the Fondation says he founded his house under the Alaïa name in 1983 and showed the Spring-Summer 1983 collection at rue de Bellechasse.^[19][5] In 1985 the French Ministry of Culture's fashion awards named him designer of the year and gave him the prize for best French collection.^[5]

WWD attributes his international fame in the 1980s to evening dresses, close-fitting knits and sculpted leather, and says he was nicknamed the “King of Cling” because his clothes fit like a second skin.^[4] The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute dates his reputation to the early 1980s and to his expertise in cut and construction, including flat seams engineered to control the stretch of rayon knit.^[2][11] Linda Evangelista, Linda Spierings and Veronica Webb walked his shows from 1984, and Naomi Campbell made her runway debut for him in 1986.^[5]

Rue de la Verrerie and his own calendar, 1987–1999

In 1987 Alaïa bought a group of nineteenth-century buildings in the Marais between rue de la Verrerie and rue de Moussy; renovated over more than five years, they held his apartment, studio, ateliers, a glass-roofed hall for shows and the boutique at 7 rue de Moussy, and he moved there in 1990 from a town house on rue du Parc-Royal.^[20][5] With the Spring-Summer 1988 collection, shown in May, two months after the official shows, he began presenting collections only when they were ready, outside the Paris calendar.^[5]

In 1991 he designed a capsule for Tati, the Paris discount chain, using its pink-and-white gingham for a bag, a T-shirt and espadrilles; the Fondation calls it the first collaboration between a couturier and a mass-market brand.^[5] After the death of his sister Hafida in the early 1990s he stepped back from runway shows for several years while continuing couture for private clients and selling ready-to-wear through a few boutiques.^[5]

Prada, Richemont and couture, 2000–2017

In 2000, through an introduction by Carla Sozzani, the Prada group invested in the house; WWD reported in 2004 that Prada had bought the whole company four years earlier, that sales had more than doubled the previous year, and that Prada had helped Alaïa widen his range of shoes and handbags.^[5][21] In 2007 he bought the company back from Prada and Sozzani introduced him to Richemont, which has controlled the house since.^[5][4] The same year he set up the association that became the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa with the painter Christoph von Weyhe and Sozzani.^[20]

He returned to the runway in 2002 with a show in his rue de Moussy boutique and presented collections devoted entirely to haute couture in 2003, July 2011 and July 2017.^[5] He showed his Summer 2018 collection at the end of October 2017 and died in Paris on 18 November 2017, aged 82 by the date of birth the Fondation records; he is buried in Sidi Bou Saïd, Tunisia.^[5] Some obituaries gave his age as 77, FashionUnited's among them, though it noted that The New York Times gave 82; The Met also records his year of birth as 1935.^[19][2]

After the founder, 2017–2021

For more than three years the house had no creative director, and Cultured describes the studio team as directing the collections from 2017 to 2021.^[22] Myriam Serrano, previously director of communication and accessories at Chloé, became chief executive in 2019.^[4] In September 2020 the house presented the Editions, 30 looks dated 1981 to 2017 and remade from the founder's original patterns and fabrics; Serrano chose them with Sozzani and Caroline Fabre, the director of heritage, editions and couture, and they reached stores that November.^[23] The Fondation became an establishment of public utility by decree on 28 February 2020; its collection holds more than 35,000 pieces.^[20]

Pieter Mulier, 2021–2026

On 5 February 2021 Serrano announced the appointment of Pieter Mulier as creative director, effective immediately; he had studied design and architecture, worked for Raf Simons and Jil Sander, served as design director at Christian Dior and, most recently, as global creative director of Calvin Klein.^[6] WWD notes that he followed Simons from Simons's own label to Jil Sander, Dior and Calvin Klein, and W calls him the first designer to lead the house after its founder.^[4][10] He showed his first collection in July 2021 on the rue de Moussy, then at venues of his choosing, among them his Antwerp apartment and the Guggenheim Museum, before moving the show onto the official Paris ready-to-wear schedule in 2025.^[24][4]

WWD reported in January 2026 that the house had grown its retail network nearly fourfold, to 20 freestanding stores, and was understood to have more than doubled in size under Mulier, with accessories led by the mesh ballet flat, Le Teckel and Le Click.^[4] By November 2026 Richemont's page for the house counted a network of 28 stores.^[3] A dinner on 27 January 2025 marked the opening of a Paris flagship at 15 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, designed by the architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa.^[25][26] Mulier was named International Designer of the Year at the 2025 CFDA Awards.^[4] On 30 January 2026 the house announced that he would leave after the Summer-Fall 2026 show, and on 5 February the Prada Group named him chief creative officer of Versace from 1 July 2026.^[4][27]

A studio-led house, 2026

Announcing Mulier's exit, the house said its studio would ensure continuity until a new creative organization was confirmed, and named no successor.^[4] The Winter-Spring 2027 collection, presented on 3 October 2026, was designed by the in-house team led by Boaz Eli, whom AnOther identifies as ready-to-wear design director and WWD as studio director; WWD reported that the house was taking its time over its next creative structure.^[7][8][28]

Creative directors

As of November 2026 the most recent reporting, from October, described a house without a creative director: WWD wrote that it was relying on its atelier and in-house designers while it decided on its next creative configuration, and that Boaz Eli, formerly of Acne Studios, Loewe and Burberry, had joined in January 2024.^[8] Vogue Runway called Winter-Spring 2027 the first collection without a named lead.^[29] Mulier's first Versace collection was expected early in 2027.^[8]

House codes

Richemont lists the house's signatures as an exclusive knitting technique, leather, and embellishments such as the Vienne pattern, studs and eyelets.^[3]

Knit as a second skin

Alaïa's knitwear goes back to his first collection in 1979, made with Silvia Bocchese's Italian knitting factory; he later developed yarns with Giuliano Coppini of Lineapiù.^[5] The Met counts the knitted dresses and gowns he made in the 1980s among his most famous early works.^[11] Mulier built his fall 2024 collection from a single merino yarn, and the house's knit skater dress reappeared in new colours in the Winter-Spring 2027 presentation.^[4][8]

Sculpted leather and the Vienne perforation

Leather runs from the eyeleted dresses Alaïa made for Charles Jourdan to a 1981 halterneck dress set with silvered eyelets, and The Met holds a black leather coat dress of about 1986 cut to widen the shoulders and narrow the waist.^[5][30] Perforation is a related code: Alaïa made perforated dresses as early as 1976, and the house now calls its perforated pattern Vienne, using it on Mina bags and bustier belts.^{[5][3][13][31]} In Beijing, the façade of the boutique at Taikoo Li Sanlitun is pierced with round windows that reinterpret the motif.^[26]

The corset belt

The Met's example, a punched-leather belt of about 1990, binds the waist as a corset would.^[12] Alaïa said corset belts make a woman stand up straight, a remark the Fondation places beside his Spring-Summer 1992 collection.^[5] Mulier put corset belts into his first show in 2021, and the house sells a bustier belt in perforated Vienne leather.^[24][31]

The hood

The Met's hooded dress of about 1986 pairs a body-conscious cut with a covering hood, mixing Eastern and Western dress.^[2] The 2013 Palais Galliera retrospective included a crimson hooded acetate jersey dress.^[32] Mulier returned to it with sleek hoods in his 2021 debut and round, tubular hoods for fall 2025.^[24][33]

Zips, studs and eyelets

Alaïa credited Arletty with the idea of the zip dress, and an editor wore a zippered Alaïa dress in Bill Cunningham's 1981 photographs.^[5] Richemont counts studs and eyelets among the house's embellishments, and Michelle Obama wore a studded Alaïa belt during a European trip in April 2009.^[3][34]

Black, gingham and leopard

The 1982 Bergdorf Goodman show consisted of black jersey dresses worn without jewelry or accessories.^[5] Prints are tied to particular collections: Tati's pink-and-white gingham in 1991, and an autumn-winter 1991 collection the Fondation calls a homage to leopard print.^[5]

The heart

Le Cœur, the heart-shaped bag from Mulier's first collection, takes its motif from the founder's 1992 collection Mon Cœur est à Papa; the house has since extended the heart to slingbacks, mules and earrings.^{[35][15][16][36]}

Bags

Shoes and handbags expanded while the house belonged to the Prada group in the early 2000s, but most of the named bags that define it now arrived during Mulier's tenure, when its accessories business flourished.^[21][4] The house's site lists four bags as its iconic shapes: Le Teckel, Le Click, Le Cœur and Le Mina.^[13]

