The Archival Photos That Inspired Alaïa's Winter/Spring 2025 and American Dress

“American beauty means freedom, of body and of spirit,” says Alaïa Creative Cirector Pieter Mulier, who sent a tribute to American fashion greats Adrian, Charles James, Claire McCardell, and Halston down the Guggenheim Museum’s sweeping circular rotunda during New York Fashion Week in September of last year. The show was a homecoming, both for Mulier, a Belgian who spent three formative years in New York working with Raf Simons at Calvin Klein in the mid-2010s, and for the French maison itself, which held its debut show at Bergdorf Goodman in 1982.

The runway opened with a chocolate brown bandeau bra, styled with a translucent white skirt. Peplum waist bands on airy pants and asymmetric ruffles on skirts add a sense of whimsy. Denim trench coats with the collars flipped up channel that signature Alaïa cool, while maximally voluminous furs shout sartorial confidence. 3D printed wool fabric hugging the body (as worn by Zendaya) stands out in the collection. Looks also echoed Charles James’s iconic 1937 evening jacket, sketched by Antonio Lopez in 1968 and 1980s Halston designs, too.

The house’s late Tunisian-born founder Azzedine Alaïa was one of the world’s foremost collectors of American sportswear, and Mulier, also a vintage aficionado, took cues from some of their shared obsessions. Taffeta balloon separates recalled Halston designs from the disco era, and a trio of quilted minidresses echoed the eiderdown evening jacket, a couture puffer designed by James in 1937, now with a very 2020s pants-less twist.

See the runway looks and archival imagery below.