Fashion house ALAÏA unveiled its Winter Spring 2024 Collection, that explores time, with a fashion show held on July 2nd in Paris. At Alaïa, the concept of time, whether given, taken, abridged, or timeless, has always been significant, defying conventions and embracing possibilities. For the Winter Spring collection, designer Pieter Mulier explores time not as an abstract idea, but as a tangible concept, examining its symbols and connotations within the context of fashion.
Creating time. The notion of creation, craftsmanship, and fashion as an active verb, rooted in the etymology of facere (to do, to make), can be seen as a reflection of the time and care invested. Expanding on these concepts, the human figure can be molded and transformed through the manipulation of clothing, thereby reinforcing the body’s shape. This enhanced bombshell silhouette, designed to accentuate the body’s contours, evokes the past while also suggesting the future. It empowers always, regardless of time.
Not only do seams define the body’s shape, but they also represent the life of these garments by acting as timelines that chart their evolution and refinement, thereby revealing the process behind their creation. They honor archival designs by revisiting and appreciating another time and life. Their time is highly cherished. Buttons have a symbolic connection to time and procedure: the ritual of clothing, fastening oneself into a garment, marking a moment of transformation and reinvention, and implying future revelations when they are undone.
Time has become a modern obsession. Fabrics such as wool flannel, ostrich, cotton linen, transparent and lacquered fabrics, leather, and latex have a tactile and sensual quality. They can disguise themselves as something else, demanding closer examination. Figures walk in perpetual motion on a bridge that connects Maison Alaïa‘s origins with its present, their steps coordinated with the eternal backdrop of human existence, represented by the ever-ticking clock. It is both the sound of time and the rhythm of life.
Discover every look from the Alaïa Winter Spring 2024 Collection in the gallery below:
