Alaïa and Balenciaga – Sculptors of Shape

On the occasion of a second new showing, the exhibition “Alaïa/Balenciaga” invites visitors to come and discover a number of new coats, suits and dresses, both for day and evening, whose shapes and architecture unite the two masters. These new pieces are selected from the Foundation’s collections.

Conceived in two successive chapters, the exhibition proposed a first face-to-face between the Spanish couturier and his Tunisian counterpart. Both designers were focused on cut, which has always directed the great history of fashion, and the dresses, veritable examples of precise architecture, were shown completely in black in the first chapter of the exhibition. Now it is in color that the visitor will be able to discover other points of view. The radiant pink of Balenciaga dialogues with the intense red so dear to Alaïa.

Essential themes from the two couturiers work, precisely gypsy and Spanish folklore, are expressed in white lace by one and in perforated leather by the other. The “Gitane” dress, famous amongst  Alaïa’s creations, will be exhibited for the first time in the Foundation’s gallery. Both just as skilled in tailoring as in soft dressmaking, Alaïa and Balenciaga, through the works presented, confirm their great mastery in all aspects of technique and cut.

Other new dresses, in chiffon and black lace, lighter than delicate handkerchiefs, will also be on view to visitors for the first time. Elsewhere in the exhibition, the coats and jackets, examples of observed rigor, remind us of how very unique
 the two couturiers were in their time and still continue to be so timeless today.

In the poetic scenography, imagined by Kris Ruhs, the iconic designs will be presented along new paths, while other new designs come to join them, and some disappear completely to create as a whole a completely new exhibition to discover.

Photography by Sylvie Delpech.