The “Alaïa/Grès, Beyond Fashion” exhibition highlighting the similarities in the sculptural works of Alaïa and Madame Grès will open Sept. 11 in Paris.
Azzedine Alaïa was a prolific collector but it was only after the designer’s death, in November 2017, that the true extent of what he’d amassed began to emerge. The Alaïa complex on Rue de Moussy, which is spread over five floors and three buildings, had rare and important 20th-century design pieces, photographs, books, objects, art and 12,000 pieces from Mr. Alaïa’s own fashion archive stored in almost every room. Priceless, museum-level artefacts were piled high in the higgle-piggle of its many rooms. Gradually, over the past five years, it has yielded its treasures.