The Prato Textile Museum celebrates two iconic fashion designers: Azzedine Alaïa and Cristóbal Balenciaga.

The Textile Museum concludes its fiftieth anniversary program with a major exhibition dedicated to two absolute icons of French fashion. Born from a collaboration with the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation in Paris, chaired by Carla Sozzani, the exhibition "Azzedine Alaïa and Cristóbal Balenciaga. Sculptors of Form" is curated by Olivier Saillard and benefits from the patronage of the French Embassy in Italy—as well as the extraordinary participation of the Balenciaga Archives in Paris—for an exceptional exhibition project that is coming to Italy for the first time.

The idea for the exhibition was conceived at the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation in 2020, based on a desire by Hubert de Givenchy. A few months after the death of Azzedine Alaïa (Tunis 1935 – Paris 2017) and decades after that of Balenciaga (Getaria 1895 – Jávea 1972), Givenchy, a great admirer of Balenciaga and a key figure in classic fashion, confided to the Alaïa Foundation his desire to reunite these two great talents, both highly skilled experimenters with shapes and volumes that profoundly influenced the history of fashion.

The Exhibition

Twenty-five creations by Azzedine Alaïa—considered one of the last couturiers capable of mastering every stage of a garment's creation, from design to tailoring—converse with an equal number of pieces by Cristóbal Balenciaga, in a timeless comparison. As Azzedine recounts, when the Maison Balenciaga closed for good in 1968, he, then a young, emerging designer, was called upon by Mademoiselle Renée—the Maison's longtime deputy general director—to select a selection of creations by the maestro Balenciaga, because only his hands could rework and renew them, without betraying them. The young Alaïa was so amazed by the shapes, the architecture of the cuts, and the technical prowess of each piece that from then on he considered his encounter with Balenciaga's work the starting point for his own work and personally collected his most iconic pieces

Both couturiers are passionate about tailoring, renowned for their perfectionism and their ability to cut and sew with their own hands. Balenciaga's pursuit of perfect formal elegance translates into a precise sensuality, while Alaïa's emphasizes a precise sensuality. Balenciaga is a great innovator of forms and creator of wearable architecture, while Alaïa envelops and sculpts the body as if it were a second skin. The exhibition is rounded out by a film on the life and work of Azzedine Alaïa, directed by fashion editor and stylist Joe McKenna, and a previously unseen video featuring the presentations of Balenciaga's Summer 1960 and 1968 Haute Couture collections, from the Balenciaga Archives in Paris. BUY TICKETS. MORE INFO