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Azzedine Alaïa is like the chocolate that comes with the bill long after you've already had dessert and coffee. Paris Fashion week ended over a month ago, but the independent designer showed his fall 2016 collection in Paris this weekend, an occasion momentous enough to get editors and buyers to fly to the city for just one day.
The like totally important designer held his show at the house's Rue de Moussy headquarters in Paris yesterday in front of a VIP crowd including Louis Vuitton's Nicolas Ghesquière and Monica Bellucci.
If you follow fashion, you already know where Alaia stands on the see-now, shop-now debate; he rarely shows on schedule, and tells WWD he decided to wait simply because he cannot put a time limit on what he creates. "I took the time necessary to create them," he shrugged, post-show.
As usual, his extensive 72-look line-up was worth the wait. The Tunisian-born designer experimented with a handful of new silhouettes this time around — a surprising switch-up from his signature body-con shapes favored by celebrities like Victoria Beckham and Stephanie Seymour. Meticulous embellishment played up ornate jacquards and lace, while the leather cocoon coats offset graphic geometric patterns. See below for some of the first looks from the show: