Around thirty Azzedine Alaïa 2003 couture collection masterpieces will be on display under the glass roof, where the fashion show, which marked the couturier's return to the catwalk, took place.

The Fondation Azzedine Alaïa brings back to the stage at its headquarters, 18 Rue de la Verrerie in Paris, a collection considered among the most important and emblematic of the French designer. It's a return that marked the end of a silence that had lasted over ten years, during which Alaia had distanced himself from a world in which he could no longer see himself reflected. The exhibition, titled "Azzedine Alaïa, of sculpted silence," will be held from September 11 to November 16, 2025.

Presented on 23 January 2003, the couture collection for the Summer-Autumn of the same year embodied Azzedine Alaïa’s creative and stylistic renewal. The couturier had not presented a fashion show for eleven years. Having distanced himself from the fashion system he prophetically contradicted, no longer recognising himself in an era that celebrated minimalist fashions, Azzedine Alaïa stuck to reworking iconic designs season after season, whose technical perfection and craftsmanship confirmed them as classics that became his signature. Accompanied by his loyal friend and collaborator Carla Sozzani, he isolated himself for weeks in the silence of his studio and began to design a collection that would once again place him at the top of the fashion world. Thus, a sublime collection was born where the designs were manifestos of the technical virtuosity that only he could master.

"Sublime, inevitably Azzedine", "Alaïa, a lesson in couture", "Master Class from Alaïa", "Alaïa, the magic of black", "Alaïa Triumphs", "Alaïa king of Curves", "Alaïa is great"... the newspaper headlines read. Today, that rebirth collection comes back to life thanks to an exhibition curated by Sozzani with Joe McKenna and Olivier Saillard.

Upstairs in the Fondation, next to the couturier’s studio, which is open to the public, the photographs taken by his friend and artist Bruce Weber for a series published in Vogue Italia are on display for the first time. Still in black and white, the garments photographed brush against the bodies, approaching them delicately to better define them without overshadowing them, and reveal a new femininity in tune with that desired by the couturier.

Azzedine Alaïa, of sculpted silence
Azzedine Alaïa 2003 Couture Collection
September 11 – November 16, 2025
The Fondation Azzedine Alaïa
18 Rue de la Verrerie
75004 Paris
fondationazzedinealaia.org

Photo: Courtesy of Fondation Azzedine Alaïa