The Alaïa Winter-Spring 2026 collection reflected Pieter Mulier’s ongoing dialogue between strength and sensitivity. It offered a study of shape, texture, and emotion— – an exploration of how garments can express both control and vulnerability.
Mulier presented his show at the former Fondation Cartier building in Paris, where digital light pulsed across the floor. The faces of models moved beneath transparent panels, mirrored by a reflective ceiling above. This setting created a dreamlike space that felt both futuristic and intimate. Afterward, the designer spoke of wanting “clothes that cry,” an image that summed up the tone of the collection: elegant, thoughtful, and quietly charged.
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The show opened with sharp cotton tunics zipped up the back – simple and crisp yet charged with tension. Mulier said he found inspiration in a short coat designed and worn by Azzedine Alaïa in 1980. He found its purity deeply relevant today. Paired with stockings topped by cascades of silk fringe, the look combined austerity and allure, restraint and emotion. These were not nostalgic references, but rather reinterpretations that carried forward Alaïa’s legacy of form and femininity.
The Alaïa Winter-Spring 2026 collection unfolded through distinct sequences of shapes and materials. Mulier focused on elemental silhouettes – ovals, triangles, and rectangles – constructed from cotton, python skin, leather, and silk. He used no prints, relying instead on texture: tassels, pleats, and fringe. The result was a stripped-down sense of luxury where craftsmanship spoke louder than decoration.
The designer’s architectural approach yielded striking results. Skirts slanted, hems curved, and sleeves wrapped the body like sculpted air. His knitwear, one of Alaïa’s most recognizable designs, was transformed into seamless forms that clung to the body and flared out in unexpected places. A backless sweater, a cape tethered to the fingers, and a coat open at the sides to reveal flashes of skin all hinted at sensuality without spectacle.
Sex appeal was present but never overt. There was a glimpse of thigh between hose and tunic, a bare back framed by soft leather, and a flash of leg beneath heavy silk. These contrasts created the tension – the push and pull between exposure and concealment, structure and softness—that has become Mulier’s signature.
The closing looks brought grandeur with satin ball skirts cut from patterns retrieved from the house’s archives. Their volume recalled air-filled forms that were light and buoyant rather than heavy. “They were grand, but you could see the woman in them,” Mulier noted. This clarity of vision – grace without artifice – captures what makes Alaïa’s designs both emotional and precise.
