Some garments come to define an era—and such is the case with the famous red, white, and blue dress that will always be linked to the history of Alaïa, and of France itself. For Vogue World: Paris, Pieter Mulier breathed new life into this trio of colors as he kicks off Act IV, a tribute to soccer and the 1990s styled by Ib Kamara.
Vogue World: Paris serves to highlight the excellence and savoir-faire of the greatest French fashion houses—and few designers occupy that position like Azzedine Alaïa. In 1989, Alaïa designed the famous red, white, and blue dress inspired by the French tricolor that the acclaimed American opera singer Jessye Norman wore when she gave a breathtaking rendition of the Marseillaise on the Place de la Concorde. It would be at the center of many unforgettable and iconic images from the bicentennial celebrations of the French Revolution in Paris.
In a nod to this celebrated moment in fashion, and history more broadly, Pieter Mulier, the current creative director of Alaïa, has breathed new life into the tricolor dress, reinterpreting it exclusively for Vogue World to be worn by Anok Yai as one of the night’s star pieces. To celebrate more than a century of fashion and sport, the dress is reimagined in a new light: with a blue hood, a cut-out, a nipped waist (reminiscent of the silhouettes in his fall 2024 collection), and a flamboyant split skirt. It’s a must-have piece of fashion history and, like the dress that inspired it, carries an emotional symbolism that couldn’t be more fitting for this French edition of Vogue World.
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