Maison Ala?a to Continue With Collections, Exhibitions
SECOND LIFE: An Azzedine Ala?a retrospective slated to open at London’s Design Museum in May figures among the ongoing homages to the recently departed couturier. But for anyone pondering the fate of the house, the show will go on.
Its next ready-to-wear and accessories collections will be presented in January and March, according to a statement released by Maison Ala?a on Monday. However, no information was provided on who will design them.
Caroline Fabre Bazin is Maison Ala?a’s studio director.
The house and its know-how is also set to live on through a series of exhibitions and events, working with various collaborators from the Ala?a “family” and kicking off with an exhibition timed for Paris couture week in January curated by Olivier Saillard, who was behind a major Ala?a retrospective that marked the reopening of Paris’ Musée Galliera in 2013. The new exhibition will be held at the house’s headquarters in the Marais district, at the Galerie Ala?a, on Rue de la Verrerie.
Timed with the London Ala?a retrospective, meanwhile, will be the opening of the Compagnie Financière Richemont-owned brand’s first London flagship, located at 139 New Bond Street. The iconic designer, who died of heart failure last month, had helped to curate the show alongside Mark Wilson, chief curator of the Groninger Museum.
The couturier’s art foundation, the Azzedine Ala?a Association, which he began in 2007 with his life partner, the painter Christophe von Weyhe, and his retailer friend Carla Sozzani, will also become the Azzedine Ala?a Foundation, gathering works collected across 50 years at the Rue de Moussy headquarters, where he lived and worked. It also boasts a library dedicated to fashion and culture that will be made available to researchers.
The house plans to stage a series of exhibitions covering topics including fashion and design. Maison Ala?a also plans to sponsor scholarships for promising young talent, according to the statement.
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