The designer personally helped curate the display before his passing.
After more than 35 years of crafting couture gowns, Azzedine Alaïa left behind quite the legacy when he passed away last month.
And that legacy will be honoured in style, with one newly opened London museum staging a touching retrospective to the Tunisian-born designer next year.
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The exhibition was actually co-curated by the couturier before his death in Paris in November, and will launch at London’s Design Museum on May 10, 2018.
The show—titled Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier—will run until until October 7, and feature more than 60 stunning works from the designer’s archives.
It’s not yet known exactly which pieces from Alaïa will be displayed, but there are most certainly plenty to choose from, with the eponymous label donned by screen stars, world leaders and chart-toppers for decades.
Alaïa—who passed away at the age of 77—also briefly worked for Dior, Guy Laroche and Thierry Mugler before establishing his couture brand.
The Design Museum exhibition has reportedly been in the works for a year, according to Architectural Digest, and was created by Alaïa alongside Mark Wilson, chief curator of the Groninger Museum.
“Following his untimely passing on 18 November 2017, the Design Museum will now present this unique exhibition planned by Alaïa himself exploring his passion and energy for fashion as he himself intended it to be seen,” a statement from the Holland Park-based museum said.
“Azzedine Alaïa was recognised throughout his life as a master couturier who expressed the timeless beauty of the female form in the most refined degree of haute couture.”
The designer, who moved to France in 1957 to begin his fashion career, was noted for his architecturally sculpted and form-flattering gowns, with his clients including screen siren Greta Garbo, Michelle Obama, Grace Jones and Madonna.
Alaïa’s first ready-to-wear collection, which made its debut in 1980, helped sky-rocket the designer to fame, with his star rising throughout the ’80s.
“I like women,” he said in a rare interview in 2013, according to The Guardian. “I never think about doing new things, about being creative, but about making clothing that will make women beautiful.”
He retired from the fashion week scene in recent years, though made a much-welcomed return to the runway just five months ago.
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The designer presented his Autumn Winter 2017/2018 collection at Haute Couture Fashion Week in July, after a six-year hiatus from the catwalk.
The fashion world may have lost an icon, but Alaïa’s legacy will truly live on in his designs.
Images: Getty
