Before the designer sadly died from heart failure just last month, he had been involved in the exhibition, which has been guest curated by Mark Wilson, of the Netherlands' Groninger Museum.
10th May–7th October, 2018, ''Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier'' showcases the designer's incredible 35-year career, with 60 couture pieces that were selected for the show by Alaïa himself.
Tunisian-born Alaïa made waves in the 1980s with his pioneering redesigning of the female silhouette in fashion. The Paris-based designer's talents went beyond the runway, having training as a sculptor, he would work in his designs in 3D, as opposed to the usual pen and paper preliminary fashion sketches.
Michelle Obama, Naomi Campbell, Mariah Carey, Victoria Beckham and even Greta Garbo: Alaïa's client list was an impressive list of the most glamorous names of the 20th and 21st centuries. In the 1980s, when loose-fitting pant suits were the look, the ''King of Cling'' was dressing the likes of Grace Jones and Tina Turner in a new apparel of leggings, bikers jackets and bodices - some studs included.
In 2009, Alaïa famously has a feud with Vogue editor Anna Wintour after she did not include his designs at an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. His close companion Naomi Campbell refused to attend the show unless his work featured, whilst Alaïa withdrew pieces he had designed for a list of supermodels on the guestlist.
In tribute to his influences within the fields of art, design and architecture, Konstantin Grcic, Marc Newson, and Kris Ruhs have been commissioned to create pieces for the exhibition.