Le Teckel

Mulier introduced Le Teckel on the Spring-Summer 2024 runway, where it was carried with its long handles folded down; it takes its name from the French word for dachshund, after its long, narrow body.^[37][38] Cultured traced its rise to the house's first Dialogue project at the Crazy Horse cabaret, where eleven dancers, each in a different colour of the house's signature dress, carried Teckels in matching shades.^[37][41] The line now includes a tote and flap versions, among them the Teckel Flap of Summer-Fall 2026, and W credited the bag with the wave of east-west shapes that followed.^[38][10]

Le Cœur

Le Cœur appeared in Mulier's first collection and reworks the heart of the founder's 1992 collection; PurseBlog noted that it returned each season in new colours and in studded and suede versions.^[35]

Le Mina

Le Mina is a top-handle bag that the house cuts mostly in its perforated Vienne leather, in calfskin or nubuck, with studded suede among the variations; its sizes are named by number, from the Mina 20 through the Mina 25 to the Mina 37.^[13]

Le Click

Le Click, introduced in early 2025, is an east-west shoulder bag named for its closing mechanism and finished with leather ties and metal rings; PurseBlog lists sizes from a small evening version to one that holds a laptop.^[39] WWD counted it among the newer styles behind the house's growth.^[4]

Shoes

For the 1982 New York show, the shoes were made by Maud Frizon.^[5] The house's own footwear widened under Prada, and in 2006 Marc Newson designed a circular shoe space for the Paris store.^[21][5] WWD names Mulier's mesh ballet flat first among the hit styles behind the growth of the accessories business.^[4]

La Ballerine

WWD credits Mulier with introducing the mesh ballet flat with his first collection, shown in July 2021.^[4][24] The Evening Standard dates the first crystal version, a single-strap flat with an oval toe sold in leather and in mesh, to May 2022, and reported in March 2024 that it had sold out repeatedly and spawned further styles in perforated leather and mesh.^[42] The house now sells fishnet, laminated fishnet, metallic mesh and Criss Cross styles under the name La Ballerine, and a crystal-studded Strass lambskin flat among its flat shoes.^[14][43]

Le Cœur heels

The heart carries into heels: the house sells Le Cœur slingbacks and flat slingbacks, Le Cœur mules and wedge mules, and a Neo Cœur line of mules.^[15][16]

Fishnet beyond the flat

The fishnet that made the flat famous now runs through the heeled range, from fishnet Mary Janes to strappy pumps in mesh.^[15]

Ready-to-wear

The founder's ready-to-wear grew out of a couture practice for private clients and rested on knit, jersey and leather cut close to the body.^[5][11] He said Arletty's habit of wearing a leotard under her suits gave him the idea of close-fitting bodysuits.^[5]

Mulier widened the vocabulary: deconstructed denim and corolla skirts at his debut, a 2024 collection with no buttons or zips, and skirts padded at the hip in 2025.^[24][44][33] The house now sells a denim line it describes as a study of fit, including jeans cut in a curve.^[45] Archetypes, a line first photographed by Drew Vickers in 2023, gathers the house's emblematic pieces and signatures with new designs.^[46][47] At Homo Faber 2026, in Venice in September, the house showed a knitted gown with a sleeveless bodice and a flared skirt covered in individually cut, hand-sewn silk feathers.^[48]

Jewelry and accessories

The corset idea carries into the current belt range, from bustier belts in perforated Vienne calfskin, nubuck and haircalf to wide belts in plain leather.^[31]

The house's jewelry includes Dome earrings and a Dome cuff, Bubble cuffs, Edge and Ray hoops, and Le Cœur earrings in Bombé and torn versions.^[36] Sunglasses followed in February 2018 through a partnership with Kering Eyewear, which still makes the house's eyewear.^[49][17] The first fragrance, Alaïa Paris, went on sale in Alaïa stores on 6 June 2015 under licence to Beauté Prestige International; perfumer Marie Salamagne based it on the founder's memory of his grandmother cooling sun-baked walls with water in Tunisia, and Martin Szekely designed the bottle.^[18]

Exhibitions

The Fondation, housed in Alaïa's former home and studio at 18 rue de la Verrerie, shows his work and his collections of art, design and fashion; Julian Schnabel designed its logo, and its board includes Andrew Bolton for The Met.^[20]

Signature pieces

1. Leather halterneck dress with silvered eyelets, 1981: made for a client who found it too hard to wear, so Alaïa kept it.^[5]
2. Black jersey dresses, 1982: the whole of the Bergdorf Goodman show in New York, worn without jewelry or accessories.^[5]
3. The zip dress, early 1980s: Alaïa traced it to Arletty, and a zippered dress appeared in Bill Cunningham's 1981 photographs.^[5]
4. Bandage dresses, Spring-Summer 1986: tube dresses of jersey bands inspired by Egyptian mummies; Grace Jones wore a bandages dress to the 1985 fashion awards at the Paris Opera.^[5]
5. Hooded dresses, 1986: The Met holds a long hooded dress of about 1986 and a short hooded rayon-knit sheath from autumn-winter 1986–87.^[2][11]
6. The tricolour gown, 1989: made for Jessye Norman to sing the Marseillaise at the bicentennial parade on 14 July.^[5]
7. Corset belt, about 1990: punched leather in an eyelet lace pattern that binds the waist.^[12]
8. Tati gingham, 1991: a bag, a T-shirt and espadrilles in the discount chain's pink-and-white check.^[5]
9. Knit skater dress: a house staple that WWD found in new colours, butter yellow among them, in the Winter-Spring 2027 collection.^[8]
10. Le Cœur bag, 2021: the heart-shaped bag from Mulier's first collection.^[35]
11. La Ballerine, 2022: the ballet flat, first in crystal-studded leather and mesh, that became a repeat sell-out.^[42]
12. Le Teckel, 2024: the east-west bag that W credits with the wave of east-west bags on the market.^[37][10]

Runway

The studio has presented one collection; Mulier's last four shows and his debut follow, then earlier landmark shows.

Winter-Spring 2027, Paris

The collection was presented on 3 October 2026 in the former Fondation Cartier building on boulevard Raspail, the venue of Mulier's farewell, as an evening presentation on the official calendar.^[28][8][51] AnOther gave its theme as Continuum, with the lemniscate as its emblem; models walked past standing guests among films by Julian Klincewicz projected on curved walls.^[7][8] WWD found the clothes finely made and recognisably Alaïa, from short black Spencer jackets with rows of small buttons to leather skater skirts pleated in a spiral and a burgundy leather coat with a built-in bustier, though the show had less charge than Mulier's last.^[8] AnOther's Alexander Fury found the clothes deliberately quieter and simpler, as suited a period of transition, with a double-breasted jacket that recalled a 1988 collection and a purple dress that recalled a 1986 image of Grace Jones.^[7]

Summer-Fall 2026, Paris

Mulier's last show, on the evening of 4 March 2026 in the same building on boulevard Raspail, pared the house back to form-fitting tank dresses, coats cinched at the waist and jersey tops with wide knit waistbands over maxi skirts.^[10][22][8] The house described the collection as a reflection on Azzedine's work marked by traces of Mulier, in materials from loden and raw-cut wool to latex.^[52] W's Ana Colón read its restraint as a handover to the next team; Raf Simons and Matthieu Blazy were among the guests, and Keizo Kitajima photographed each member of the design team for a book.^[10]

Winter-Spring 2026, Paris

Shown on the morning of Saturday 4 October 2025, the collection worked on what Mulier's notes called tension: fringed leg coverings that stopped at mid-thigh, open-back playsuits with bloomers worn over jeans, trousers split down the outside seam and tied at the ankle, and boxy jackets with high collars.^[53] Cynthia Erivo, Gwendoline Christie and Kim Kardashian were in the audience.^[53] W later singled out its tulip-like draped skirts.^[10]

Summer-Fall 2025, Paris

On 4 March 2025, the year the house moved its show onto the official Paris schedule, Mulier showed inside the Paris atelier.^[33][4] He drew on the Dutch sculptor Mark Manders: tubular hoods, pleated skirts padded at the hip, floor-length fur coats, and knit dresses with oversized sleeves and round peplums.^[33]

Winter-Spring 2025, New York

On 6 September 2024 Mulier staged his first New York show for the house in the rotunda of the Guggenheim Museum, reportedly the first fashion show held there.^[44] Built around his idea of American beauty, the collection cited Charles James, Halston, Claire McCardell and Adrian and left out zips and buttons.^[44][54] Rihanna attended in a custom ALAÏA crystal mesh dress, which W likened to a look Naomi Campbell wore in Alaïa's spring 1992 collection.^[55][56]

Spring-Summer 2022, Paris: Mulier's debut

Mulier's first show, in July 2021 during Paris couture week, was staged on the rue de Moussy outside the house's ateliers; FashionUnited found it measured and respectful of the founder, with sleek hoods, deconstructed denim, corset belts and laser-cut knits trimmed with silver ornaments in place of grommets.^[24]

