Dior’s New Show Features Alaïa’s Personal Collection Of Vintage Dior

Dresses inspired by Christian Dior’s Granville home.

Photo by EMPTY SPACES © ADRIEN DIRAND courtesy of Dior

While at the height of his career, Azzedine Alaïa owned fashion. Quite literally. The designer, who died at age 82 in 2017, had amassed the most extensive collection of haute couture by a single individual, which was discovered in the basement of his Rue de Moussy headquarters posthumously. Under the tutelage of Olivier Saillard, the fashion historian and director of the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa and former director of fashion museums in Marseilles and Paris, the late designer’s collection tops over 20,000 pieces from names such as Madeleine Vionnet, Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli, Jean Patou, Balenciaga, Vivienne Westwood, John Galliano, and Christian Dior. Beginning in 1968, the designer was motivated to preserve fashion history.

In 2022, Dior opened its own take on fashion preservation with La Galerie Dior, located at the brand’s infamous 30 Avenue Montaigne, tracing its history through revolving exhibits. Now for the first time, Dior is pairing up with another institution, the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa, to display 101 of Christian Dior clothing (and his subsequent brand shepherds such as Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferrè, and Yves Saint Laurent, among others) that Alaïa held in its possession in the new exhibit “Azzedine Alaïa’s Dior Collection” curated by Saillard and in collaboration with Gaël Mamine.

The exhibit unfolds within the gallery’s floor plan and themed vignettes, but it’s now filled with the dresses the LVMH-owned house hadn’t had in its possession until the show, given the one-of-a-kind nature of couture. The exhibit takes viewers through the Bar Jacket, the various color themes of the brand, dreamy evening styles, frocks inspired by Christian Dior’s famous Granville home, garments that exemplify the various key garment shapes like the A or Y style and a dramatic theater setting with styles stacked on levels to the ceiling with a Hotel de Ville style digital backdrop that went from day to night.

In 1968, Alaïa began collecting Haute Couture without fanfare, eventually amassing over 600 Dior pieces. After discovering the collection after Alaïa’s death, stuffed away in boxes, Saillard needed help identifying and understanding the pieces. The idea for the exhibition was planted three years ago, when he reached out on behalf of the collection, which contains hundreds of Dior designs, to learn more about their provenance. “I worked with Dior to find out when they were born and what their names were,” said Saillard in a post-opening reception at the Dior Café. He feels a great responsibility to preserve Alaïa’s collection, which is now housed in museum-grade storage facilities. “I treat the collection like it is my own, like they are my kids,” he added.

The Tunisian-born designer became fascinated with Christian Dior in the 1950s, when he discovered the designer in magazines and used the images as teaching tools. Making his way to Paris in 1956 to pursue a career in design, Alaïa even had a chance to work at the storied maison as an intern for a very brief stint, but the experience of unrelenting excellence in the atelier left an indelible mark on him. He noted that the clothes seemed to “stand up on their own,” undoubtedly influencing Alaïa’s exceptional cutting skills.

“Christian Dior’s models testify to the relentless quest that Azzedine Alaïa had unwaveringly set his heart upon. In search of the mysteries of dresses and the delicate structures that make vaporous petticoats ‘stand up’, he skillfully brought together the objects of his adolescent dreams,” Saillard said in a statement.

The exhibit, which opened in Paris on Thursday, marks the eighth show for the space that combines retail, gallery, and hospitality offerings in one spot. It is also the first exhibit that features the most work created by Mr. Dior himself; since his death, the house has been carried on by Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferrè, John Galliano, Raf Simons, Maria Grazia Chiuri, Hedi Slimane, and Van Asche for Dior Homme, and currently by Jonathan Anderson.

The opening coincides with the brand’s holiday display that was unveiled on November 14^th and draws onlookers with Iphone’s standing catty-corner from the Avenue Montaigne to catch photos of the facade. The ‘Wheel of Fortune” digital blinking center piece star festooned with brightly lit flowers and butterflies wrapping around the corner of the building, which borrowed from the Carousel of Dreams holiday installation last year with Saks in New York. With the holiday season upon us, Dior has just launched two great reasons beyond its luxury products to stop in.