FASHION APPLAUDS A HOLLOW ALAÏA

Pieter Mulier continues his assault on the master's values.

Photo: Alaïa.

Alaïa is one of fashion’s most coveted labels. With breathless editorial coverage and ample acclaim for its designer, Pieter Mulier, the brand hasn’t received positive notice of this nature and scope in decades. The dearth of publicity was not due to lack of customer fervor or exceptional design. Much of it had to do with Anna Wintour’s blacklisting that kept Alaïa’s work out of the pages of Vogue and no shortage of other publications for roughly 20 years prior to Alaïa’s death in Novemver 2017. Mulier’s take on Alaïa – a master, if there ever was one, who ranks with the likes of Vionnet, Grès and Balenciaga – is a glossy yet empty distortion of a legacy deserving of so much more.