Haute couture, July 2017, Paris

The founder's last couture show, for winter 2017, was his third devoted entirely to haute couture; Naomi Campbell opened and closed it, and Sarah Moon made a short film about it.^[5]

The Palladium, New York, 1985

Alaïa presented three years of work at the Palladium in a set by Jean-Paul Goude, with more than fifty models and over a thousand guests asked to wear black; Barneys New York sponsored the show.^[5]

Bergdorf Goodman, New York, September 1982

Invited by Bergdorf Goodman's Dawn Mello after Bill Cunningham's photographs ran in WWD, Alaïa showed in the store with help from Thierry Mugler; Andy Warhol, Paloma Picasso and Andrée Putman attended.^[5]

Celebrities and the red carpet

• Addison Rae: a custom white Alaïa dress with a plunging oval neckline and an asymmetric, tutu-like skirt, 68th Grammy Awards, Los Angeles, 1 February 2026.^[57]
• Rihanna: an Alaïa black trench coat with a leg cut-out over billowing ivory trousers, CFDA Fashion Awards, New York, 3 November 2025.^[58]
• Miley Cyrus: an Alaïa black leather long-sleeved crop top and long black skirt, worn with Cartier jewelry, Met Gala, New York, 5 May 2025.^[59]
• Rihanna: a custom ALAÏA crystal mesh dress at the house's Guggenheim show, New York, 6 September 2024, which W likened to a Naomi Campbell look from Alaïa's spring 1992 collection; earlier that evening she wore a pink ALAÏA coat to The Daily Front Row's Fashion Media Awards.^[55][56]
• Jennie: a custom royal-blue gown by Pieter Mulier after the autumn-winter 2024 collection, made from 13 metres of fabric in 200 hours, Met Gala, 6 May 2024.^[60]
• Naomi Campbell: made her runway debut for Alaïa in 1986, and opened and closed his last haute couture show, Paris, July 2017.^[5]
• Michelle Obama: an Alaïa cardigan over an Isabel Toledo dress at Buckingham Palace on 1 April 2009, and a sleeveless Alaïa knit dress with a ruffled skirt at a NATO event in Baden-Baden on 3 April 2009.^[34]
• Jessye Norman: Alaïa's blue, white and red gown to sing the Marseillaise at the Place de la Concorde, bicentennial parade, Paris, 14 July 1989.^[5]
• Tina Turner: stage outfits made for her from 1986, when she and Alaïa became close friends.^[5]
• Grace Jones: the bandages dress at the 1985 French fashion awards ceremony at the Paris Opera, and Alaïa's costumes for her in the James Bond film A View to a Kill (1985).^[5]

The house's own site names its campaign faces: Teyana Taylor, photographed by David Sims for Summer-Fall 2026; Hailey Bieber, photographed by Tyrone Lebon for the Summer-Fall 2026 Archetypes; and Doutzen Kroes, photographed by Drew Vickers for the Winter-Spring 2027 Archetypes.^[61][47][46]

Sizing and fit

ALAÏA labels ready-to-wear in French sizes; its size guide converts them as follows.^[62]

Shoes come in European sizes from 35 to 42, including half sizes; on the house's chart the US size is the European size minus 30 throughout, so EU 36 is a US 6 and EU 38 a US 8.^[63] Belts are sized by length and matched to French clothing sizes: 60 cm (24 inches) for FR 36, then 65, 70, 75 and 80 cm for FR 38, 40, 42 and 44.^[64]

Shopping ALAÏA on Vêtir

Vêtir carries new ALAÏA across ALAÏA clothing, ALAÏA shoes, ALAÏA bags, ALAÏA belts and accessories and ALAÏA jewelry, from the house and from the luxury retailers we work with. The three modules at the end of this section show the newest ALAÏA bags, shoes and dresses each time the page loads.

For buying advice rather than history, our editors compare the house's mesh flats with other houses' in the best designer ballet flats, its knit minis and columns in the best knit dresses, and its corset belts in the best designer belts. Le Teckel features in our fall bags edit and its satin clutch in the best evening bags, and our Paris Fashion Week report covers the first studio collection. Browse every house's ballet flats, knit dresses and belts, or ask our AI stylist to build a full outfit around an ALAÏA piece you own.